Playschool here we go

Roz started playschool yesterday. Which I’m assuming is the equivalent of the Zambian pre-school, but I’m not entirely sure.

It’s strange how I know absolutely nothing at all about the Irish school system and yet here’s my daughter starting to make her merry way into it.

….hmmmm…I should probably start reading up about it…….

Anyway, the ever talkative child all of a sudden has a very bad case of catgotyourtongueitis.

Asked how her day went yesterday,

“Great!”

Asked what she thought of class.

“It was okay”

Did she like the other kids?

“Mm-huh”

What did she think of the place?

“Mummy, don’t talk to me about playschool. Don’t ask me any more questions.”

I suppose I should start thinking up other ways to discuss this, I thought, and the internet gods responded nearly instantly. I say nearly because it took forever, like ten minutes or so. I logged on to Facebook and this article about asking kids about school, came up in my news feed.
I think it’s brilliant and worth a read by everyone who knows a child or teenager of school going age.

I remember myself being a school goer and the only questions every single adult seemed to ask was what my name was an how school was. And I hated it.

Adults were so dull and so …so…unimaginative!

The question just oozes disinterest and cliche that most children can spot a mile away. It’s one of the questions that adults always ask and children pretend to answer and we all go along with our day, not even remembering what was actually said. Ho-hum.

And yet I find myself falling into the same trap with my daughter, and most especially with my nephew. 

So it’s good to mix it up a bit.

Today I went the roundabout way of asking Roz the questions.

How many boys are in playschool and how many girls? What’s her favourite toy there? Does she get to go on a big purple slide as tall as me? No? Then what do they have?

I’ll tell you one thing, I enjoyed the process of coming up with roundabout open questions as much s I enjoyed finally getting a peek into her day.

photo credit: cafemama via photopin cc