QUESTION IDEAS
Family Quiz: 40 Questions for Kids, Parents and Grandparents
40 family quiz questions for kids, teens, parents and grandparents, with mixed teams and a scoring system that gives everyone a shot at winning.
A family quiz works when everyone can score points: the seven-year-old just as much as the grandpa who knows every family story by heart. Here are 40 questions sorted by age group, a simple way to build teams and a few rules to keep the game fun for everyone, at the dinner table, on vacation or during a long road trip.
Set up the game in five minutes
- A quizmaster. They read the questions out loud and keep score. The role rotates every round.
- Mixed teams. One adult with one kid, a teen with a grandparent: that way, each team has someone who knows and someone who guesses.
- Keep it short. Twenty to thirty minutes is plenty with young kids. Better to stop while everyone is still laughing.
- Paper and pencils. The youngest players can draw their answer instead of writing it.
The idea is the same as a friendship quiz: one person answers for themselves, the others guess. For a phone version, a parent can create a quiz with the everyday vibe about their own habits and send the link to the family group chat; younger kids play on a grown-up’s phone.
10 questions for younger kids
Concrete questions whose answers you can see around the house or in everyday life. Ask them about a parent, a brother or a sister.
- What’s their favorite color?
- What’s their favorite after-school snack?
- Which pet would they love to have?
- Which cartoon or movie do they still love watching?
- What’s their favorite fruit?
- Which song do they sing all the time?
- Do they prefer the beach or the pool?
- What was their favorite toy or stuffed animal when they were little?
- What meal do they ask for on their birthday?
- What was their favorite game at recess?
10 questions for teens and adults
- Which app do they open first in the morning?
- What kind of music are they into right now?
- Which show did they binge in a single weekend?
- What’s their biggest hidden talent?
- What did they want to be when they were ten?
- What’s their favorite subject in school, or what was it back then?
- Which sport would they like to try?
- Which chore do they hate the most?
- Which country would they visit first?
- What’s their signature dish in the kitchen?
10 questions across generations
This time, grandparents, aunts or uncles answer, and the younger ones guess. It’s often the funniest round, because it brings out stories nobody had ever heard before.
- What was Grandpa’s or Grandma’s very first job?
- What game did they play outside as a kid?
- Who was their favorite singer when they were twenty?
- How did they get to school?
- What was their favorite dessert as a child?
- Which city did they visit on their first trip?
- Which childhood prank do they still tell stories about?
- Which object from their childhood has almost disappeared today?
- Which movie did they see at the theater on their first date?
- What advice would they give a fifteen-year-old?
10 “Who in the family…?” questions
Everyone secretly writes down a name, then you compare. Keep the questions positive or funny: the goal is to put someone in the spotlight, never to make them uncomfortable.
- Who tells the best jokes?
- Who gets up earliest on Sunday?
- Who takes the most photos on vacation?
- Who bakes the best cake?
- Who knows the most song lyrics?
- Who always finds the lost keys?
- Who’s the best at board games?
- Who comes up with the most ideas for outings?
- Who stays calm in traffic?
- Who gives the best hugs?
Keep score without making anyone a loser
| Situation | Points |
|---|---|
| Right answer from a child under 10 | 2 points |
| Right answer from a teen or an adult | 1 point |
| Wrong but hilarious answer, voted on by the table | 1 bonus point |
| Story told after a cross-generation question | 1 point for the storyteller’s team |
This small handicap evens out the game without anyone feeling they’re being handled with kid gloves. At the end, keep the prize symbolic: choosing tonight’s movie or tomorrow’s dinner.
On a long car ride, you can skip the scoring altogether: one person picks a question, everyone in the car takes a guess, and the person being asked reveals the real answer before the next question. It makes the miles go by faster than any playlist.
Photos, videos and privacy
Family games make you want to film the giggles or dig out the childhood photos. Before posting anything online, ask the people in them for their OK, kids included. Keep in mind that a photo shared in a private group can travel much further than you think. CISA, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, puts it simply: there is no “delete” button on the internet, and even if you remove a post or picture seconds after sharing it, chances are someone already saw it.
The same care applies to the answers: a family quiz skips full birthdates, home addresses and school names. In its password advice, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre warns against building passwords from birthdays, family names or pet names, and notes that most of these details can be found on a social media profile. Our guide to the questions you should never share explains why that matters for quizzes too.
Keep the fun going
Birthday coming up? The birthday quiz about the guest of honor brings the same spirit to a party. To change the rules from one game to the next, pick from the friendship quiz variations: the duo version, where two players have to agree on one answer, is a big hit with kids. And if the family is spread out, the ideas for playing over text or on a video call work for faraway cousins too.