How to talk to your kids about what they’re learning

Your child comes home from school or an extra-curricular and you say “What did you learn today?” Your child thinks for a moment, and then says “I don’t know.”

Has this happened to you? If so, you’re not alone, and it doesn’t mean that your child didn’t actually learn anything. It can be hard to understand just how differently the brain of a child works, compared to our adult brains. One element of language development that develops later in childhood (i.e. 11-17) is the ability to describe abstract concepts.

A lot of what we learn at MakerKids is more abstract than “we learned about lions” or “we learned our nine times table”. It is hard for the majority of kids at this age to use words to summarize what they learned from an activity. Similarly, the questions “What did you do today?” may bring about the answer “stuff” or “coding”.

Here are some questions that are easier for kids to answer:

• What did the instructors talk about?
• Did you work with another kid today?
• When you had the chance to ‘try it yourself’, what did you do?
• Did you ask for help with anything?
• Were you able to help someone else?
• What did you do doing snack time?

Robotics:

• Did you use any new equipment today?

Minecraft:

• What did you do today that was different from what you do when you play Minecraft at home?

Coding:

• If we sit down at the computer together now, could you show me what you were doing?

Of course, if you ever have questions or concerns about what we do, please get in touch! We’d love to chat with you about your child’s progress.