Questions to Ask Your Grandparents

How it works

These questions to ask your grandparents are for a grandchild to read aloud: when you were my age, school then, how things were done, the news, work, family and advice. Press Print this list and write down what you hear.

Read the full guide

Questions to ask your grandparents about history

For a school project, choose School history project in the box under the button. It keeps the questions about classrooms, shops, telephones, work and the news, whose answers show how daily life has changed. Write the year or the decade beside an answer when your grandparent knows it.

Ask, write, keep

Read one question at a time and write the answer in your grandparent's own words. Each Show example cover hides a made-up answer. Left closed, it prints as a line to write on, and the examples print on a last page you can leave out.

Tips

Your grandparent chooses what to tell. Skip any question that gets a shake of the head.
Before a sheet goes on a wall or online, cover full names, places and dates.

Questions and answers

What are good questions to ask your grandparents?

Ones with a story behind them: how did you get to school, what was your first paid job, what did the family save up for, which story gets told at every holiday. The groups here run from childhood to advice.

What should you ask a grandparent for a history project?

Ask how everyday things were done: keeping food cold, calling someone far away, shopping, washing, getting to school. School history project keeps those questions, and the answers show change over time in one person's words.

How many questions fit one visit?

Ten to twelve is plenty for one sitting, and the page opens on twelve. Each answer leads to a story, so leave room for it and come back another day for a new set.

Does the page keep the answers?

No. Nothing is typed into the page. The answers exist only on the paper you print, so the family decides who reads them.

All 120 questions

When you were my age 17

What could you do then that I am not allowed to do now? Stay out until dark with no way to call home.
What did you and your friends build, dig or invent? A raft that floated for one afternoon.
What did you do on a rainy Saturday? Card games on the porch.
What did you do the minute school let out? Changed clothes and went straight to the creek.
What did you spend your pocket money on? Comic books and penny candy.
What did you trade with other children? Bottle caps, sorted by color.
What did you wear on an ordinary day? Hand-me-down overalls and my brother's cap.
What did you wish for on your birthday at my age? A bicycle with a bell.
What happened on your street after supper in July? Kids on bikes and fireflies in a jar.
What scared you when you were small? The cellar stairs.
What was your bedroom like, and who shared it? Two beds, three sisters, one closet.
What was your favorite supper? Fried potatoes with onions.
What were you not allowed to do that I am allowed to do? Talk at the table before the grown-ups.
Which chore was yours alone? Feeding the chickens before breakfast.
Which game did the kids on your street play most? Kick the can, until the streetlights came on.
Which rule at home did you bend the most? The one about being home before dark.
Which toy or book did you keep the longest? A tin truck with one wheel missing.

School then 17

How did your school mark the start of summer vacation? We cleaned out the desks and ran.
How many children were in your class? Thirty-one, in rows by last name.
How old were you when you finished school, and what came next? Sixteen, then straight to the mill office.
What did a school day sound like: bells, songs, a radio? A hand bell, and a song before lessons.
What did you carry to school, and in what? Two books tied with a strap.
What did you eat at midday, and where? A sandwich in wax paper, at my desk.
What did you have to learn by heart? Poems, and the times tables to twelve.
What did you play at recess? Marbles, for keeps.
What did you write with, and on what? A fountain pen, and it leaked.
What did your classroom look like? Wooden desks bolted to the floor and a map that pulled down.
What happened to a child who broke a rule? You stayed in and wrote lines.
What were girls and boys expected to wear to school? A wool skirt for girls, even in the snow.
What were you best at in school? Spelling bees.
Which lesson did you dread? Mental arithmetic, standing up.
Which lesson did you wait for all week? Art, on Friday afternoons.
Who helped you with your homework? My older sister, for a price.
Who walked beside you to the schoolhouse? My brother, a mile on foot, faster in winter.

How things were done 18

How did a letter or a parcel reach you? The mailman on foot, twice a day.
How did the house stay warm in winter? A coal stove in the kitchen and cold bedrooms.
How did you find out what the weather would be? The radio at six, and the look of the sky.
How did you listen to music? Records, three songs to a side.
How did you look something up when you did not know it? The encyclopedia at the library, volume by volume.
How did you pay for things in a shop? Coins counted out, or on the family's account.
How did you take photographs, and when did you get to see them? A roll of twelve, and a week's wait.
How did your family get from town to town? The bus, and later a secondhand car.
How did your family keep food cold? An icebox, and a man who brought the ice.
What did a long trip look like, and what did you pack? A train, a suitcase and boiled eggs.
What did it take to telephone another town? A shared line. You waited your turn.
What did people do in the evening before screens were everywhere? The radio, mending and checkers.
What did people fix that they throw away now? Socks, shoes and radios.
What was cooked at home that people buy ready-made now? Bread, jam and noodles.
What was the first machine in your home that amazed you? The television, in a wooden cabinet.
Where did the family shop, and how often? The corner store, on Saturdays, with a list.
Which errand needed a trip into town that I can do from a couch? Paying a bill.
Who did the laundry in your house, and with what? A tub, a wringer and a line across the yard.

