Eight Evenings
For a teenager and an elder: a grandparent, a neighbour, an old family friend. Eight sittings, one question each. You both answer the same question, and each of you says the other's answer back before moving on. On the last evening, each of you writes the other's story in about 200 words.
Lay the phone flat between you: the card reads from both sides. Nothing is recorded or saved unless your family chooses to. Anyone can pass on any question. This borrows the shape of a studied program of this kind; it is not that program and claims none of its results.
Evening 1 of 8
What did an ordinary school day look like when you were fifteen?
What did an ordinary school day look like when you were fifteen?
Start with the morning: what did you eat, and how did you get there?
Each evening
- One of you reads the question out.
- The elder answers first, the teenager second, or the other way round; take turns.
- Each says the other's answer back in a sentence or two. The other can correct it.
- Stop while it is still good. The next card can wait a week.
The last evening
Each writes the other's story in about 200 words, and marks every part: Remembered (they told you), Checked (you found it again, like a date on a letter), or Cannot know (nobody alive can say now). Then swap and read. Ask before sharing anything you wrote.
New to asking? How to Ask an Elder, and Be Asked is four short lessons. Younger children can start with HeritageQuest.