Tonight with your 5 to 8 year old
The prompt
“What's your best-kept hide-and-seek spot that you think nobody's ever found?”
What to listen for
An enthusiastic, detailed answer about a clever spot shows a kid delighting in a bit of harmless secrecy and cleverness, a completely healthy, playful kind of independence.
If the spot is somewhere very enclosed or hidden away from everyone, notice it lightly, some kids like a spot precisely because it's theirs alone, a small private world, which is healthy at this age.
If they reveal the spot easily and with pride, that's a sign they trust you completely with even their "secrets," which is worth appreciating.
What this tells you
How readily they share their hiding spot shows how much they currently trust you with even their small private worlds.