Why You Should Ask Your Kid to Teach You Something

Retsky recently met a child who kept his head down through a series of introductory questions. “I didn’t even see his face yet,” she says. Pizza or tacos? No enthusiasm. Then she asked about horror movies. “Finally, he lifted his head,” she says. “I got to actually see the kid I was working with.”

There’s no need to formally schedule your child’s weekly lesson. Announcing that every Tuesday at 7 p.m. is now Teach Your Parent Night is an excellent way to transform a fun idea into homework.

Instead, treat “once a week” as a reminder to notice one natural opening. If your child is drawing, building, cooking, playing a game, practicing a dance, or excitedly recounting something they learned, get curious. Try: “Wait, how did you do that?” or “I don’t know how that works. Can you show me?”

For younger kids, concrete activities are often easiest. Ask them to show you how to draw a monster, build a LEGO house, make a play-dough pizza, or perform a favorite dance. School-age kids might teach you a basketball rule, explain the strategy behind a video game, or demonstrate how they created something. With teenagers, Anderson-Kahl suggests asking: “What’s something kids your age understand that adults don’t?” They might explain a slang term, a piece of technology, a social-media controversy, or why millions of people are refreshing the TikTok feed of a creator you’ve never heard of.