Take a poll!  It's all in the numbers.

This advice will be lost on you mamas with babies, but the parents of tweenagers will be deeply appreciative.

I don't know about you, but most of the time when I ask a simple question like "Did you like your lunch?" or "How was math class?"  I get a truly non-committal grunt or nod that I find completely undecipherable.  Ask a follow-up question and you get more of the same.  How to convince your child that even a sentence is all I need to put my mind at ease?

Don't ask me where I got this, but I found communication got so much better when I started asking my daughter to tell me what she thought on a scale of 1 to 10.  Simple grunts became numbers rich in information and she appreciated not having to say so much to get her point across.  By making my scale crystal clear (one is most horrible ever; ten is best thing that ever happened to me) I gave her a way to respond that made sense to both of us.  In no time, I discovered lunches were near fantastic (a solid 7) and that math was nearing the state of national emergency (a very scary 2).   I was able to tuck that information away and pay closer attention to what mattered most.

By making my scale a little bit more colorful and dramatic, my six year old's interest was piqued, and I could take the polling to larger questions where I could actually get to know my kids better.  I found out that Carter (my shy guy) was actually the kid up for living overseas ("10++++, Mama!") while Madeleine (my drama queen) was very content with our quieter life stateside (a very ordinary 5).   Asking the question in form of a poll allows my kids to participate as they see fit, and more often than not, they are willing to expound on their answers.  Probably because there is no pressure to do so.

How about you?  On a scale of one to ten, how much do you want to take the poll idea home for a try??  :) 

Comments are open for your answers, along with your best tips on how to get those kids talking.