The New Year's Interview (Free Printable)

If there’s one thing the new year does for me, it’s remind me of how quickly time is passing.

I decided I needed to start capturing some of the unique things about where my kids are – before they’re gone. Sure, I journal faithfully and drive my family crazy with photo ops, but I realized that I don’t capitalize on the little details…those special little things about my kids that are here today but will be gone tomorrow.

It’s amazing how we can be with our kids all the time and still miss so much about them – what they’re thinking, how they see the world, how they see themselves.

I decided to remedy that with a little thing called the “New Year's Interview.”

It’s a pretty simple idea. Type out some questions for your children about themselves and have them write down their responses. Put the paper in a book or album and then give the same questionnaire next year at the same time. Over the years, you can watch the transformation in your kids’ responses – and see evidence of how they are growing and changing.

You don’t have to do this right at New Year’s – anytime in January would suffice. The point is to have a set time, once a year, in which you “check in” with your kids about who they are, what matters to them, and how they view life.

The questions can be adjusted according to the age or interests of your particular children – ask the things you really want to remember about them in the future! Here are some of the questions we used in our interview:

• What is your name?
• How old are you?
• What do you love to learn about?
• How do you like to spend your time?
• Who is your best friend?
• What is your favorite book?
• What is your favorite movie?
• What do you do best?
• What is most difficult for you?
• What do you want to do when you grow up?
• What three words describe you?
• What did you love most about last year?
• What do you look forward to the most this year?
• What are you most thankful for this past year?

Get all of the questions in our printable New Year’s Interview below.

Another option is to use your smartphone to video your kids’ responses. This way you not only get their answers, but get to see and hear your children as they are at this moment in time, each year. How Does She offers questions to ask and suggestions for videoing the New Year interview.

My kids loved working on the written interview. My girls were quite excited to answer the questions, and kept asking, “Mom, why are we doing this?” I wrote in some of the responses for my 5-year-old, although I had her put down as many as she could, so that I’ll have her handwriting on record as well.

Both kids were thrilled to share their responses, and enjoyed comparing which of their answers were similar (I had them complete the questionnaires in different rooms so they couldn’t be influenced by each other’s answers). It was clear that they felt pretty important that Mom was making the effort to find out about them in such an official way!

My kids’ responses brought a smile to my face and even tears to my eyes. I discovered that, out of the thousands of songs on their iPods, both my girls chose the same song as their favorite.

I was proud to learn that my eldest daughter thinks of herself as “outgoing”, “creative”, and “funny”, and touched that my youngest daughter said she best likes to spend her time “snuggling my mom”. One of the most poignant responses was by my older child, who answered “What makes you happy?” with “My sister”.

In 10 minutes this questionnaire gave me a snapshot of my kids’ lives that I will have forever, and an insight into their worlds that was enlightening – even for this mama who spends the large majority of the time with them.

It was interesting, encouraging, touching, and reminded me of the incredible blessing I have been given in my kids.

And I think we can all do well to be reminded of that in this new year.