Interview Your Child After the First Day of School
There is something so reassuring about the photographs from day one of school: clothes look a little brighter than usual (perhaps because you ripped off the tags just an hour ago), the backpacks seem massive enough to make your kids roll over, and if you’re especially creative. a cute little interview is displayed on chalkboards or whiteboards to capture the moment in time. (When asked what she would like to be when she grows up, a friend’s daughter responded as “a giraffe songwriter,” which is clearly the best job ever.)
But why not go beyond tradition this year? A father named Kevin Scruggs posted a video on YouTube titled“13 Years of Interviewing on the First Day of School.” His project was simple: every year, after his daughter Madison’s first day at school, Scruggs wrote down her answers to some questions about it. He then edited all the videos together into a three and a half minute compilation.
Scruggs doesn’t seem to stick to the script for most of the interview, asking his age-related questions from Wanna Go Back? and “Did you have your homework?” to “What did you do for lunch?” and “What interesting happened today?” It’s casual and unconventional – sometimes Madison is on the couch in the family room, and sometimes she is eating ice cream.
The only seemingly planned snippet we see is the end, where Scruggs ends with “Love you Madison.” The video then moves backwards from high school to kindergarten, collecting all the “love you” one by one. You see this young woman transforming into the sweet little girl she was, her perfect teeth disappearing behind the braces, the braces being removed, revealing oversized adult teeth that morph into tiny perfect baby teeth. “I thought it would be cool when they graduate from high school to see their entire career in one short video,” he told Good Morning America . “I wanted to remember something.”
When your child returns to school, make video interviews part of your tradition. Store videos in a special folder on your computer or phone and save there and subsequent videos. When it’s time to release, string the clips together using your chosen video editor (newbies can try Kapwing ).
Even if your child graduated from kindergarten or first grade, it’s never too late to jump up, hit “record” and start a conversation.