History · Kindergarten to Grade 1–2

When I was little

Your child's own life, in a line from baby to now.

Your child puts three drawings of themselves in order, from baby to now, and picks what baby-them couldn't do yet. Older children add you as a child and take a question to someone who remembers.

Kindergarten to Grade 1–2
6 min
Nothing to prepare
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child knows they were once a baby and can tell a baby from a bigger child in a picture.
Too much today? Start with My day in order: putting their own day in order comes first.
Too easy? The Grade 1–2 level: a drawing of you as a child, what was different back then, and a question to take to someone who was there.

What your child practises

Oldest to newest
Then and now
Asking someone who was there

Listen for

“When I was a baby I could not walk or talk.”

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

A grown-up nearby at Kindergarten; at Grade 1–2 your child plays alone until the question at the end
Each question has a Read it to me button
Drawings stand in for your child: no photo is taken, names come only from your family tree, and the answer to the question stays with your family, never stored by the game

Take it off the screen (optional)

Look at real photos of your child from a box or a phone together, and let them ask their question to a grown-up who was there.

The full design

What it is

Your child's own timeline: baby, little, now, in a line, oldest first. Then the family's before them: a picture from before your child was born, and a question to take to someone who was there. This is the first history a child can hold, because it is theirs: things were different, I was smaller, and someone remembers.

How it goes

The Pet says it has drawn your child three times and asks which is the oldest. A tap on a newer one gets a question, never a cross ("You now: is that the oldest? Oldest goes first"). Each picture lands in its slot on the line; the pictures below stay where they were, so nothing moves under a small finger. Then four things with a picture each (walk, talk, ride a bike, read): tap two that baby-you could not do. There is no wrong tap. At 1–2 the fourth drawing is the parent as a child, named as your family names them, drawn small and in the faded colour of an old print; after the line the Pet asks what was different when they were small and writes the question down: "What was school like when you were small?" Your child taps who they will ask, from the grown-ups in your family tree, and takes the question with them. A child who is stuck can take a shorter line (just baby and now) and the rest of the game still follows. If the game is left half way, it carries on with the line as it was.

The Pet

Asks "which one is the oldest you?" and, on the parent's picture, says they were small before your child was born. Notices "Baby you. Smaller than me!" Dares (K): "bet you can say one thing big you will do", and a yes adds a Later slot to the line, so the line runs from baby to big. At 1–2 there is no dare: the question is the next step. What your child wonders about and who they will ask are theirs alone: the Pet helps with the line, but never picks those for them. On the Pet's own body a tap says "someone was there when you were small, ask them".

By band

K: three drawings of your child (a baby, a little one, one now) tapped onto the line oldest first, then two things baby-you could not do that you can now. 1–2: four drawings, one of them a parent as a child, before your child was born; then what was different back then (phones, cars, clothes, school) and a written question for a grown-up who was there.

What it grows

Chronological thinking starts with the child's own life, and "then and now" pictures of the child are the way in; a question to someone who was there is a first source question at six. The habit this grows is asking who remembers.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done = the line in order and the two things named, or the question taken. Evidence is what the finish card says was done: how many drawings were placed, what was named, who the question went to. One line worth keeping: the answer the grown-up gave, in their words.

What's personal

The drawings stand in for your child; the app takes and shows no photo of them. The parent's name and the grown-ups to ask come from your family tree, and where the tree is empty the game says "a grown-up" and "someone who was there", never a name you did not give. The answer to the question is yours: told at the table, kept on paper or in the grown-up's own record if they choose, never stored by the game.