Family Pursuits of the Trivial Kind

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

30 Jun 2006 03:00 PM

Are you getting together with a large contingent of the family this holiday weekend? A bit worried about how to pass some of the time with Aunt Marge who likes to tell embarrassing stories about all the kids or with Granddad who can remind you of every transgression? Good - they're perfect for the home made, home grown family trivial pursuit.

Play a Game that Teaches

What makes this game so great? Well, first and foremost - it's based on you and your family. It's a great way to let the older members of the family share their stories and let the younger ones learn the lore of the family. Sure there will be moments of embarrassment, but there will be plenty more moments of fond recall.

All you need to put it together are some note cards, some dice, a pen or three and perhaps a stack of photographs. You can assign points to the various types of note cards and you can keep track of the score with a pen and paper. You can do the questions yourself, or you can ask everyone there to write out two or three questions of their own.

Make it as complicated or as simple as your family wants it to be. You can limit it to recent events or you can involve the past - you can use the photographs as examples or as extra points trivia - with questions like: Can you name everyone in the picture? Or What happened on this vacation that Tom doesn't like to talk about?

Keep It Simple, But Keep It Fun

The great thing about this game is that you will get to hear stories that you may have heard a hundred times, or you'll be hearing brand new ones. It's important to keep the questions clean, but also to keep them on good events or positive ones - you really don't want to bring up your Aunt Karen's divorce from her first husband - especially if it was a painful one. You'll definitely have a lot to talk about and for new members to the family, new spouses or distant cousins getting to visit - it's a way to involve them in the lore of the family. Besides, haven't you ever wanted to quiz your cousin Margaret about the Christmas letter you send out every year and see who really does read it?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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