Let me set the scene:
Picture it…..it’s the end of the school day and the conversation you have with your child could go something like this…
Parent: “how was school today?”
Child: “fine” (if you’re lucky…some of you may be at the stage where you just get a grunt)
Parent: “What did you do?”
Child: “I don’t know”, or “I can’t remember”, or “nothing”….or another grunt
Parent: “You must have done something”
Child: “we played outside at lunchtime” (or another grunt)
Does that sound familiar? Over the holidays I found a list of questions parents can use to try and mix it up a bit to start a conversation. I used a few of them myself and had a great conversation with my step-daughter about her week at school. Previously (according to her), nothing memorable ever happens at school! Thought I would share these conversation starts with you so you can try them for yourself:
- What made you smile today?
- Did you see anyone be kind to someone else today? What did they do?
- What did you do that was creative?
- Who did you play with at lunchtime? What did you do?
- Was there any one in your class away today?
- Tell me something you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.
- Did you like your lunch?
- What was the hardest rule for you to follow today?
- If you could change one thing about today, what would it be? Why?
- What made your teacher smile?
- What made your teacher grumpy today?
- If you could describe yourself in one word today, what would it be? Why?
I look forward to hearing how you go.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12!
I really hope that some of you are of my vintage and read those number out like they use to sing on Sesame Street! (And how many of you just went back and re-read the numbers in that tune?J). If you are of my vintage you would have also realised (if you hadn’t already) at our Family Maths Night that the way mathematics is taught in the classroom is definitely different from how it was when I was at Primary School….thank goodness!
What a great night we had at our Family Maths Night last. Ms French and her Maths team organised a great night for families to experience the different problems students are challenged with. It was great seeing our students telling their parents how to solve the problem, and watching parents struggle on what they originally thought was an easy question (including some staff J).
The organisation of the night, staff and community support reinforced the belief that “it takes a village to raise a child”. We are all working together for benefit of all students.
Do you know what’s going on in the world of social media and the internet?
A number of parents have been asking for advice on strategies they can use to help keep their children of all ages safe when using the internet. Soooooo I did some investigation and found a website that supports parents and keeps them up-to-date with everything to do with social media apps and games children are using.
It also had this very simple graphic to show exactly what you can do when setting up new devices at home:
You can check it out for yourself at https://code9parent.com.au
It’s very important for parents to keep up to date on what’s happening in cyber world, because information/strategies develop and change more often than we blink.
I’ll be interested to hear what you think.
Should I stay or should I go?
Planning has already begun for the 2020 school year. If you or anyone you know would like to be a part of our school community in 2020, and they are not yet enrolled, could you please make sure enrolment forms are completed and returned to school as soon as possible.
On the flip side of that, if you or you know of any current TPS student and community members are not going to be attending our school 2020, could you also let the office know as soon as possible.
That’s all from me this week. I look forward to seeing you around the school ground.
Megan
Acting Principal