Birthday interview questions for kids, by age

How a birthday interview works

Once a year, on or near their birthday, you ask your child a short set of questions and keep the answers. Some families write them in a notebook. A recording is better, because a four-year-old’s voice is gone by the time they are six.

Keep it short and do it when they are fed and rested. If they refuse, try again at the weekend. The date on the recording matters less than the habit.

The questions stay the same. The person answering does not.

The 12 questions to repeat every year

Use these every year without changing the wording. They work from about age three to eighteen.

• How old are you today?
• What is your favorite color?
• What is your favorite food?
• Who is your best friend?
• What is your favorite thing to do?
• What is your favorite book or show?
• What makes you laugh?
• What are you really good at?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What is your favorite thing about our family?
• What was the best day of this year?
• What do you want to do before your next birthday?

Build a printable question sheet for your child’s age

Questions for ages 2 and 3

Two- and three-year-olds answer with whatever is in front of them, which is the charm. Ask five questions at most and accept every answer.

• What is your name?
• What does a dog say?
• What do you like to eat?
• Who do you love?
• What is your favorite toy?
• Can you sing me a song?
• What do you want for your birthday?

Questions for ages 4 to 6

This is the golden age for interviews: old enough to answer, young enough to say something wonderful by accident.

• How old is Mommy or Daddy?
• What do grown-ups do all day?
• What is the best thing about being your age?
• What are you scared of?
• If you had one hundred dollars, what would you buy?
• What is the yuckiest food?
• Where would you like to go on holiday?
• What is your favorite thing to do with Grandma or Grandpa?
• What do you dream about?

Questions for ages 7 to 10

Older children enjoy being asked for opinions. Add questions that let them explain something to you.

• What is something you learned this year that was hard?
• What is the best book you read?
• Who do you sit with at lunch?
• What is one rule you would change at home?
• What do you think you will be like at 18?
• What is something kind someone did for you?
• What do you wish adults understood about kids?
• What are you proud of?

Questions for tweens and teens

Teenagers may prefer to write answers or record them alone. Offer both. Ask for less and listen for longer.

• What three words describe you right now?
• What song have you played most this year?
• What do you and your friends talk about?
• What is something you changed your mind about?
• What are you looking forward to?
• What worries you?
• What would you tell yourself at this age last year?
• What do you want me to remember about you at this age?

How to record the answers

Use your phone’s voice memo or video camera and hold it low so they are talking to you and not to a lens. Say the date and their age at the start. Do not correct their answers or prompt the “right” one; the wrong ones are what you will replay.

Type the answers afterwards as well. A transcript is quicker to compare year to year, and it survives if the audio file does not.

Keeping the interviews together

Recordings scattered across phones are difficult to find after ten years. Name each file with the child’s name and age, and keep them in one place with a backup.

In Everlittle, you can add each year’s interview as a voice or video memory with the written answers alongside it, so the whole set sits on your child’s timeline in order. Grandparents you have invited can listen too.