131 Conversations That Engage Kids: How to Get Kids Talking, Grow Their Friendships, and Inspire Change

by Jed Jurchenko

Inspire your kids to pause their electronics and grow their social skills, through highly engaging, face-to-face conversations! In this book, you will discover: - Why conversations matter and connecting with others is important. - Three strategies to engage kids and keep the conversation going. - Five tools to help children develop their social skills. - How to use conversations to guide children toward positive change. Then, dive into 131 creative, engaging, and fun conversations that will get your kids talking. This book is for children who desire to build face-to-face connections that develop into life-long friendships. It is also for parents, foster parents, teachers, coaches, youth pastors, mentors, and everyone who wants to help their kids to connect in an increasingly disconnected world! Conversation Starters Include: - If the zoo offered to let you keep one exotic animal as a pet, which animal would you take home with you? - If you were principal of your school for a day, what is one school rule that you would change? - No two snowflakes are exactly alike. No two people are the same either. What is something that makes you unique? Jed Jurchenko is passionate about supporting weary Christ-followers in leading their families, growing their friendships, and caffeinating their faith so that they can live joy-filled, Christ-honoring, lives. Jed is a husband, daddy to four girls, a marriage and family therapist, psychology professor, and an author. Jed and his wife, Jenny, blog at www.coffeeshopconversations.com

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

60 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2017

About the author

I'm the husband to an incredible wife and the daddy to five amazing girls! I spent ten years serving as a children's pastor. Then, I worked as a marriage and family therapist, psychology professor, writing coach, and author.



Today, I've published 23 books. I enjoy helping others elevate their life and leadership through speaking and Christian life-coaching. In my free time, you'll find me reading, preparing for an upcoming marathon, barbecuing, paddle boarding, and enjoying life with our incredible family.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and simple book for adults who work with children on why asking questions is so vital. It is great for lesson plans and getting to know students. I gave the book 3 stars, as some of the questions were very similar and didn’t incorporate higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy questions.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this on kindle to use as a resource in my English tutoring to Chinese students and discovered it has great family-orientated conversation starters that I'll use for my own kids.

[Keryth Belvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book For Promoting Communication With Children.

I am voluntarily reviewing a complimentary copy of this book, 131 Conversations That Engage Kids by Jed Jurchenko.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I can't wait to put the excellent suggestions into practice with my son. He has been dealing with some issues at school and I didn't even learn about it from him. I found out through the guidance counselor at his school. He doesn't communicate with me about important issues and I really hope this book will help me change that.
I am very thankful to Jed for writing this book. I think it would/will be helpful to anyone with children in their lives that want better communication between them. I think children want to share with their parents and other important adults in their lives but aren't sure how to or are afraid of the adults reaction and maybe reading this book will give the adult insight into how to be open, welcoming and encouraging when the child does come to them.
Excellent Book!! I highly recommend this book to parents, caregivers of children/teens, teachers, guidance counselors, anyone that has interactions with kids.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed Jed's book, 131 Questions That Engage Kids. The importance of engaging with children face to face cannot be overstated. This book offers the tools for making the time spent with children memorable for everyone.
As a mother and grandmother, I will be using these conversation starters with my grandchildren, and also with my adult children at family get-togethers. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches, teachers and anyone else who converses with children will find this book very helpful.
I appreciate that the book is smaller, 5x8-so it's very portable, great to bring along.
131 Questions That Engage Kids is an excellent resource for creating engaging conversations, quality time, and building lasting memories.
I highly recommend 131 Questions That Engage Kids.

[Walter Ingram · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have kids or work with youth, this book is very helpful. As someone who works with a lot of students, I enjoyed the use of open ended conversation starters to jump start dialogue with my youth. The author was very clever in providing examples that could keep the conversation going long after the initial interaction. I have already used a few of the starters which have led to excellent conversations and plans for follow up discussions to keep the engagement going.

Although I was aware of how disconnected the world has become, some of the statistics the author shared were a great reminder to connect and establish relationships beyond the smartphone and iPads. I will definitely make a point to be more deliberate about unplugging from devices and work to make meaningful life long connections.

[Charlene Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

131 Coversations Removes the Excuse That You Have Nothing To Talk About

Jed presents a great way for adults to open the door and talk with kids, especially in such a technologically driven world. Too often I hear that parents continue to struggle with finding topics to connect on with their children after they hit a certain age.


Jed helps to lower some of these barriers in a way that isn't obtrusive but engaging. I recommend this book for those, not just parents, who struggle with how to approach some issues that happen around the world.


Such an easy read, 131 Conversations that Engage Kids is a great reference to help keep the conversation going and encourage relationship growth.

[Lucretia Robison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to connect with family members

I recently moved with my sister and her tween. Conversing with a 12 year old girl who is shy is challenging. She only shrugs her shoulders when I ask the usual "how was school" type questions. With this book I have regained confidence that I can have an engaging conversation with her. I'll ask a question every day at dinner. I think this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I have a grown son who was always full of lively conversation. This is the first time I have to try to bring a shy kid out of her shell. I'm so happy for this book!

[Modern · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for a voluntary, completely honest and non incentivized review. This a quick and easy read for a topic and situation that is not so quick or easy to remedy. As a parent, boredom and the ability to get the kids to converse productively is difficult. This book gives great insight and ideas to address and treat each individual "issue".

[barbara mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

131 Conversations That Engage Kids

This book worked perfectly for me. I am spending time with my granddaughter due to the pandemic. It has helped me get to know her better. She is bright and enjoyed answering my questions and I had a different question every day. I also found questions to ask the teenage grandkids where inquisitiveness can be a challenge.

[Stephen D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet. Perfect for focusing on building relationships with teens

Short and sweet. Perfect for focusing on conversation skills with teens. I plan to use it both with my kids and work the students I work with at school.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what we needed!!

This made a long road trip so much more fun and exciting than it would have been!! We even started to think of our own questions to ask after we were done with the questions in this book because the kids didn’t want to stop :)

[Leatrice Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great conversation starters

An easy read for my tween daughter and great conversation starters for us. It also helps emphasize the importance of making connections beyond social media.

[Lawrence Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not sit and read this entire book. I bought it for use in my mentoring program. The topics are great for discussion among the kids. The benefit I found in this is that it promoted critical thinking skills. Most of the kids were engaging in the conversations.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! Great conversation starters. I highly recommend!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been using someof these suggestion with my son. My son have always open up to me but in the middle he shut down and say forget it or never mind. This helps alot

[Brentswim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worked great

We used this effectively on a road trip and it definitely evokes conversation with an 8, 9 and 12 year olds.

[Kevin Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time to Practice

What a great idea - questions to ask your kids over dinner, before bed, in the car ... the list goes on. Excited to try these out!

[christina prater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

I would recommend this for older teenagers and/or adults. It helps communication between adults and teenagers. Great book thanks for sharing

[Lisandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

my boys loved the questions

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read that just emphasis how important it is to talk to your kids and it get you some conversation starters to help you start an interesting conversation and help keep it going.