Prompting: A Practical Handbook

Key takeaways

• Use the same five-line card for every household prompt: job, reader, facts, shape and rules, and stop composing from scratch each time.
• Set the tool up as a tutor with a fixed opening instruction so it asks your child questions instead of handing over answers.
• Run the four-point check on every output before it leaves the house: facts, names and numbers, tone, and anything private that slipped in.
• Write the family AI rules on one card, stick it by the screen, and revisit it with the children each school term.
• Ten minutes on Sunday to prune and improve your saved prompts keeps the household library sharp and the whole system running.

Inside this bit

1. The five-line card you will use every time

   A handbook needs one procedure that covers most days, and this is it. Every prompt you write for the household goes on five lines.

2. Procedure: setting up a tutor, not an answer machine

   Children default to asking for answers, so the setup has to make questions the easier path. The procedure has three steps.

3. Procedure: the weekly household batch

   Certain jobs repeat every week and suit one sitting. Meal planning, the school-week schedule, the reply to a school circular, a message to a relative, and a plan for Sunday all fit.

4. Checklist: before any output leaves the house

   Every reply gets the same four-point check, and it takes under a minute. One: facts.

5. Template: the family rules card

   Children follow rules they helped write and can see. The template has five lines and fits on an index card by the screen.

6. Upkeep: ten minutes on Sunday

   A library of prompts decays if nobody tends it. The upkeep procedure is short.