About Show Them Once
Show Them Once is a short list of pursuits a parent can start with a kid, and what each one teaches. One page per pursuit, with the lesson as the headline, the first attempt written out by age, and the place it usually goes wrong. It is written in the first person, and it exists because I am the kind of parent who needs telling. Why I made it says the rest of that.
Who makes it
One person. There is no company behind the site, no team and no funding. I run it alongside a small group of sister sites, listed in the footer, that make printable worksheets and forms for parents and teachers. This one is different from those: it is prose, not printables, and it speaks as me.
How a page is made
I do not write the pages. Every page is drafted by an AI model, Claude, made by Anthropic, working from a brief I set: the pursuit, the age bands that genuinely apply to it, the site’s voice, and a list of phrases that are banned from it. A draft then has to pass a set of checks in the code before it will build: the banned phrases, the length of every part, the lines a parent is supposed to say out loud, and a rule that every age section works for a family starting from nothing. A draft that fails is sent back with the reasons and redrafted.
The pages are for informational use, at your judgment; they are not childcare, medical, safety or educational advice, and no page can know your kid, your house or the pond at the end of your road. The terms carry the full disclaimer.
General suggestions, not instructions
Every pursuit page carries a short notice above its first age section, and it is worth repeating here at length. The pages are drafted with an AI model. What they contain is general suggestion, drawn from ordinary experience of doing these things with children, and not instruction for your child in particular. You know your child and your situation. Judge what is safe, supervise accordingly, and use common sense about the difference between a page and a kitchen. Anything involving tools, water, heat, open ground or the outdoors carries real risk, and that risk is yours to weigh; where a pursuit has a specific hazard, the page names it in the same notice rather than hiding it in a general warning. Nothing on the site is medical, developmental or safety advice, and a page that says a thing is possible at a given age is not a page saying it is safe for yours.
Ages
Pages are split into three bands: 6–8, 9–12 and 13–17. A page carries only the bands that genuinely apply. Where a band is missing because the pursuit is not right for that age, the page says so in a line rather than padding a section that would get someone hurt. The teenage band is a different kind of writing: shorter, about the ask rather than the activity, and honest that they may say no.
No photographs
There are no photographs on the site and there will not be photographs of children, mine included. Objects and places may appear one day, with the photographer credited. Faces will not. The design is lines, type and rules, chosen so the pages do not need pictures to look finished.
How it is funded
Some pages carry a short gear list. Where a link in one of those lists is an affiliate link, I may earn a commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you, and the page says so above the first link. Nothing is recommended because it pays; most pursuits here cost nothing to start, and the pages say when that is the case. There are no ads on the site today. If that changes, this page will change with it. The affiliate disclosure has the detail.
Your data
The site has no accounts and no newsletter, sets no advertising cookies, and uses Google Analytics to count visits. The privacy policy is short because there is not much to say.
Getting in touch
A page that got something wrong, a pursuit that should be here and is not, or something you tried that went differently: use the contact page or email me directly. Please do not send photographs of children or a child’s name. I do not need either.