The Three Questions I Ask My Kids Every Night

Keeping an open dialogue is so important with kids, and it’s essential to start that trust early. A few years ago I started a tradition where I ask each kid three questions before they go to bed to give them an opportunity to easily share about their day and anything that may have been trouble for them.
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We typically do our bedtime routine together - brush teeth, say prayers, read a story, etc. but then I spend a few minutes solo with each child when I tuck them in and turn out the lights and say goodnight. I use this solo time to ask each kid their 3 Questions. They know they can be honest and say whatever they want.

The 3 Questions:

What was your favorite part of the day?
What was your least favorite (worst) part of the day?
What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Now to explain the reasoning behind the questions…

What was your favorite part of the day?

This gives them an opportunity to start easy, an ice breaker. They can share something good about their day and it can be anything. It could be that their favorite part was they did good on a math test, or that they had ice cream after dinner, or that they did their locker combination on their first try. It not only gives them an ice breaker to start the conversation, it gives you a chance to celebrate their favorite “win” of the day with them - no matter how big or how small.

What was your least favorite (worst) part of the day?

This one is the loaded question… the one where you hope your kid will share what’s really bothering them. Some days they will, and some days they won’t.. but at least asking this question daily gives them an easy opportunity to bring something up. Sometimes their answer could be something simple like the worst part was having to eat brussell sprouts at dinner. Or maybe they tripped in the hallway and felt embarrassed. Or maybe that they’re being bullied or there was an incident at school. These are important things to be aware of as a parent that your child isn’t always willing to share… by giving them the opportunity to share you can have a conversation with them to talk through what’s troubling them and hopefully help them figure out how to resolve it on their own or if you need to make someone else (school administration, etc) aware of the situation.
- Though typically we don’t dwell on whatever they say in the moment, especially if it’s obvious they don’t want to talk about right then. It’s more of a chance to just get it off their chest. If there’s something big going on I usually think it over that night and work towards addressing it the next day, if needed.

What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

This is where we end on a high note, a positive… something to look forward to tomorrow before they fall asleep. Sometimes the next day has big things to look forward to (an amusement park trip, a birthday party, skiing, etc), but often there’s nothing “big” the next day and that’s okay! This gives kids the opportunity to look for the positives in the every-day, as there’s always something to look forward to. It could be something simple like it’s pizza day at school, the weather is supposed to be nice, they have art class, etc.

Growing with this Practice

We started this 3 Questions tradition when our kids were small, in preschool. The oldest is now in late elementary school and starting to navigate cliques and social pressures… I hope that continuing this practice will help keep our dialogue open through Middle and High School as things get trickier with school and her social circle. I’m sure as she gets older this practice may evolve but for now I think it’s a great start!

Another useful thing to get converstations going is to always eat dinner together as a family at the dinner table. I admit this can be tricky to do every night especially during those busy weeks, but it's so helpful to get that undistracted face-to-face time with your family and kids. If you're struggling to get the conversation going you can try Table Topics which are fun conversation starters. We use these occasionally during dinner as a game.

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Our Favorite Board Games

With the Covid Pandemic still unfortunately raging, we've been playing more board games the last few months while we’ve been home. To be honest, I had forgotten how enjoyable board games can be and our kids have also come to really love playing them too. I thought I would share some of our personal family favorites in case you’re looking for new ideas too. | This post contains affiliate links |

Our Favorite Board Games

Puzzles - Puzzles are always a family favorite here... they're just so relaxing! You can find them for just about every age and skill level which is great too.
Chutes and Ladders - This is a personal favorite from my childhood and our kids have come to love it too.
Battleship - Our six-year-old really loves this game. She gets so excited when she sinks a ship.
Candy Land - A cutesy game perfect for young kids who can't read or count dice yet, but still enjoyable for older kids and adults too.
Jenga - Our three-year-old has gotten surprising good at this game. She's beat me several times now.
Checkers - Another classic, timeless game.
Connect 4 - Like tic-tac-toe but more interesting and so easy to play.
Zingo Sight Words - A great educational game for kids just learning their sight words and how to read.
Apples to Apples - Great for adults and teenagers. I have so many great memories playing this game a lot in college with my roommates and friends.

These were just a few of our favorites and I’ll be sure to add to this list as we find more we love. Do you have a favorite family-friendly game we should try next?

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Backyard Camping Tradition During Quarantine

We’re still social-distancing very seriously but all our favorite outdoor spaces (hiking trails, lakes, beaches, camping areas, etc) have been totally overrun lately with people looking for a change of scenery. This unfortunately makes it impossible to social-distance safely, so we tend to just stay home. | This post contains affiliate links |

In order to make our weekends more special we started a weekend tradition early on during Quarantine to “camp at home” every weekend. During the colder months and bad weather, this meant camping in our living room every Saturday night with sleeping bags and staying up late watching a family-friendly movie. Sunday mornings we make a special breakfast, usually of pancakes or egg sandwiches.

Now that the weather is warmer, we’re doing more backyard camping. Our large tent is nice and roomy for all of us to spread out - and the extra large screen areas on the top mean we can leave the rainflap off in nice weather so we can see the stars and watch the fireflies (which is what we typically do). It feels really magical and the kids love it!
When we set up the tent we typically try to camp for at least two nights in a row to get more out of it.

(Pro-tip: Put a doormat outside your tent to help keep grass and sand from getting tracked in - We purchased our mat from one of our favorite companies, Maine Rope Mats.)

We may be stuck at home, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t make special memories. I hope you can find a fun tradition to start at home during this time too - stay well!

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Merry Christmas from Birch Landing Home!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Birch Landing Home!

We’ll be spending the next week with family and planning goals for the year ahead. Please let me know what kinds of blog posts you’d like to see from Birch Landing Home next year.
Happy Holidays and see you in 2019!