A short course for grandfathers
Learn the craft of asking a good question.
Not a script to read. A way of thinking — so the next time your grandchild sits across from you, the right question is already on the tip of your tongue.
Free · About 60 minutes of reading, spread over six short chapters
Why this course
Most grandfathers were never taught how to ask.
We were taught to answer, to advise, to tell the story of how it was in our day. All good things — at the right time. But the door into a grandchild's real world opens on a hinge you may never have been shown: the shape of the question you ask, and the silence you leave after it.
Rooted in the Gospels
Jesus asked over 600 questions.
He rarely lectured a person into life. He asked — and waited. Every chapter of this course sits under a passage from the Gospels: how Jesus asked, how He waited, how He handed the person's own words back to them. If it was good enough for the Master, it is good enough for us.
The six chapters
What's inside
Six short chapters. Each one rewrites itself for the age of the grandchild you have in mind — with a scripture, a plain-language teaching, and two small practice questions.
Chapter I
The Posture Before the Question
How you sit, look and breathe before a single word.
Chapter II
Open vs. Closed
The small shift that turns a door into a hallway.
Chapter III
The Ladder — Facts, Feelings, Meaning
Three rungs that turn small talk into real talk.
Chapter IV
Meeting Them at Their Age
The same idea, worded for a five- or a fifteen-year-old.
Chapter V
Silence and Listening
The second and third second — where the true answer lives.
Chapter VI
The Follow-Up
How to show, in two words, that you were really listening.
Luke 24:17
“What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
The risen Christ walked with two grieving men and led with a question — not a lecture. He drew them out before He drew them in. That is the craft.
Begin
Which grandchild are you thinking of?
Choose the age band that fits. Every example, every try-it, and both practice questions in each chapter are written specifically for that age.
Ages 4–7
→The Little Ones
Concrete, sensory, short. Their world is what they can touch.
Sit low. Slow down. One question at a time.
Ages 8–11
→The Golden Years
Fair, specific, curious. They'll tell you almost anything if you ask well.
Ask sideways about what's fair, what's funny, what's unfair.
Ages 12–15
→The Teenagers
Guarded, watching. They can smell an interview from across the room.
Shorter questions. More silence. No lectures dressed as questions.
Ages 16–20
→The Young Adults
Adult-to-adult. Respect first, curiosity second, advice only if asked.
Ask like you'd ask a friend — not a project.
Grandchildren in more than one band? Come back and pick a different one — the course rewrites itself for each age.