History · Grades 1–2 and 3–4

Ask a grown-up

A real interview with someone who was small long ago.

Your child picks someone in the family to interview about when they were small, and chooses the questions. The Pet goes quiet while they talk, then your child picks or writes down what surprised them.

Grades 1–2 and 3–4
20 min
Nothing to prepare
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child can pick a question, ask it, and listen to the answer.
Too much today? Start with Family tree of names: finding who to ask, before the asking.
Too easy? The Grade 3–4 level: five questions of their own, typed, and what surprised them in their own words.

What your child practises

Asking good questions
Listening
What surprised me

Listen for

“Why didn't you have a phone when you were small?”

If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.

Your part

An older grown-up to talk to, in the room or on a call
Each question has a Read it to me button
No audio is recorded; at Grade 3–4 your child's notes reach you only if they choose to keep them, and they are yours to keep or erase

Take it off the screen (optional)

Ask someone else the same questions, and see where the two stories differ.

The full design

What it is

Oral history: ask someone older what it was like when they were small, listen, and keep what surprised you. Your child chooses who to ask from your own family (the adults you added on the Family page, by the names your child uses; or "a grown-up at home" and "someone older, on a call" if the tree is empty), picks or writes the questions, reads the person a short script, and then the Pet goes quiet and stays quiet until your child says the talking is over.

How it goes

"Who was small once?": your child taps a person. Then the questions. Then the script, read aloud by the speaker button if they like: "Teta, I am going to ask you about when you were small. I may write down what you say, and my grown-up decides if we keep it. Is that OK?" A tap on Start talking puts the Pet to sleep: no hints, no nudges, no bubbles, however long the talk takes. We finished talking wakes it: "You are back. What did they say?" At 1–2 the three questions come back as buttons and your child taps the surprising one. At 3–4 a box under each question waits for their words; then two buttons, Keep it for my grown-up and Let it go. At the end the Pet dares them to ask someone else the same questions now, and if they say yes, the second person is chosen and the Pet goes quiet again.

The Pet

Asks: "Pick three. The surprising ones are best." Notices a follow-up: when the notes contain the word "why", "that is what historians do". It never picks the surprising answer for the child: that is theirs alone. While the interview runs it says nothing at all. If the game is left mid-way, the person, the questions and the notes are there when it is opened again.

By band

1–2: three questions picked from the Pet's six ("what was your favourite toy?", "did you have a phone?", "how did you get to school?"), then one tap: which answer surprised you most. Nothing is typed and nothing is stored. 3–4: your child writes five questions of their own (three is enough to start), then writes what surprised them in their own words, and decides whether to keep those notes for you or let them go. 5–6 (two people, the same questions, where the stories differ) is written but not built yet.

What it grows

Talking to someone who was there is the first way children meet history in the early school years: living memory, one person, one story. Writing the question first and the surprise after is how a historian's notebook starts, and comparing two people's versions (the 5–6 rung) is where "sources can disagree" begins.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done = one interview. The evidence at 1–2 is the conversation itself; at 3–4 it is the notes, if kept. One line worth keeping: the thing that surprised your child, and whether they asked why.

What's personal

The person and their words. The script tells them what may be written down. At 1–2 the tap is the whole record: nothing leaves the screen. At 3–4 the notes go to you only if your child taps Keep it for my grown-up: they appear on the Pet's page in your child's words, yours to keep or erase. Let it go means nothing leaves the screen. No audio is recorded.