Question and Answer Photo Book for Children - Interview Your Child

Q & A post
Photo Book Baby is three! Wow, time really flies. I know my little guy is not a baby anymore and while I do miss those days sometimes, being mom to a toddler is a fun, tiring, crazy, wondrous, adventurous (and did I say tiring?) time. So many new experiences, new words and new skills learned. I'm sure you've marveled at some of the things that have come out of your toddler's mouth. I don't know about you, but unless I write those milestones or funny anecdotes onto paper (or in my case type it into a word document), it's so easy to forget when they happened and the details over time.

So, why not interview your child? I think it would be a fun project to do every year with your child, grandchild, nephew, niece etc. around his or her birthday. Each year, ask them the same questions and record their answers in a photo book. You can also make this a feature page in your child's "Year in Review" photo book if you like to do something more encompassing. Now that Photo Book Baby is three, I think I can get some pretty good answers out of him!

This fun photo book project reminds me of when I was a kid. My mom had bought a "school days" record book very similar to the one pictured below, in which each year she'd record the name of my teacher, school and basic stats. There would also be questions like, "what is your favorite subject?" "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and a place to list my best friends' names. There was also a spot to paste those "immensely flattering" school portraits and sign your own name for posterity.



You can do something similar, either school related or not, especially if you're starting at a younger age. Here's some suggested questions. Some of these I saw on this blogger's site who did the same project for her kids. I also added my own questions to the list. Some are slight variations of a specific theme like "food" but you can easily tailor the questions to you or your child's preferences or interests and choose the ones you want to ask.

Possible questions:

1. What is your favorite color?
2. What is your favorite toy?
3. What is your favorite flower?
4. What is your favorite car?
5. What is your favorite fruit?
6. What is your favorite vegetable?
7. What is your favorite snack?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What is your favorite TV show/movie?
10. Who is your favorite character?
11. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
12. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
13. What is your favorite outfit?
14. What is your favorite game?
15. What is your favorite book?
16. If you could be any animal what would it be?
17. What is your favorite song?
18. Who is your best friend?
19. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
20. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
21. What is your favorite drink?
22. What is your favorite day of the week?
23. Who is your favorite stuffed animal?
24. What is your favorite part of bedtime?
25. What do you want to be when you grow up?
26. What is yucky?
27. What is yummy?
28. What is your favorite/lucky number?
29. What is your favorite word?
30. What is your favorite thing to do with mommy/daddy/grandma/grandpa?
31. What is your favorite sport?
32. What is your favorite thing to play on at the playground?
33. What is your favorite instrument?
34. What is love?

Some of these questions are purposely vague or a little different, cause you know kids say the darnedest things right? I wonder what Photo Book Baby will say when I ask him #34! I'm sure you'll get lots of surprising answers for many of these.

VARIATIONS AND OTHER IDEAS FOR MARKING CHILDREN'S MILESTONES

Screen Shot 2014-08-07 at 4.16.55 PM1) I plan on picking some of the same core questions to ask every year, then I may change or add a few more as he gets older to include questions about school, favorite subjects etc. But you could just keep it simple and do the same questions every year. It doesn't matter how you decide to do it - just that you do it!

2) You could add a section on their stats: height, weight, etc. at the time the interview is done;

3) You can add a section of your own notes of what their likes and dislikes are and other milestones as well;

4) Prefer to do something less involved than asking a bunch of questions? Check out this example pictured above, at The Jobling Family blog. Take a photo every year and add some words and phrases that give some insight into your little one's likes and dislikes. I also did a similar age progression project with Photo Book Baby. Click on the link for a look at that fun project! (Which reminds me we're due to take another guitar photo!)Photo Book Girl Month guitar Baby

5) What about some descriptive word art? I love this fun tool and I've used it for the last two "year in review" books I've done. You can check out my word art photo book pages here.

Photo Book Girl Month 3 Baby

6) If you like videos like me, think about video recording your interview. How fun would that be to look back on?

If you'd like to check out my other baby photo book ideas, be sure to look here for other projects!

Be sure to check out my photo deals page for discounts on photo books and more!

Happy interviewing!