Who goes first?


How many of you ask your child after a school day,' What did you learn at school today?'

Only to receive the reply, ' Nothing'

It seems to be quite a standard answer, no matter the age of the child. 

It begs the question, how much does this response stem from a complete disinterest or disengagement?

Knowing the current response from our children, I'd be very concerned if they were then to go to school and answer me with 'nothing'. I'd be emailing the school every single time. 

Leighton works from home and whenever he walks down the stairs from his office, he is immediately surrounded by three children clamouring for his attention. 

He occasionally has the chance to get in there first, in order to ask 'so what did you learn today?', and he'll be met with a cacophony of noise in response. 

However usually he doesn't get a chance to even ask this question. They'll voluntarily tell him before his feet have left the stairs. He'll have multiple pieces of work pushed in his face and into his arms. 

He'll have one of them calling him from the living room where they're demonstrating their latest gymnastic trick, 'Look at me Daddy!'

He'll have another one playing their latest achievement on the piano, 'Did you hear me Daddy?'

He'll sit on the sofa with a content, proud smile and listen to them all, and look at everything. 

On the odd occasion they can't wait until the end of the day and they'll either ask me to send a photo to him of their achievement or they'll ask to visit him to show him. They'll be bursting with excitement and pride over their work. 

They're just as excited whenever either grandparent are nearby either in person or on the phone about sharing their work. 

My mother lives a couple of hours away but she still willingly listens to their piano pieces, listens to them read either from a book, or from a written piece, listens to their description of their drawings, tests them on their times tables. 

It's an all out and out war between the children on who talks to her first for them to share about what they've been up too. 

This is normality in our house. 

The reply 'nothing', from a day of learning, would mean I'd have failed in my teaching. 




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