201 Questions to Ask Your Kids : 201 Questions to Ask Your Parents

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Summary: Great communication tool
Review: Dinner time and road trips are fun with this book. The questions lead to great conversations that I may not have had with my chldren otherwise. The questions for parents can sometimes be tough, which is probably why my oldest loves to ask them. It is geared for children of a junior high school age or older, yet my four year old enjoys playing as well. If you have a tough time getting more than one or two word responses when talking to your children - this book is for you. Not only will it help you to get to know children's thoughts a feelings a little better they get to know you better too.

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Summary: This book really helps make parent/kid communication fun.
Review: Hi. I'm Pepper Schwartz. My day job is teaching at the University of Washington Sociology Department. But I also write books--usually about adult intimate relationships. Being a mother however, has made me more interested in parent-child issues. I have experienced first hand asking about my child's day and getting that wonderful answer to what happened today;"not much". I know that's not true but I don't want to go nuts trying to get some crumb of information out of my child.

So I developed conversation in a fun format that has really worked for me and honestly, for everyone I have talked to. It puts parent and child on equal footing. The parent gets to ask a question , and then the child gets to ask one --and the questions have nothing to do with yucky topics such as whether or not homework got done or why is your room such a mess or why don't you let me stay out until 3am like everyone else's parent does...

The questions are the kinds of questions I wished I'd asked my parents and the kind of questions kids like answering. They go from the light hearted ( name three foods you would eat if you could only have the same three foods for the rest of your life) to the serious ( has anyone ever scared you that you didn't tell me about? )Parents get asked questions about their middle school and high school selves and experiences; kids get asked about how they feel about parent's friends or issues in the news that are controversial ( such as whether or not a sports figure who gambled on his own game should be let back into the sport...) Parents and kids learn really important things about the way each of them thinks ,each of their hopes, fears,,,the good stuff. I'd love for you to try this book because I think it really helps parent-child communication. And I hope to do another edition, so if you can think of other questions I should include for a volume two, please email me at [e-mail]

Thanks for sharing your ideas with me.

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Summary: Teen won't talk?
Review: My 10-year old son and I LOVE this book. He is eager to answer the great and varied questions. You really find out things you DID NOT know about your child before. And my son loves to ask me the questions for parents. This is a MUST HAVE book for parents eager to communicate more fully with their children. I'm buying this for Christmas for my friends who have children.

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Tool for Communicating with Your Child!
Review: My 10-year old son and I LOVE this book. He is eager to answer the great and varied questions. You really find out things you DID NOT know about your child before. And my son loves to ask me the questions for parents. This is a MUST HAVE book for parents eager to communicate more fully with their children. I'm buying this for Christmas for my friends who have children.

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Summary: An Entertaining Way to Revive Family Conversations!
Review: My brother-in-law pulled this book out after a family dinner, with three generations present: grandparents, two sets of parents, two kids (teen through college-age) and a friend. We passed the book around several times with each person picking anyone at the table to ask a question to.

It proved to be a highly entertaining evening, ranging from the hilarious to the historic to true confessions.

In this day when our culture seems to have lost the art of conversation, this book would be an excellent way to revive meaningful interaction within families. I recommend this book, but be careful, you might be asked an embarrassing question or two!

Rating:
Summary: Teen won't talk?
Review: Our communication with our teen usually consists of her blaming us for her life and then storming off to her room. So I was a little doubtful when I bought this book, not to mention desparate. One day after dinner I announced we were playing the question game. My daughter spent half an hour asking us questions from the book, and even answered a few. It was a nice break from the usual communication and gave us some interesting insights into her thoughts. I recommend it for even the worst cases.