New Year’s interview for kids: 15 end-of-year questions
A New Year’s interview is a handful of end-of-year questions you ask your child in the last days of December, the same ones every year. It’s the birthday interview idea pointed at the calendar: one sheet is a nice snapshot, and a few years of sheets show you what changed.
Below are 15 questions about the year, five easy ones for ages 2 to 3, and a free printable. Daysake also sends one question each Friday, picked for your child’s age.
(river trip) fell off the blow-up ring and came up spluttering: “again!”
Why ask the same questions every December
“What was the most fun day this year?” has a different answer at three, four, and six, and the difference is the good part. If the questions change every year, there’s nothing to line up. So keep the list, ask it again, and write the answer word for word.
- Pick a window, not a night. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day works, or the first week of January. Ask a couple at a time.
- Side by side beats face to face. The car, the bath, and doing a puzzle together get longer answers than a sit-down.
- Write the exact words. No tidying up. Add a few words of context in parentheses if it helps.
- Leave “I don’t know” in. It’s an answer, and next year’s will be different.
15 questions about this year
- What was the most fun day this year? What did you do?
No date needed. Just what happened. - What was the funniest bit of this year?
If it starts with giggles, hear it out to the end. - Think of a place we went this year. What do you remember most about it?
Name the place if nothing comes. The detail they pick is often a small one. - What got easier this year?
Let them decide what counts. - What did you learn to do this year?
Whistling and doing up a zipper both count. - Who did you play with most this year, and what did you play?
It’s fine if names don’t come. - What’s the yummiest thing right now?
Easy to ask at a meal. - What song or book did you like best this year?
If the name won’t come, ask them to sing or tell a bit. - What was the scariest thing this year?
Hear it all before you say it’s okay. - What surprised you this year?
Give it a moment. This one takes a while. - What’s different when you’re one year older?
Write the theory down as it is. - What do you want to learn to do next year?
It doesn’t have to be sensible. - Where should we go next year?
The playground down the road is a fine answer. - If you made one New Year’s resolution, what would it be?
Explain “resolution” as a promise to yourself, then let them run with it. - And one for you: what made the two of you laugh hardest this year?
Write your own answer next to theirs.
piano. “because the fingers look like they’re dancing”
Ages 2 to 3: five you can ask in the bath
At this age, questions about right now tend to land better than questions about the whole year. Keep them short, one at a time, while hands are busy with bath toys.
- What’s your favorite toy?
- What’s the yummiest thing?
- What song do you like?
- Who do you like to play with?
- What makes you laugh?
If the answers are a word or a giggle, write that down. When there’s no answer at all, write what you see instead: the song that gets hummed, the toy that comes into the bath.
sings “twinkle twinkle” and the rest is “mm mm mm”. claps at the end
Free printable
All 15 questions on one page, with answer lines and spaces for the name, date, and age. Print one each December and keep the sheets in one folder. No sign-up.
- US Letter PDF (US and Canada)
- A4 PDF (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand)
If your family celebrates Christmas, there’s a Christmas interview for kids with its own printable, too.
Last year’s answers next to this year’s
Paper works for one year. The sheet from two Decembers ago is somewhere, probably without the age on it, and the answers only mean something next to each other.
In Daysake, each answer is one page, and the date and your child’s age go on by themselves. Around this time next year, the home screen brings back what you wrote under “This time last year,” so this December’s answers turn up right when you’re about to ask again. Download everything as one PDF whenever you want it on paper, or see how to turn quotes into a book.
Write each answer as you hear it. Daysake adds the date and age, and every Friday there’s one more question picked for your child’s age.