New Year’s Interviews
Time passes so fast. Every time I blink my kids are bigger. They are growing up so fast, and every chance I get I want to just be able to stop and capture a moment of their lives. Just pause for a second and be able to take a snapshot of the person they are right now. I take a million pictures, but all too often I forget to record their WORDS. This printable New Year’s interview for kids is the perfect way to do just that.
Remember your happiest memories, your funniest moments, your favorite people, your goals, and lots more memories. For years to come, you’ll be so glad you took a few moments to capture the moment with this printable New Year’s Interview For Kids.
Each year on New Year’s Day, ask your kids these 12 simple questions. Write down what they say and keep it in a journal or scrapbook to capture who they are right now. Looking back over their growth is priceless. I do this a few times a year with my kids – once at the new year and once on their birthdays with different questions. You can check out my Birthday Interview right here. I also recommend taking a picture on the day of the interview so you capture the whole kid – inside and out. {Inside with the interview and outside with the picture.} Keep it. Cherish it.
After the interview is over, look back over past interviews together and see what has changed, what has remained the same, and what the kiddo has accomplished.
If you’re really brave you’ll print out an extra one for yourself and record your thoughts as well. Even as adults, we are always evolving and changing. We need to capture ourselves and our own lives too!
Family Party Time
We make New Year’s a family affair at our place.
We start off the evening by making resolutions for the next year. We write down our resolutions and then get dolled up in our resolutions photo booth (a bunch of dress ups with a black tablecloth and a few bits of decor to make it festive and fun)!
I wrap up a box for each hour of our countdown to midnight. Within each one is an activity – a board game, a family video of the past year, Minute-To-Win-It style-games, and other activities. The kids each take turns opening a package on the hour and finding out if we’re doing a silly dress-up lip-sync, a scavenger hunt, Family Feud, or another game.
At midnight, we end the festivities with a milk and cookies toast to ring in the new year. It doesn’t take long for us to all drop into bed by the time midnight strikes!
New Year’s Predictions
Every year our extended family makes predictions for the coming year about all sorts of things. Grandpa, Grandma, and all the aunts, uncles, and cousins write down our New Year’s predictions. We predict everything from political outcomes and sporting events to which family will buy a pet and where Aunt Lucy will travel to this year. We make up a list of everyone’s predictions and then see who got the most things right once the year has passed. It’s fun to make the predictions, but the REAL fun is when you’re reading them out and seeing who was right.
We provided a New Year Predictions worksheet for your kids to fill out. Use it or make up your own questions. The worksheet helps kids to have some sort of starting place. Click on the image to go to the printable.
Looking Back Over The Year Game
Play this game to help you look back and remember the past year. Start with lots of blank slips of paper and a writing utensil for each person. Have everyone write down people, places, events, and other memories from the past year. Keep them simple, only 1-3 words, not complete sentences. Each person should write 5-10 slips or more. You can use family vacations, funny stories, news headlines, famous people, or anything else from the past year.
Put all of the slips of paper into a hat and divide into 2-3 teams, depending on how many players you have. This game can work with anywhere from 6 to about 40 players.
Round 1 – Verbal Clues
Team 1 begins by choosing a volunteer to start. Set a timer for one minute and begin giving verbal clues to help your team guess what is on the slip of paper. You can say anything except what is on the slip of paper, what it rhymes with, the foreign language equivalent, or alphabet clues (“It starts with the letter R.”) Once the clue is guessed correctly, 1 point is earned. He or she sets the slip aside and quickly grabs another slip, continuing until the minute is up. The clue-giver can pass if he or she can’t get a clue, but it costs a one-point penalty.
Now it’s Team 2’s turn. They also choose a volunteer who does the same process with the remaining slips in the bag. Keep rotating through the teams guessing by the minute until all the clues have been guessed. Write down the scores for Round 1.
Round 2: Act it Out
Gather all the slips from Round 1 and place them back into the hat. Round 2 is similar to round 1, but instead of verbally describing someone as clues, players act out the clues, charades-style, without speaking. Score the round accordingly.
Round 3: One Word
Put all of the clues back in the hat, for the third time. During this round, as each player gives clues, they may only use a single word. If the team can’t get it with the one word, the clue-giver may pass, just as in the other rounds, as long as they take a 1-point penalty.
More New Year’s Fun
For more fun ideas to help your family ring in the new year, check out our New Year’s Pinterest Board, with games, activities, and learning ideas for your homeschool.
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