Family Game Night: Make Your Own Family Trivia Game

DIY Family Trivia Game

Learn all about your family history with this homemade version of the ever-popular Trivial Pursuit.

What You Need
Colored index cards
Pens to record questions & anwsers
Optional: photographs of people or items related to a family member.

Instructions
Before play begins, family members write down trivia questions that only relatives might know: “How did Bobby lose his front tooth?”, “What was Uncle Joe’s wife’s maiden name?”, and so on. For a multimedia effect, cards can also ask questions about accompanying photographs or tape recordings or video snippets. Record questions on one side of the card & anwsers on the other side.

The game can then be played in any number of ways — individually, in teams, on a home made game board or just as a quiz contest.

Question ideas:

Family: These questions should be about family members, alive or deceased, their accomplishments, favorite things, or birthplaces. Second cousins and great greats can be included in the harder questions.

History: Look at your children’s history homework for ideas. Also consider questions about historical places you’ve visited on vacation, like the Alamo, or history about your state. Family history can also be incorporated. Science: Again, your children’s homework will help here. Consider questions from museum exhibits you’ve attended or movies you’ve seen. How about kitchen science? Garage science? Computer science? Questions about favorite family animal shows would also be appropriate.

Literature: Books you’ve read together, or favorite childhood books are wonderful sources for literature questions. Who wrote a favorite book? Who are the main characters? Movies are also a good source of questions. For instance, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a movie, but it’s also a book. Questions about the story, sequels, or C.S. Lewis would be appropriate.

Art: Have you and your kids visited an art museum? Have you read art books? How about that print in the living room? If it’s famous, questions about the artist would be great. Questions about colors and color mixing, different media, and even book illustrators will work well.

Geography: Vacations! Questions like, “How many states do we cross to get to Florida?”, “Which states do we cross to get to Florida?” “What state does Aunt Sally live in” will be customized just for your family. Have you worked a country or world puzzle together? Use questions about the puzzle. Even questions about your city’s streets are appropriate: “Main street runs in which two directions?”

Sports & Liesure: This is a topic your entire family will love because it can be so personal. How many years has Suzie taken ballet? What was her first performance? Johnny plays soccer, but does anyone know the score to his last game? What sport did Mom play in fifth grade? Dad won first chair in the high school jazz band playing which instrument? If Jenny could play any instrument in the world, what would it be? What was the first song June and Henry danced to at their wedding reception? The options are limitless!

So take some time to create your Family Trivia game, and on the next game night, you may be surprised how much fun your family has. Even the teens.