--- title: Every question Vellum asks — 133 daily prompts description: All 133 questions and missions, free to read. Filter by age and type — voice, photo, activity, or just something worth writing down. url: /prompts --- The library # Every question Vellum asks All 133 of them, free to read, free to use, and free inside the app forever. Whether you want questions to ask your 4 year old, a reason to record their voice, or one small thing to go and do tonight, it's on this page. Take them and use them in a notebook if you'd rather — that's fine. The app just remembers so you don't have to. Nothing here is metered. Some apps in this category charge you per question per day; that's the thing worth not doing. [Pricing is here](/pricing.md) if you want to see where the line actually is. **Photo**: Photograph their hands. Just their hands. Captured it **Question**: What did they say this week that you want to remember exactly? Wrote it **Activity**: Never let go of the hug first today. Let them be the one to pull away. Did it **Photo**: Get down to their eye level and take the photo from there. Captured it **Voice**: Record them telling you a story. Any story. Don't correct a single word. Captured it **Video**: Film them telling you about their day. Don't prompt them. Captured it **Question**: What is your kid obsessed with right now? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph their shoes by the door. Captured it **Activity**: Get on the floor for ten minutes. That's the whole mission. Did it **Letter**: Write them something about money that you wish someone had told you at nineteen. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 18**: **Photo**: Take a picture of what they built today, however unimpressive. Captured it **Question**: What does your kid call you? Write down every version. Wrote it **Activity**: Carry them when asked, even though they can walk fine. Did it **Photo**: Photograph the mess they made. Don't clean it up first. Captured it **Question**: What's the bedtime routine right now, step by step? Wrote it **Voice**: Record them singing. Whatever they are singing. Captured it **Video**: Ask them ten questions about someone else in the family and film the answers. Don't correct anything. Captured it **Photo**: Take a photo of them sleeping. Captured it **Activity**: Use their oldest nickname out loud today, while they do still answer to it. Did it **Question**: What food is your kid refusing this week? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph their drawing or their handwriting, exactly as it is. Captured it **Measurement**: Measure their height and weight. Photograph them against the same wall, same spot as last time. Captured it monthly **Photo**: Take a picture of them with whoever they are most attached to right now. Captured it **Activity**: Let them help with something, even though it triples the time. Did it **Question**: What did they do today that annoyed you and will be funny in ten years? Wrote it **Letter**: Write them a letter about exactly who they are right now. They won't be this person next year. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 16**: **Photo**: Photograph their lunch, arranged the way they arranged it. Captured it **Voice**: Record them counting as high as they can go. Captured it **Video**: Film them doing the thing they are currently best at. Captured it **Question**: Who is their best friend right now, and what do they do together? Wrote it **Activity**: Don't rush lights-out tonight. Stay an extra ten minutes. Did it **Photo**: Take a photo of them doing the thing they do every single day. Captured it **Photo**: Photograph their face mid-laugh. Burst mode. Take twenty, keep one. Captured it **Question**: What word does your kid mispronounce that you don't want to correct? Wrote it **Activity**: Say yes to the next thing you'd normally say no to. Did it **Photo**: Take a picture of them in the same spot you photographed them a year ago. Captured it **Question**: What is your kid afraid of right now? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph what they are wearing today, head to toe. In ten years this is a costume. Captured it **Voice**: Record them saying the alphabet. Captured it **Video**: Record thirty seconds of them just playing. No talking to the camera. Captured it **Activity**: Let them choose dinner. Entirely. Did it **Letter**: Write down what you were afraid of before they were born, and what actually happened. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 18**: **Photo**: Take a photo of the two of you. You're in almost none of them. Captured it **Question**: What did they teach themself this month? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph their favorite toy alone, like a portrait. Captured it **Activity**: Ask them a question and let the silence sit until the answer comes. Did it **Question**: Describe their laugh. Wrote it **Photo**: Take a picture of them outside doing nothing in particular. Captured it **Voice**: Record them saying their own full name. Captured it **Video**: Film them explaining how something works. Captured it **Activity**: Go outside with them with no plan and no phone. Did it **Question**: What's their answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up" — this week's version? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a photo of them with their grandparents. Captured it **Photo**: Photograph them next to something for scale — a doorway, the dog, your hand. Captured it **Question**: What song is stuck in the house right now? Wrote it **Activity**: Apologize to them for something. Out loud. Did it **Photo**: Photograph their hair first thing in the morning, before anyone fixes it. Captured it **Letter**: Write them about a mistake you made that they'll probably make too. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 18**: **Question**: What's the last thing they asked that you couldn't answer? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a photo of what they chose to wear when nobody helped. Captured it **Voice**: Record them describing you. Captured it **Video**: Record them running toward you. Captured it **Activity**: Let them win, and don't tell them you did. Did it **Photo**: Photograph the bottom of their feet after a day outside. Captured it **Question**: What's the first thing they do in the morning? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a picture of their hands working a zip, a button, or a spoon. Captured it **Activity**: Tell them one specific thing you admire about them. Not "good job." Did it **Measurement**: Take the same photo you took last month — same chair, same angle. Captured it monthly **Question**: What are you worried about with them right now? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph where they fell asleep that was not a bed. Captured it **Activity**: Do nothing next to them for fifteen minutes. Did it **Voice**: Record two minutes of dinner. Don't announce it. Just the room. Captured it **Video**: Film the bedtime routine start to finish, one take. Captured it **Photo**: Photograph the book they have asked for every night this week. Captured it **Question**: What did you get wrong as a parent this week? Write it honestly — they'll need to know you were human. Wrote it **Letter**: Write down the story of the day they were born, in as much detail as you can still remember. