Does your family like to play games? When I was young, there were board games for adults and board games for kids. Now we have Family Cranium and a host of games appropriate for all ages. But how about a customized game for your family? A game that your teen son and preschool daughter and great grandmother will love? All it takes is a little creativity and time.
First, you’ll need to grab a notebook and write down these headings: family, history, science, literature, art, geography, and sports and leisure. Purchase some 3×5 note cards and a three different colored fine-tipped markers. You’re going to write custom questions your family should know the answers to.
Use three marker colors on each card for easy, medium, and hard questions. Easy questions should be used for very young children, up to age 8 or so. Medium questions would be for tweens and teens, and hard should be for adults. Variations of the same question can be used on one card. For example, in the Family category:
Easy–Who was Sharon’s father? (Grandpa George Humphrey)
Medium–Name three terms used in Sharon’s father’s favorite sport. (A: Birdie, club, tee, dimples, par)
Hard–In what year did Sharon’s father win his hole in one trophy? (A: 1964)
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?” and “Which states do we cross to get to Florida?” 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.