---
title: "Who's in This Photo? 7 Family Games for Kids and Grandparents"
description: "Seven easy games that use family photos to teach kids faces, names and stories, with exact questions to ask and ideas for grandparents near and far."
author: "The Glow Editors"
category: "Stories for Your Kids"
date: 2026-10-07T11:20:01.154Z
canonical: "https://tryglow.ai/blog/whos-in-this-photo-7-family-games-for-kids-and-grandparents"
---

# Who's in This Photo? 7 Family Games for Kids and Grandparents

![A grandfather and his young granddaughter laughing together over a game at the kitchen table](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1727670553094-e21b80c9d0c1?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4OTQwNjJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxncmFuZGZhdGhlciUyMGdyYW5kZGF1Z2h0ZXIlMjBwbGF5aW5nJTIwY2FyZHN8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc5MDg1NzQ4M3ww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)

> Seven easy games that use family photos to teach kids faces, names and stories, with exact questions to ask and ideas for grandparents near and far.

"That's not Grandpa. Grandpa doesn't have hair." Your six-year-old is holding a photo from 1979, and she is absolutely certain. Grandpa, sitting beside her, is laughing so hard he has to take his glasses off. Five minutes later she knows his old moustache, his old car, and the name of the dog in the back seat.

That's how kids learn family history: not from a lecture, but from a game where they get to be right, wrong and delighted. **The best family games for kids use your own photos and ask one simple question, "Who's in this?", then let the stories follow.** Here are seven to try, from toddler-easy to proper detective work.

## Before you start: gather a small pile

You don't need the whole archive. Pick 15 to 20 photos to begin with:

- A few of people your kids see often (grandparents, aunts, cousins)

- A few of those same people when they were young

- Two or three of relatives your kids never met

- One or two of places: a family house, a street, a beach you always went to

Phone or tablet is fine. For sorting and matching games, a handful of cheap prints helps, because small hands like to hold things.

Keep a simple note for each photo as you go: who's in it, what they remember about it, and who told you. That's your answer key for every game below, and it grows each time someone plays.

## 1. Who's in this? (ages 2 and up)

The classic, and the foundation of everything else. Show a photo and ask, "Who's in this?" For toddlers, start with faces they know well and celebrate every right answer. As they get older, mix in people they've only heard about.

**Questions to ask:**

- "Who's this?"

- "How do you know it's her?"

- "Who is she next to?"

- "What do we call her? What did Mummy call her when she was little?"

That second question matters. Kids start noticing the clues (the smile, the ears, the way someone always stands with their hands in their pockets) and that's when faces really stick.

## 2. Then and now (ages 4 and up)

Lay out a photo of someone today next to one of them as a child or a young adult. Mix them up and let your kids match the pairs. Grandparents are the best sport for this, especially if there's an impressive hairstyle involved.

- "Which baby grew up to be Grandma?"

- "What's the same about her face? What's different?"

- "How old do you think she was here?"

Bonus round: put your child's own baby photo in the mix. Matching their face to a parent's at the same age is often the moment family resemblance clicks.

## 3. Guess the year (ages 6 and up)

Old photos are full of clues: clothes, cars, the colour of the print, the wallpaper. Show a photo and ask your kids to guess the decade, then explain their reasoning.

- "Black and white or colour? What does that tell us?"

- "What's on the table that we don't have any more?"

- "Is there a car? Does it look like ours?"

Then the grown-up gives the real answer and the story behind it. "That's 1968. That's the kitchen in Haifa, and that radio was the most important object in the house."

## 4. The family detective (ages 7 and up)

Every family has a photo nobody can quite explain. Make it a case. Give your child the photo, a notebook and a list of witnesses to interview (grandparents, a great-aunt, an older cousin).

- "Who do you think is in this photo?"

- "Where do you think it was taken?"

- "What was happening that day?"

- "Who else might know?"

Kids love a mystery, and older relatives love being consulted as experts. Sometimes the case gets solved. Sometimes it opens three new ones. Both count as winning.

## 5. Story dice (ages 5 and up)

Write six prompts on a piece of paper and number them, then roll a die. Whoever rolls picks a photo, and a grown-up tells the story that matches the number.

