Life is full of questions. Some are more useful than others.
At our house, “Why are you licking your sister?” is not as useful a question as, “What else can you do right now instead of lick your sister?”
The second one can be answered. The first one is more of an eternal mystery.
The questions we ask are really important though, because questions tell our brains what we want to think about and how we want to think about it.
My usual questions are not all that helpful.
Why is this so hard? How tired am I? How many decibels of noise are bouncing around this house right now? Where is the chocolate?
If I want to get better answers, I have to ask better questions. (Though I’m keeping the one about the chocolate.)
Instead of asking: What did I even do today?
I can ask: What do I appreciate about today? What am I proud of?
Instead of: How can I fit one more thing into our days, when I’m already so busy?
I can ask: How can I simplify to make room for what I most want to include?
Instead of: How am I going to do all this?
I can ask: How do I feel about doing this?
Instead of asking: Why don’t I know how to do this?
I can ask: How can I practice?
Instead of: What should I be doing?
I can ask: How do I want to remember this season?
I can quit asking questions that sound so judgy.
Instead, I can give my brain something useful to chew on, and see what it comes up with. Even if I never do find out about the licking thing.
At Simple Homeschool, we’ve been talking about how we can end the day with thoughtful, helpful questions.
By the end of the day, you’re tired. Lots of things have happened. The things that happened at the end of the day have knocked the more important events right out of your short-term memory.
If we want our kids to remember the good stuff, we have to put it back in.
We have to ask good questions.
You can read the whole thing here: 5 minutes to a more satisfying homeschool day. (Or any kind of day, really.) It all starts with asking questions.