Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Curiosity Questions - Update

This week I am trying to ask curiosity questions instead of telling my children what happened, what caused it to happen and what they should do about it. This morning I had a good experience trying this with my daughter. I was driving her to her orchestra practice. She plays the violin and there is a recital next week. The last couple of days she has been telling me that she wants to do a solo at the recital. Keep in mind that they have been practicing for this recital for 3 months and this is the first I have heard about a solo. But Emma was insisting that her teacher said she could do a solo.

I know that Emma is not ready to perform a solo at her recital, but rather than tell her that I decided to try and ask a curiosity question. So I said "What would you need to do if you wanted to perform a solo at the recital?". Then Emma said in a knowing tone "Practice..."

That was it. The conversation ended and there was nothing more to say. All I needed to do was ask a question which was enough to get Emma to think through the situation on her own. I am going to keep trying these curiosity questions this week, but I would love to hear if others out there are having any success with this tool card...or any of the other tool cards for that matter.

1 comment:

Karen said...

My daughter forgot her homework today even though I had asked her when I met her after school if she had it. After dinner, this is how our conversation went:

Audrey: Oh no, I forgot my homework.
Me: Oh dear. What can you do about that?
Audrey: Well, I guess I could stay in during break tomorrow.
Me: Sounds like a plan.

Done!