When I was training for World Trivia Night, I got out the Trivial Pursuit cards and I had the kids quiz me.

Well, seeing as how they can’t read and stuff, it was really like me quizzing myself while they watched. And they were fascinated. Not so much by my amazing powers of recall, but by the little pie-shaped pieces and pies in the game.

They really, really wanted to play. And hey, I love trivia.

So we played.

Now it’s a semi-regular thing. The Captain especially loves the “pie game” and asks for it every now and again.

When I’m playing with the kids, I answer questions from the cards but I make up the questions for the kids on the fly.

Blue is People and Places. I ask things like, “What is our address?’, “Where do penguins live?”, and “What’s the name of our country?” I also ask stuff like, “What do you call Daddy’s mommy?” and, “What is the name of your youngest cousin?”

Pink is Entertainment and this is the easiest category. There are TV questions like, “What is the name of Caillou’s younger sister,” movie questions like, “What colour is Mace Windu’s lightsaber?” and music questions like, “Who sings the song ‘Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy’?”

Yellow is History/Current Events, so I ask questions about holidays and things that have happened recently. I might ask, “What did you dress up as for Halloween this year?” or “When is your birthday?” or “What did we have for dinner last night?”

Brown is Books and this is actually the hardest category, I find. I ask things like, “What is the name of Curious George’s best friend?” and “Where does Madeline live?” and “What does Little Pea hate to eat?”

Green is Science; in this category, the Captain gets much harder questions than Gal Smiley. Gal gets, “What happens to water when it gets really cold?” and “Who is heavier, you or Little Miss Sunshine?” The Captain gets stuff like, “How long does it take the earth to go around the sun?” or “Do grapes float or sink?” or “What colour do you get when you mix red and yellow?”

Orange is Sports and Games, Gal Smiley’s favourite category. I ask stuff like, “What colours do Daddy’s favourite football team, the Minnesota Vikings, wear?”, “What sport has a black and white ball?”, “What is the name of the game where you draw squares with chalk on the ground, and write numbers in them?” and “In Uno, if a red 4 is showing, what are the cards you could play?”

It gets to be a bit of work after a while, thinking up all the questions, but I so love this game. I love it that my kids are getting into trivia, and I love it that it’s a game where we can talk about things that have happened or things that they’ve learned and help improve their memories.

And it’s nice family time, too.