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 13**: **Photo**: Photograph their plate at the end of dinner, exactly as they left it. Captured it **Activity**: Ask them to teach you something. Did it **Question**: What does their room look like right now? Describe the mess. Wrote it **Photo**: Take a picture of them from behind, walking away from you. Captured it **Photo**: Photograph the thing they carried around all day. Captured it **Question**: What's their favorite thing to do with someone who isn't you? Wrote it **Activity**: Put your phone in another room for the whole evening. Did it **Voice**: Record them reading a page out loud. Captured it **Video**: Ask them what they'd say to themself at eighteen. Film it. Captured it **Photo**: Take a photo of their face while they are concentrating. Captured it **Question**: What's a rule in your house they'd be surprised to learn isn't universal? Wrote it **Activity**: Take them on a solo date and let them pick everything — where you go, what you eat, what you do. Captured it weekly **Photo**: Photograph what they left on the stairs. Captured it **Question**: What did they cry about today? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a photo of the chair that is always theirs, empty. Captured it **Letter**: Write them something about someone in their family that they'd never think to ask about. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 18**: **Activity**: Make cookies together this week. Photograph the mess, not the cookies. Captured it weekly **Voice**: Record them telling a joke. Captured it **Video**: Film them eating something for the first time. Captured it **Photo**: Photograph their shoes on the wrong feet. Captured it **Question**: What's the last thing they were proud of themself for? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a photo of what they built and then knocked down. Captured it **Activity**: Build something with them that takes more than one sitting. Captured it weekly **Question**: What toy has your kid not put down this month? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph them asleep in the car. Captured it **Photo**: Take a picture of their pockets emptied out. Captured it **Activity**: Go somewhere neither of you has been before. Captured it weekly **Question**: What does your kid smell like right now? Wrote it **Voice**: Record them talking about their best friend. Captured it **Video**: Record them dancing to whatever's playing. Captured it **Photo**: Take a photo of them eating something they said they hated. Captured it **Letter**: Write down what you hope stays with them from being four years old. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 16**: **Question**: Who does your kid look like today? Wrote it **Activity**: Spend an afternoon following only their suggestions. Did it weekly **Photo**: Photograph their name in their own handwriting. Captured it **Measurement**: Trace their hand on paper and photograph it. Captured it monthly **Photo**: Take a photo of them helping with something they are too small for. Captured it **Question**: What phrase has your kid picked up from you that you wish they hadn't? Wrote it **Activity**: Cook something from your own childhood and tell them where it came from. Captured it weekly **Photo**: Photograph the spot they do most of their playing in, with nobody in the frame. Captured it **Voice**: Record them answering "what's the best thing that happened today?" Captured it **Video**: Film them on the last day of the school year. Captured it **Question**: What's the thing they do that nobody else would notice? Wrote it **Photo**: Photograph them in the first snow. Captured it **Activity**: Show them where you grew up — go there, or go through the photos. Captured it weekly **Question**: What did the two of you argue about? Wrote it **Photo**: Take a photo of them on the first day of school. Captured it **Letter**: Write them what you'd want them to know if you weren't around to say it. Wrote it monthly**Opens at 18**: **Activity**: Ask them to pick three songs and play them loud in the kitchen. Captured it weekly **Photo**: Photograph whatever they made out of leaves, pumpkins, or mud this month. Captured it **Question**: How does your kid say goodbye? Wrote it **Voice**: Record them making up a song about nothing. Captured it **Video**: Interview them with ten questions about someone else in the family and film the whole thing. Captured it weekly **Photo**: Take a photo of what summer looks like for them this year. Captured it **Activity**: Let them plan and "cook" one meal, whatever that means at their age. Captured it weekly **Question**: What's changed about them in the last three months? Wrote it **Photo**: Go back through your camera roll to this month last year and log three photos you never wrote down. Captured it monthly ## The same questions to ask your 4 year old still work at nine Age bands are a starting filter, not a rule. *“What are they pretending to be this week?”* is as good at nine as at four — the answer just grows up with them, which is the point of asking it more than once. ## How to use these without the app Genuinely: take them. Put one in your calendar for 7am. Answer it in your notes app, or on paper, or in the back of whatever notebook is nearest. Two sentences is plenty, and the entry you actually write beats the essay you meant to write. Three things make an answer survive twenty years, and none of them need software: the date, their age, and the question you were answering. Write those down with it. That third one is the one everybody skips, and it's the one that turns a note into something findable. [Why the question is the artifact worth keeping →](/blog/the-photo-survives.md) ## Why they're written like this Every prompt asks for one concrete, observable thing. Not *“capture a special moment”* — an assignment like that is why keepsake books die on page seven. *“What word do they mispronounce that you don't want to correct?”* is answerable in nine seconds because there is exactly one right answer and you already know it. They're also written to be read by any family. The bodies store pronoun tokens and the name as placeholders, and each one is filled in the moment before you read it — so the app says *her* to a family with a daughter and *them* to a family that hasn't said. On this page there's no child to ask, so they render neutrally. Stored `What word does \{name\} mispronounce that you don't want to correct?` Read What word does Maya mispronounce that you don't want to correct? ## One of these, tomorrow morning The waitlist isn't an announcement list. It's one prompt a day, by email, starting tomorrow — the same ones on this page. Answer them anywhere. When Vellum opens, backdating means nothing you wrote in a notebook is wasted. [Get tomorrow's prompt](/waitlist.md) One a day, by email. A note when it opens and when the price goes live. Nothing else.