- Something funny that happened

- Something that went wrong

- Where this person lived

- What they loved to eat

- What they were scared of

- What they were like as a kid

Number two is always the favourite. Children love hearing that grown-ups got lost, broke things and fell in rivers.

## 6. Where in the world? (ages 6 and up)

Get a map (paper or on a screen) and pin where each relative was born, lived or travelled. A photo of the old house goes next to the right town. Kids start to see the family as a story that moves.

- "Where was Great-Grandpa born? How far is that from here?"

- "How did they get from there to here?"

- "What language did they speak at home?"

If you hit a gap and want to dig further, free genealogy sites such as [FamilySearch](https://www.familysearch.org) hold many historical records. But usually the best source is still the oldest relative you can phone.

## 7. Who said it? (ages 5 and up)

Collect a few favourite family sayings, catchphrases or recorded voice clips. Read or play one and ask the kids to guess which relative it belongs to.

- "'Put a jumper on, I'm cold.' Who says that?"

- "Listen to this laugh. Whose is it?"

- "Which grandparent would say 'in my day'?"

This one works brilliantly with voice notes from grandparents. Hearing a voice and putting a face to it is a lovely way to bring a quieter relative into the game.

## Make a family deck of cards

If your kids get hooked, turn the pile into a proper set of cards. Print photos the size of a playing card, glue each one onto card, and write on the back: the person's name, what the kids call them, one place they lived and one thing they loved. Laminate them if you have a toddler with sticky hands.

Now you have the pieces for a dozen games:

- **Snap:** two cards of the same person, at different ages, is a snap.

- **Memory:** lay them face down and find the pairs.

- **Happy families:** collect a whole branch, Grandma, her sisters and their children, to win.

- **Twenty questions:** one player picks a card; the others ask yes-or-no questions until they guess who it is.

- **Memory bingo:** draw bingo grids with family faces or names in the squares. As you turn over each card, kids mark off whoever they spot. First to get a line wins - and has to name someone in the photo that finished it.

A homemade deck also makes a wonderful gift for a grandparent, who will almost certainly correct at least one of your captions.

## Playing with grandparents who live far away

Distance doesn't rule anyone out. A few easy versions:

- **Video-call rounds.** Hold a photo up to the camera and let Grandma give clues: "This man taught me to ride a bike."

- **Weekly voice note.** Send one photo; ask the grandparent to reply with the story out loud. Play it at dinner.

- **Turn the tables.** Let your child quiz the grandparent with photos of your own family. Kids adore catching a grown-up out.

Glow has a "who's in this?" game built around your family's own photos. It teaches kids faces, names and who came before, and the names come from family members who confirmed them, never from a guess. Relatives without an account can still add the story behind a photo through a guest link.

## Keep it a game, not a test

- **Ten minutes is plenty.** Stop while it's still fun.

- **Wrong answers are good.** "Not Grandpa, but close. That's his brother. Want to hear about him?"

- **Let kids ask the questions.** Their questions are often better than ours.

- **Save what you learn.** When a name or story comes out, write it on the back of the print or add it to the photo straight away.

- **Be gentle with harder stories.** If a photo leads to someone who died or a difficult chapter, answer simply and honestly at your child's level. Kids follow your tone.

## Your next step

This weekend, pick five photos: three people your kids know and two they don't. Sit down with a grandparent if you can, ask "Who's in this?" and let the stories come. Write every new name on the back before you put them away.

## FAQ

### What age can kids start playing family photo games?

Toddlers of around two can enjoy pointing to Grandma and Grandpa in a photo. From about four, children can play matching and guessing games, and older kids love the detective and story-building games that involve dates, places and questions.

### Do I need printed photos to play these games?

No. A tablet or phone works for most of them. Printed photos are handy for matching and sorting games because kids can hold and move them, so a few cheap prints of your favourites are worth having.

### How can grandparents who live far away join in?

Play over a video call: hold up a photo, or share your screen, and let the grandparent give clues or tell the story behind it. Ask them to send a voice note about one photo each week so the kids can hear the answer in their voice.


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Source: https://tryglow.ai/blog/whos-in-this-photo-7-family-games-for-kids-and-grandparents