Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about extracurricular activities, plus actionable tips on how to create them. The right questions set you up for meaningful feedback—let's explore how Specific can help you build an effective conversational survey in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for parent survey about extracurricular activities
Open-ended questions let parents share more than a simple “yes” or “no.” They help you understand motivations, challenges, and ideas in parents’ own words—crucial for improvement and innovation. Use these when you want feedback that goes deeper than surface-level choices, especially early in the survey to set the stage for honest conversation.
What extracurricular activities does your child currently participate in?
Why did you and your child choose those particular activities?
Can you describe your child’s favorite part about their extracurricular activities?
Have you noticed any positive changes in your child since they started extracurricular activities?
What challenges have you faced in supporting your child’s extracurricular interests?
Are there any activities you wish the school or community offered?
How do you help your child balance extracurricular activities with their schoolwork and other commitments?
Which factors most influence your decision to add or drop an activity for your child?
How involved do you feel you are in your child’s extracurricular activities?
What suggestions do you have to improve extracurricular offerings or support for families?
It’s worth noting that **57% of children aged 6 to 17 participate in at least one after-school extracurricular activity**—feedback from these families helps you understand real-world experiences behind the numbers. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for parent survey about extracurricular activities
Single-select multiple-choice questions give you quick, quantifiable insights. They’re perfect when you need to compare across a group or want to kick off the conversation with easy starter questions. Often, parents find it simpler to pick from a short list before sharing details in a follow-up.
Question: Which type of extracurricular activity does your child participate in the most?
Sports
Music, dance, or arts lessons
Academic or science clubs
Community service or volunteering
Other
Question: How many extracurricular activities is your child currently enrolled in?
None
One
Two
Three or more
Question: How do you feel about your child’s weekly schedule?
Too busy
Appropriately balanced
Too much free time
When to followup with "why?" Use a followup when a choice needs more context—like when a parent selects “Too busy” on the schedule question. A simple “Can you tell us more about what feels overwhelming?” can surface what’s behind their answer. This is especially meaningful since **72% of parents feel their children’s schedules are balanced, while 15% say it’s too hectic**—digging deeper helps you spot unique family situations. [3]
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” ensures you don’t miss out on activities or situations you haven’t anticipated. Follow-up questions here often uncover unexpected insights about emerging trends or niche interests you’d never think to ask about directly.
NPS question for parent survey about extracurricular activities
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question asks parents how likely they are to recommend the school or organization's extracurricular program to other families, using a scale from 0–10. It’s a proven measure for overall satisfaction and loyalty—plus, it’s actionable. When you know if parents would refer your program, you see where you shine and where to fix problems. You can instantly create an NPS survey for parents about extracurricular activities and adapt it to your needs.
The NPS is especially powerful here because children involved in extracurricular activities often show higher school engagement, and parental advocacy can drive growth. [5]
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions unlock context you can’t get from static forms—this is where Specific shines (you can learn more about automated follow-up questions). When a parent’s answer is unclear or incomplete, Specific’s AI asks smart, real-time follow-ups. This works like an expert interviewer—digging into patterns or prompting elaboration—while saving countless hours you’d otherwise spend chasing replies by email.
Parent: My child is doing too many activities.
AI follow-up: Can you share which activities feel like the biggest time commitment, and how it affects your family’s routine?
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 followups are enough to clarify and explore key points. Specific lets you control the depth—and when you’ve got the answer you need, respondents can move right on. You’ll balance rich insights with a great experience.
This makes it a conversational survey: Every answer, followup, and response feels like a back-and-forth. It’s more like a real conversation—and respondents stay more engaged as a result.
AI analysis, survey insights, and response summaries: AI removes the headaches of analyzing open-ended responses (see how to analyze parent survey results with AI). You get instant summaries and can chat with your data to surface trends and outliers, even with hundreds of responses (learn more about AI survey response analysis).
Automated follow-ups are a new concept—try generating a survey to experience the difference for yourself.
How to write great prompts for ChatGPT (or any AI) to generate parent survey questions
You can quickly draft or refine questions with help from AI. Here’s a quick way to start:
Start by asking for open-ended questions (“Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parent survey about extracurricular activities.”):
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parent survey about extracurricular activities.
But AI gets even better with more context. Add details about your goals, audience, or the challenges you want to address:
I'm developing a parent survey about extracurricular activities for a community school. Our goal is to understand barriers to participation, satisfaction with current offerings, and desired future programs. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that will help us gather detailed insights from parents with kids aged 6–17.
Then, you can ask AI to help you organize your questions:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
After reviewing, dig into specific categories of interest:
Generate 10 questions focused on barriers to participation and satisfaction with extracurricular activity offerings.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys deliver questions one at a time, in a chat-like format. With AI, these surveys adapt to the respondent’s answers—using follow-ups, clarifications, or praise—so it feels more like a coffee chat than an exam.
Traditional surveys: rigid forms, high drop-off rates, lots of incomplete data. AI-powered surveys: more context, better engagement, richer insights (and less manual work for you!).
Manual survey creation | AI survey generator (Specific) |
|---|---|
Brainstorm every question & edit the logic by hand | Describe your goals, let AI propose and organize targeted questions |
Collect static, often partial answers | Ask follow-up questions in real time; capture nuance and detail |
Analyze responses one by one or code them manually | Get automatic summaries, clear themes, and chat with your data |
Why use AI for parent surveys? You boost participation, reduce bias, and eliminate survey fatigue. The conversational format is less intimidating, and you’ll never miss an opportunity to ask “why?” when it matters. If you want to see the process step by step, check out our guide to building a parent survey about extracurricular activities.
When it comes to AI survey examples—especially using a dedicated AI survey generator like Specific—the experience is simply more dynamic and actionable. Specific offers best-in-class conversational surveys that keep both creators and parents engaged from start to finish—no technical complexity needed. Try editing your questions instantly with our AI survey editor to see the difference.
See this extracurricular activities survey example now
Try building a parent survey about extracurricular activities that sparks real conversation—get richer insights, in less time, with a survey that adapts to every answer.