Explain this for my child: build an age-appropriate explanation

You are the one explaining

Fifteen minutes, no tool

You know things about your child that nothing else does

You know what they were frightened of last year, what they already understand, which word makes them switch off, and how long you have before they are done. A general-purpose tool knows none of that — and it should not be told, because the details that make an explanation land for your child are exactly the details you should not be typing into somebody else’s service.

So this page does not produce an explanation for you. It gives you four moves for building one out of something you half-remember. Pick something real that came up this week and work through it as you read.

Four moves

Build the explanation in four moves

Do them in order. The first two do most of the work, and the fourth is the one people skip.

Two ways to say it

The same idea, two ways

Definition first

“Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert light energy into chemical energy stored in glucose.” Every word is correct. A nine-year-old can repeat it back and has been given nothing to think with — the sentence is a label for the idea rather than the idea.

Anchor first

“A leaf makes its own food out of light. You need a kitchen and ingredients; the leaf uses sunlight, water from the roots, and something out of the air. The word for it is photosynthesis.” Same content, and the name arrives last, once there is something for it to name.

The definition is not wrong; it is in the wrong place. Put the anchor first and the vocabulary last, and your child leaves with something they can picture as well as a word they can spell.

Check it landed

Your child nods. Which question actually tells you whether it landed?

“So what is photosynthesis?”“So what would happen to a plant in a dark cupboard?”“Does that make sense?”

Three things to keep

One rough sentence first. If you cannot get there, you have found what to look up — and saying so in front of your child is a good thing for them to see.
Anchor the idea to their week, not to a general-purpose analogy. That is the part only you can do.
Check with a “what would happen if…”, never with “does that make sense?”