Grandpa’s stories at bedtime, told for your kids
To bring a grandparent’s stories into bedtime, record them and retell them for your children: a recorded read aloud, a weekly bedtime video call, a jar of their memories, or EverTold, which retells each of their stories as a gentle story time version made for a child, with the same true facts.
Kids love true stories, especially when the hero is someone they know. The trouble is that Grandpa is not there at bedtime, and the stories he tells at Thanksgiving are gone by Monday.
This guide is about keeping those stories within reach of your kids, whatever the night and wherever Grandpa lives.
Ways to bring a grandparent into bedtime
EverTold: his stories, retold as story time
Grandpa talks with EverTold’s gentle interviewer and tells his stories out loud. Each one is written up and narrated, and your kids can tap a story at bedtime and hear it retold for a child: the same true story, simpler words, a gentler pace. You hear the full version, told as a story about "your dad". The grandkids hear "your grandpa".
A recorded read aloud
Ask a grandparent to record themselves reading a favorite picture book on a phone. Play it while you turn the pages.
A bedtime video call, once a week
Same night, same time. Let the grandparent tell one short story about when they were the child’s age.
A "when I was little" jar
Write questions on slips of paper. At each visit, the kids pull one and the grandparent answers. Write the best answers down.
Questions kids love to ask grandparents
These make good first questions when you give EverTold. You can pick up to three, and the family can send more any time.
- What did you get in trouble for when you were my age?
- What was your favorite toy?
- Did you have a pet? What was its name?
- What did my mom (or dad) do that was naughty?
- What was the scariest thing that happened to you?
- What games did you play outside?
What only EverTold does
Each relative hears the story from their own place in the family
When Mom tells a story about her brother, her daughter hears it as a story about "your uncle" and her grandson hears "your great-uncle", read aloud in a warm storyteller’s voice. Every listener gets the version that makes sense to them.
Story time for the grandkids
A grandchild can tap a story at bedtime and hear it retold for a child: the same true story, simpler words, a gentler pace. Adults get the faithful telling.
A real conversation, not a writing assignment
EverTold asks a question out loud, listens, and follows up, like a patient grandchild on a phone call. It waits for them to finish. Nobody has to write a thing.
Their real voice, kept
The recordings of their answers are saved privately for the family, right next to the written stories, so you keep the way they actually sound.
Handed down for generations
A family library that keeps growing, paid for once. No subscription, no renewal, nothing to cancel.
The family can ask for more
Anyone in the family can send a question like "Mom, tell me about the farm". It goes to the real person, and their answer comes back as a new story.
The EverTold Forever Promise: One payment, no renewals, for as long as EverTold operates. Download everything any time. If EverTold ever closes, you get at least 6 months’ notice and then 90 days to download everything before anything is deleted. Read the full promise
A note from Dustin and Gabi
We are a husband and wife, and our family speaks two languages: Gabi’s side Portuguese, Dustin’s side English. When our kids asked about their great-grandfather in Brazil, who left home for the city as a teenager to build a life from nothing, we realized the details that make a person come alive had already been lost. He passed away before we asked him the questions that mattered most.
We still have parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles on both sides, with decades of stories we had never thought to ask about. So we built EverTold for our own family first, and we write these guides the way we choose gifts for them.
Give EverTold
One storyteller, a lifetime family library, paid once.
Two storytellers, usually Mom and Dad, sharing one family library, paid once.
One payment, no subscription. 30 day refund. Delivered by email on the day you choose.
Give EverToldQuestions
How is the story time version different?
It tells the same true story for a child: simpler words, shorter sentences and a gentler pace. The facts come only from what the grandparent said. Adults hear the faithful telling.
Can more than one grandparent tell stories?
Yes. EverTold for Two lets two storytellers, such as Grandma and Grandpa, share one family library, paid once.