Grown-up view shows the instructions for the current day. Explorer view hides them, so the map is all there is to see. Everything is saved in this browser only.
The seven doors
Each door stays shut until the day before it is done. When a day is finished you write down one thing your grandfather said, and it stays on the slate for good.
0 of 7 days
What to do
The instructions for today. Read this part before you start — there are five rules underneath it that matter more than the activities do.
Five rules for the grown-up
The week works or fails on these, not on the activities.
- Never say “you have it easy.” The second it lands as criticism, the week is over. He isn't the problem. The defaults around him are, and he chose none of them.
- Stop at thirty minutes. Even mid-task — especially if it's going well. Ending while he still wants more is the entire reason Day 2 happens.
- Let him skip a day. One skipped day is a week that continues. One forced day is a week that ends on Wednesday.
- There are no wrong answers. If he says it all sounds boring, that's real information. Write it down. Don't argue him out of it.
- Say the other side out loud. Every day has one. It's what makes the rest believable — and it's the difference between teaching him to think and teaching him to agree.
The week is done. Now write this down.
Not whether he enjoyed it — what you learned about how the week is built.
- Which day did he ask to do again?
- Which day did you have to push him through? (Push means cut it next time.)
- What did he say that surprised you? Write the exact words.
- Where did it run past thirty minutes, and was the overrun his or yours?
- Did his grandfather enjoy it? If not, nothing else matters — he's the engine.
- If this were weekends only, which two days would you keep?