The news you remember 17

How did news reach your home each day? A paper on the step and the radio at six.
What changed in your town while you were growing up? The trolley tracks came up and a shopping center went in.
What could a single coin buy when you were small? A seat at the movies.
What did everybody talk about the year you turned ten? The new highway.
What did neighbors lend each other without being asked? A ladder, a cup of sugar and an hour of help.
What do people worry about now that nobody thought of then? Passwords.
What do you think people will say about this year, later on? That everyone was looking at a phone.
What good news do you remember the whole town celebrating? The first train on the new line.
What is the first piece of big news you remember hearing? People walking on the Moon.
What was new and exciting in the shops when you were young? Frozen dinners in a tray.
What was the first thing you watched on a screen? A parade, in black and white.
Where were you when you heard it, and who told you? On the living room floor, with half the street watching.
Which game or show did your family gather to follow? The championship, on the radio.
Which invention changed your ordinary day the most? The washing machine.
Which piece of news did your family cut out and save? The front page from the day the bridge opened.
Which song was everywhere when you were a teenager? One with a saxophone. Ask me to hum it.
Which storm or heat wave does everyone your age still talk about? The blizzard that shut the schools for a week.

Work and money then 17

How did you earn your first wages? Delivering papers, a few coins a week.
What counted as a treat when money was short? One orange, split four ways.
What did a beginner at your work have to do first? Sweep the floor and watch for a month.
What did people in your town mostly do for a living? The mill, the railroad or a farm.
What did the family save up for the longest? A refrigerator.
What did you buy with your first pay? A pair of real leather shoes.
What did you do without, and not mind? A second pair of shoes.
What did you dream of becoming when you were young? A pilot. I fixed buses instead, which was close enough.
What did you make or grow instead of buying? Tomatoes, dresses and birthday cakes.
What is the hardest you ever worked? Harvest, the summer I was fifteen.
What was on your desk, bench or counter at work? A typewriter and a telephone with a cord.
What was the best thing you ever bought? A piano, secondhand.
What would you tell me about choosing work? Pick the people, then the job.
When did the whistle blow, the shop open or your shift start? The whistle at seven, and again at four.
When did your parents leave for work, and when did they get home? One left for the cannery at six, and one kept the books at home.
Which of your jobs would you do again? Driving the bookmobile, for the children's faces.
Who showed you how to do your job well? A foreman who never raised his voice.

Our family's story 17

How did my parent behave as a child my age? Loud, kind and always hungry.
How did our family come to live where it lives now? A job at the mill, and a cousin with a spare room.
How far back does our family's story go, as far as you know? To a farm, four generations ago.
What can nearly everyone in our family do? Fix an engine and tell a long story.
What did you think the first time you held me? That you had your father's frown.
What did your own grandparents do that you still do? Whistle while washing up.
What do you hope our family always keeps doing? Eating together on Sundays.
What is the funniest thing my parent ever did? Sold lemonade made with salt.
What languages or sayings were heard in your childhood home? A little Polish, mostly at supper.
What tradition did you bring from your own parents' house? Soup first, always.
When were the most relatives ever under one roof? Sixty cousins in one yard.
Which family photo should I ask to see? The one on the porch with the goat.
Which keepsake has been handed down the longest? A clock that runs four minutes slow.
Which recipe has been in the family the longest? The dumplings, never written down.
Which tale about our family do you tell best? The year the dog ate the turkey.
Which trip did the family take that everyone remembers? The lake, in a car with no air conditioning.
Who in the family do I remind you of? My brother, when you laugh.

Advice for me 17

How do you make a friend and keep one? Show up, and remember what they told you.
How should I treat the people next door? Shovel one driveway past your own.
What are you proud of? The garden, and all of you.
What do you hope I remember about today? That I laughed.
What do you know now that you wish you had known at my age? That most people are too busy to judge you.
What does a good ordinary day hold for you? Something fixed and somebody visited.
What helps on a bad day? A walk, then a sandwich.
What is not worth worrying about? What you wore last Tuesday.
What is the kindest thing anyone ever did for you? A stranger drove me forty miles home.
What is worth doing slowly? Bread dough, and getting to know a friend.
What should I ask you next time? Ask me about the summer of the flood.
What should I learn to do with my hands? Sew on a button and plant a tomato.
What would you do again exactly the same way? Move to this town.
What would you do differently? Learn the piano sooner.
When should I speak up, and when should I listen? Speak up for someone else. Listen the rest of the time.
Which book or song should I know because you love it? The song my mother hummed while cooking.
Which habit has served you best? Writing things down.

How this list was compiled

Written for this site on 2026-10-02 by the gamenightgenerator editors: 120 questions a grandchild asks a grandparent, in the asker's voice, each with one invented example answer that quotes no real person. Own work; nothing was copied from another site, and no facts are stated. Screened for a sheet that may be posted: no question asks for an address, a full birth date or a maiden name. No question is about health, memory or loss, and none asks for a war story: the grandparent chooses what news to tell. The School history project choice is the editors' pick of the questions about everyday life that suit a class project. Licence: own work