50 Questions to Ask Your Grandkids (That Aren't "How Was School?")

“How was school?” is the question every grandchild has learned to answer in one word. It is not their fault. It is a big, vague question, and after a full day of school it feels like homework.

The questions that work are small and specific. They are easy to answer, a little bit silly, and they give a child something to picture.

Here are fifty of them, sorted into groups. You don’t need to use them in order, and you certainly don’t need to use all of them in one call. Two or three good questions can carry a whole conversation.

A few things that help

Ask one question and then wait. Children need a few seconds to think, and the silence on a video call feels longer than it is. Count to five in your head before you say anything else.

Answer it yourself too. A question becomes a conversation when you share your own answer. Children love hearing what their grandparent would pick, especially if it is a strange choice.

Follow the answer, not the list. If your grandchild says their superpower would be talking to dogs, ask what they would ask the dog first. The list is only there to get you started.

Silly questions

These work for almost any age and are a good way to start a call.

1. If you could have any animal as a pet, even an impossible one, what would it be?
2. What would you do if you were invisible for one day?
3. If your toys could talk, which one would complain the most?
4. What would you name a pet dragon?
5. Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?
6. If you could eat only one food for a whole week, what would it be?
7. What superpower would be the most useless?
8. If you were a shoe, what kind of shoe would you be?
9. What would you do if it rained chocolate milk?
10. If you shrank to the size of an ant, where would you go first?

Questions about their day

These are smaller and easier than “How was school?” and they usually get a real answer.

11. What was the best part of today? And the worst part?
12. Who did you sit next to at lunch?
13. What made you laugh today?
14. Did anyone get in trouble today? (Not you, of course.)
15. What game did you play at break time?
16. If you could change one thing about today, what would it be?
17. What is something you learned that I might not know?
18. Was anybody kind to you today?
19. What did you have for dinner, and would you give it a score out of ten?
20. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Questions that make them think

Better for children from about six. Give them time with these.

21. What do you think you will be really good at when you are grown up?
22. If you were in charge of your school for a day, what rule would you make?
23. What is something that is hard for you right now?
24. What is the bravest thing you have ever done?
25. If you could invent something, what would it do?
26. What do you think animals dream about?
27. Who is the funniest person you know, and why?
28. What would you buy if you had a million to spend? What if you had ten?
29. What is something grown-ups get wrong about kids?
30. If you could live in any book or film, which one would you choose?

Questions about you and the family

Children are often curious about their grandparents’ lives, but it rarely occurs to them to ask. These questions turn the call around, and they are where family stories come from.

31. Do you want to know what I was like when I was your age?
32. What do you think your mum or dad was like as a little kid?
33. Can you guess what my favourite toy was?
34. What do you think was different when I was little? No phones, no tablets. What else?
35. Do you know how your mum and dad met?
36. Do you know where your name comes from?
37. What is your favourite thing we have done together?
38. If we could go anywhere together, where would we go?
39. What should we do the next time I visit?
40. What would you like to learn from me?

Quick-fire questions

Fast answers only, no thinking time. These are good when a child is restless or the call is about to end.

41. Cats or dogs?
42. Summer or winter?
43. Pancakes or ice cream?
44. Beach or snow?
45. Morning or night?
46. Dinosaurs or robots?
47. Drawing or building?
48. Pizza or pasta?
49. Monsters or fairies?
50. Me or the cat? (Choose carefully.)

Questions for the youngest ones

Most of the questions above work from about age four. For toddlers and three-year-olds, keep it physical and concrete. “Can you show me your favourite toy?” “What colour are your socks?” “What does a cow say?” We have more ideas for this in our article on video call ideas for toddlers.

Questions that let them run off and bring something back to the camera are the best kind at that age.

When the answer is still “I don’t know”

Some days nothing works. A child is tired, hungry, or in the middle of something more exciting than a phone call. That is fine, and it is not about you.

On those days, switch to doing something together instead of talking. A quick game asks less of a child than a conversation does. Our five easy video call games need nothing but what is already in the house.

All fifty questions are also in our free Video Call Play Pack as cut-out cards. Keep them in a jar by the screen and pick one at each call.

Get the free Video Call Play Pack

Which question would you ask first? And what do you think your grandchild would answer?