Retell Your Day at Dinner

Dinner (or any shared meal)

The whole family at the table

Announce the routine at dinner: "Story time! Everyone shares about their day."

Use a framework: best part, hardest part, funniest moment.

Model first: "My best part was... My hardest part was... The funniest thing was..."

Ask your child: "What was YOUR best part?"

Prompt if stuck: "What did you do at school? Who did you play with?"

Repeat back with added detail: "So you played tag with Sam and won? Amazing!"

Ask follow-ups: "How did that feel? What happened next?"

Make it nightly. Consistency builds reflection and narration habits.

Dinnertime conversation is one of the strongest predictors of childhood vocabulary growth — stronger even than reading aloud. Research shows that the extended, back-and-forth nature of mealtime talk exposes children to more rare and complex words than almost any other daily activity.

The "best/hardest/funniest" framework gives structure to children who would otherwise say "I don't know" when asked about their day. The categories are specific enough to jog memory.

Don't interrupt to correct grammar or add lessons. The goal is FLOW — comfortable, natural storytelling. Corrections shut that down.

As children get older, expand the framework: "What's something you learned? What are you looking forward to tomorrow? What's something kind you did or saw?"