Backpack talk time.

In hopes of getting through the teenage years with two girls, I have been thinking a lot about what I can do now to help all of us through those sometimes interesting years. I only say this, because I was a teenager once and I remember holding all my feelings in, rather than talking to my mom about it. I just didn't quite feel comfortable telling her, she always had to draw it out of me - if that was possible!

I have been feeling a push to get my girls to open up more to me and talk to me, rather than me pushing them for questions. After much thought, I finally received some inspiration I know will at least help my girls to open up to me more and talk about their day. I found these backpacks for $4.94 each at Walmart. They seem to be good quality and for the price, it was worth buying each of them two backpacks. The first pack I use for their school and the 2nd I use for "Talk time". After school and until Craig comes home, we've asked them to tell us about their day, or as much as they can remember. If they say "I don't remember", I will ask them some questions to get them going and thinking:

What did you learn today?
How was lunch?
Who did you play with at recess?
Was there anytime during the day you were sad? Why? What happened?
Did you write? What did you write?
and so on...

When Craig comes home they are supposed to tell him about their day again. The questions I've asked earlier in the day, help them to tell about their time at school. If they are open about their day and honest about what they've said, then they get to pick a surprise out of the backpack's above. Each of my daughters has her own talk time backpack complete with $1 store items that I know they like. My hope is that we won't need to give them a "reward" to talk to us, and will slowly make the days after a reward into 2, 3, 4 and so on. For now, it's a daily reward. The best thing about it is that it's worked.

Did you feel comfortable talking to your mom?
What do you do to encourage open communication with your children?

Distance goal: I ran 4 miles last night and 2 this morning. Now that the girls are in school I can transfer my excercising to the day instead of late at night!