← All lessons

Helping Without Being Asked

Noticing is the whole skill

Play this lessonNarrated out loud. No account, works offline.

Also available in Spanish. The app stops after two lessons a day and suggests something to do away from the screen.

What it teaches

These are the lines the lesson comes back to, and the ones a child actually remembers afterwards.

Helping is mostly noticing.

Do it before you're asked. It counts double.

How it starts

There are two kinds of helping. There is the kind where somebody tells you to do something and you do it, which is fine. And then there is the other kind, the kind where nobody said anything and you did it anyway. This lesson is about the second kind, because that is the one grown-ups remember for years.

How the lesson goes

Things to look for

  1. Somebody's hands are full
  2. Something is on the floor that lives somewhere else
  3. Somebody is doing a big job alone

Jobs a kid can fully own

  1. Set the whole table, not half
  2. Sort the clean socks into pairs
  3. Carry your own plate and one other

The question at the end

Your mom is carrying a full laundry basket. What's the best thing to do?

For the grown-up

Every lesson ends by handing the child something to do off the screen, and telling you what was taught so you can use the same words.

Try this today: Find one job nobody asked you to do — and do it completely, not halfway. Then say nothing about it.

Then: See if a grown-up notices on their own. They usually do.

More in At Home

The whole library is free

Twenty-four narrated lessons for ages 4 to 9, in English and Spanish. No account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing your child does in the app ever leaves the device — you can check that yourself with the network tab open. Open the lessons.