Dear Friend,
Something arrived in your hands today that took 38 years to build.
Every Explorer Box question, every TADAA! prompt — Think, Ask, Discuss, Act, Achieve — every story in this deck carries the lived wisdom of Katha teachers, children, parents, and communities who have been reading, questioning, and growing together since 1988.
What you are holding is an invitation — to sit with a story, to ask a real question, and to be genuinely surprised by what a child says back to you.
I have seen what happens when a parent asks “I wonder why…” and actually means it. I have seen what happens when a teacher flips a card and lets the question sit in the room for ten seconds before anyone speaks. Something shifts. Something opens.
That shift — that opening — is at the heart of everything Katha has built with 12.4 million children. We asked the right questions. And the answers came from the children themselves.
The card game in your hands carries 50 of those questions. The Field Guide carries all 50 stories in a single scrollable reference. Use them. Pass them on. Make them a habit.
And write to us. Tell us what a child said that surprised you. Tell us what flopped. Every piece of feedback makes these tools better for the next person who picks them up.
“No app. No login. No download. Open a link on any phone browser — and begin.”
Open the card game on any phone, tablet, or laptop. The first five cards are the rules. Tap through them with your group. It takes three minutes.
Stories come in order — Card 1 first, Card 50 last. This is deliberate. The stories build on each other. Press Next to draw.
The front of every card has one question — the Explorer Box. Read it aloud. Don’t explain it. Don’t answer it. Just ask it, and wait.
That waiting space is where the real conversation lives.
When your group is ready, tap Flip. The back shows the full TADAA! sequence:
💬 Think · Ask · 💬 Discuss · 🌿 Act · ✦ Achieve
Use as few or as many as feel right in the moment.
Tap Next when your group is ready. You set the pace — not the clock.
After every five stories, a #BreakCard appears. It tells the story of a child who made a small brave change. Pause. Read it. Talk about it.
Two joker cards are hidden in the deck. When one appears, the element becomes a lens for your next story choice. Flip the joker to see how. Trust the element. Trust your group.
Five questions. Any order. Any story. Any language. You can ask all five, or just one.
“What surprised you? What would you ask the character? What does someone you know think? What can you try? What do you know now?”
Say all five in one breath. Let the group pick the one that pulls them in.
Come as you are. Curious is enough.
Tonight, after dinner — open the card game on your phone. Read the five rule cards with your child. Then draw Card 1. Read the question on the front aloud. Wait. Share your own answer first. Then listen to your child’s.
That is the whole thing. Do it once a week for a month. What changes will surprise you.
Open the Field Guide first. Browse the stories. Find the one that fits your next session. Read the TADAA! prompts quietly to yourself.
In your session: open the card game on your phone or a shared screen. Read the Explorer Box question aloud. Give the room ten seconds of silence. Then let someone speak.
After five cards, the #BreakCard appears automatically. Use it. Do not skip it.
Share the card game link with every facilitator in your network before your next gathering. Ask each person to play three cards with someone — a child, a colleague, a neighbour — before they arrive.
At the gathering: start with a #BreakCard. Let people share what happened in their three cards. That conversation will run itself.
Use the Field Guide as a pre-training reference. Register on teach.katha.org for full course access.
A little, often, together. Three cards a week for a year quietly does more than a day-long workshop once a term. Stories work the way water works — gradually, completely, in their own time.
“Begin. Then begin again next week. The habit is the whole thing.”
The stories in this deck are extraordinary. The card game and field guide open those stories for you wherever you are. Here is how to go deeper.
On the teach.katha.org Portal
Every card in the Field Guide shows a link at the bottom: “→ Read on teach.katha.org”. Click it. The portal opens to that story’s full course page.
Some courses are available to guests. Others require a one-time free registration.
“Every story shared. Every question asked. Every child who looks up with wide eyes. That is the 300M Challenge in action.”