WE HAVE A TALK TO KIDS APP!!!!

Remember this post?

25 Ways to Ask Your Kids How Was School Today (Without asking “So How Was School Today?)

And this post?

25 Ways to Ask Your Teen “How Was School Today?” Without Asking Them “How Was School Today?”

Maybe?  It was over a year ago since the first one was posted….and since then I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

When I wrote the post I was thinking about what I had known and experienced as a junior high teacher and what I was now experiencing with my own children in elementary school.  So much of our communication with our children consists of “giving orders” like “put away your shoes”, “it’s time for dinner”, and “go get your teeth brushed”.  Often that is primarily the bulk of our interactions.

But…for me…that’s not what I want.  I want real conversations with my kids…how are they doing, what do they need, how are they feeling…but not all kids are just ready to come home from school and start up a conversation about their feelings.  And then I realized that when I was asking my children “how was school today?” and only getting “fine” as a response that I knew better.  I knew that I needed to ask different questions and at different times.  And I should be doing this on a daily basis…and so the original list was born.

I knew from past experience with children that opening lines of communication is very important but I also knew that the most important discussions don’t always happen at  once.  Relationships need to be strengthened, trust gained, and as silly as it sounds parents and children need to, in a way, learn how to communicate with each other.  So I knew that by simply remembering to ask each of my kids just one question everyday I would be opening those lines of communication which would open the door to building better relationships with my kids.

I knew from past experiences with students that if I was asking them questions every day (even if the questions were about bacon or mono brows) and then LISTENED and engaged with their answers that when they needed someone to ask their tough questions to they knew I would be there to listen and care.  And over the past year I’ve seen the difference it has made with my own children.  Some days answers are silly, some days they are short, and sometimes they have led us to very real insight into the hearts of our children…and we have been able to help them in ways we might not have been able to unless that daily communication was happening.

So as I’ve reflected and talked to Elizabeth and read emails and comments from all of you we thought it might be a really amazing thing to have an APP right on our phones that would send us a question every week day that we could ask to our kids….and the more we talked the more I really wanted to make one that everyone could use.

One night I was talking to my brother about this idea and the next day he called to tell me that he and my dad were making us the APP that I was dreaming about…and not just one APP but two.

And so today I am so so so very, ridiculously excited to announce the launch of our two APPs:

Talk2Kids  (Here is the link to the APP:  TALK2KIDS )

and

Talk2Teens (Here is the link to the APP:  TALK2TEENS)

They are both available for purchase in the APP store for 99 cents each.

Each APP will give you a new question everyday that you can use to ask your children and teen in your own personal voice!  Each question is different…some are fun, some are serious…and we hope that you will all like them as much as we do!

-liZ