Five Questions to Ask Your Child After Storytime
Skip “Did you like it?” These five simple questions help young children remember, feel, and think more deeply about any story.
By The Rainbow Trail Team · · 1 min read
“Did you like it?” usually gets a quick “Yes!” — and the conversation ends there. A slightly different question can open the door to a lovely chat about characters, feelings and ideas. Here are five that work with almost any story.
1. “Who was your favorite character? Why?”
This invites your child to share an opinion and explain it — an early reasoning skill. Toddlers may just point or name a character; that’s a great start.
2. “How do you think they felt when…?”
Focus on one moment: “How did Fox feel when he couldn’t cross the stream?” Naming feelings in others is one of the building blocks of empathy.
3. “What was the problem? How did they fix it?”
This gently builds story-sequencing skills — understanding beginning, middle and end — which supports early reading later on.
4. “What would you have done?”
Children love putting themselves in the story. Their answers can be surprising, creative and very funny. Accept every idea with interest.
5. “What do you think happens next?”
Prediction is a powerful thinking skill. It also tells you a lot about what your child understood and what caught their imagination.
Make it a ritual
Our free printable After-the-Story Talk Cards turn these questions into a little game: your child picks a card, you both answer. Every Rainbow Trail story page also includes discussion questions written specifically for that episode.
