Tonight with your 5 to 8 year old

The prompt

“Was there a moment you felt brave even though you were also scared?”

What to listen for

If they can name both feelings at once, scared and brave together, they're learning something huge: that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's doing the thing anyway.

If they say they weren't scared at all, that might just be them not yet having words for the fear part, which is fine; you can gently name it for them, like "that sounds like it could've been a little scary too."

If they say "I don't know," offer an example you saw, like a first day somewhere new, and ask if that counts.

What this tells you

Naming both fear and bravery in the same moment shows they're starting to understand courage as something you feel and do at the same time, not something you only have when you're not scared.