Session 5, Week 4
“I forgot.” “I can’t remember.” “Nothing.” As I look around each day and see all the incredible, challenging, meaningful and fun work the heroes are engaged in, I am amused and stunned (and sometimes even sad) by the responses parents get to the question, “What did you do today?” So here are a few answers to that question from this week and a sampling of other questions parents could ask that may elicit different responses…
If your child is in the Spark Studio you could ask: How were you a better friend today than yesterday? Answers from this week could have been, “Today I practiced being courageous or patient or I listened to the ideas of others.”
What emotions did you feel today? Answers from this week could have been: “We went to the park. I felt joy walking there and felt the wind on my face. We walked backwards on the curb. It was hard!”
What did you discuss at Tribe Time today? “We talked about cause and effect, and then Rube Goldberg Machines!”
How did you help someone today? “I noticed someone lost a toy, so I showed him where all the Lost and Found boxes were. I’m really good at finding lost things.”
What did you see on the field trip? “I saw where they make chocolate candy. I even got to TASTE some!”
How did you challenge yourself? “I learned how to tie shoes.”
How did you think of others? “I made thank you cards for the chocolate factory workers from our field trip.”
What did you create today? “I made a leprechaun trap.”
What did you do outside today? “As always, we found new ways of using the materials.”
Based on the state of her clothes after school, a parent of a Fire Studio hero recently asked her child if she rolls around on the ground all day. What a great question! Here are some other questions you could ask your Fire Studio hero:
What did you discuss in Launch this morning? This week you might have heard about what makes heroes “Gritty” in facing their challenges and what requires the most grit for your hero during the day. 
What side did you argue for in the Socratic Discussion today? You might have heard your hero’s take on the secret act of throwing out the Articles of Confederation and completely reorganizing the young USA government under the Constitution. Or you might have been transported to ancient Rome as a senator, having to make Brutus’ tortured decision whether or not to participate in Julius Caesar’s assassination. Or you might have heard about the latest Town Hall debate. Follow up questions for Town Hall could be: Which hero led the discussion? What were the arguments of each side of the topic? How did the vote fall? Were you happy or disappointed with the outcome? 
What was your focus in Silent Core Skills time this morning? Which of the 3 Monsters did you overcome today? Which Exploratory Work is your favorite this week?
Just for fun I took pictures of all of your heroes between 9:05 & 9:10 during Core Skills. Here is what they were each doing:
Are any extra activities coming up that interest you? This week’s answers could have been: playing in the chess tournament, studying hard for April’s Constitution Bee at the Utah State Capitol, preparing for Story Club next week or completing the Pi Plate Challenges (If you completed 7 of the 10 challenges you got to eat pie on Thursday!) So much fun learning to choose from!
What badge are you close to celebrating? It’s that time of session and year that badges are starting to pour in. Which badges are your heroes working on?
What did do for Meditation, Grit, Jolliness, P.E., Sketch Comedy, Creator Time or Civ? The questions are really endless and we haven’t even got to Quest yet!
Questions for Quest: Did you talk to any strangers today? Were they helpful or dismissive? Was that in your comfort, challenge, or panic zone? Heroes cold-called/visited local restaurants in the rain this week and asked managers questions about marketing, profits, and operations.
Does business have its own language? What words do you understand now that you didn’t before? Heroes role-played business scenarios, using words and idioms common in the business world.
What kind of math are you needing to figure out for your questaurant business? Have you been introduced to any new tools for figuring out business problems more efficiently? Heroes were exposed to the efficiency of spreadsheets and started to appreciate the necessity of paying attention to financial details.
Ok… so, you wouldn’t have had any way to know to ask those Quest questions 🙂 Perhaps you could go back and ask about last week!
I ask my DELTA Studio children most every day, What was your high? What was your low? Who did you serve? These three simple questions this week brought out: fun tribe building challenges,
games they enjoyed,
interesting discussions, frustrating discussions, goals they accomplished, goals they didn’t accomplish,
committees or councils they are serving on, mentoring they did,
walls they tore down,
and salamander pilates they practiced!
Questions for Quest? What side did you take during your Quest Socratic discussion? This week they might tell you whether they thought technology takes away or improves creativity and the ability to work hard?
What did you DO with your hands in Quest today? This week’s answers could have been: cut wood; design 3-D prints, write build stories, film story videos, learn how to remove stripped screws, do max push-ups or star jacks, code blinking lights or sounds
Other questions you could ask: How many times did you mess up and try again on a part of your build today? What made you laugh today? Who did you help today? Or who helped you? Who made you laugh today? Who did you hold accountable today? And of course, did you catch that blasted Leprechaun using Rube Goldberg techniques today?
“The answers you get depend upon the questions you ask” (Thomas Kuhn). I hope this post gives you some ideas of different questions to ask so you can get more answers from your heroes. They do important, meaningful, fun and funny work every day. We want you to share with them in the highs and lows and everything in between! Perhaps they might even start asking you “What did you do today?”