Top 5 Conversation Starters for Kids 4 to 8 Years Old

Most of the time you don’t need to come up with conversation starters for kids. They come up with some great stuff all on their own. Starting around four years old, kids start to acknowledge and question the world outside of themselves and their immediate experience. When they wonder about something, they are going to ask someone their questions. When they ask, see if you can make it personal and let them know about you!

You are human and feeling and fallible. Engage them with conversation prompted by insights into you. If you aren’t sure how to get the conversation started or for the times when they don’t have questions, use these top five conversation starters for kids four to eight years old:

What things do you do as an adult—just for you—that bring you joy? Zumba? Basketball? Movies? Gardening? What do you find satisfying about your type of fun? (Being alone? Being with others?) What does your child like doing for fun? Why?

Mistakes are how we learn, and no one should be punished for an earnest effort that didn’t turn out as hoped. Talk about mistakes you’ve made in your life and what you learned (age appropriate, of course). What did you do differently afterward? Your child will be relieved (and probably surprised!) to learn you ever made an error and are likely to open up about their own.

Why do you live where you do? In your city? In your specific home? Did you choose an apartment because it costs less than a house and you don’t want maintenance responsibilities? Did you choose a house in the country because you wanted to grow your own food? What kind of home would your child like one day?

Big city or small town … where you live, the people that make up city government and, yes, where the poop goes, are all part of how a community works. Talk to your child—or go to the library and city hall together—to learn about the infrastructure of where you live. No family is an island, and learning about our individual responsibilities vs. what we depend on our neighbors and government for is invaluable. Ask what your child would like to know about. (Yes, probably where the poop goes!)