Kids love trivia right up until it starts feeling like a pop quiz. The fix is easy: questions they can actually get, a couple of trick ones to catch the adults, and answers that teach something small without announcing it. That's this list.
Forty-five questions, sorted by age so nobody's little sibling gets steamrolled. The last section is fair game for everyone in the car, and the cows question has embarrassed more parents than kids.
Little kids (ages 5 to 7)
1. What do bees make?
Answer: Honey.
2. How many colors are in a rainbow?
Answer: Seven.
3. What planet do we live on?
Answer: Earth.
4. What is frozen water called?
Answer: Ice.
5. What is a baby dog called?
Answer: A puppy.
6. What is a baby cat called?
Answer: A kitten.
7. What season comes after winter?
Answer: Spring.
8. How many sides does a triangle have?
Answer: Three.
9. What color do you get when you mix blue and yellow?
Answer: Green.
10. Which animal is called the King of the Jungle?
Answer: The lion.
11. How many wheels does a tricycle have?
Answer: Three. It's right there in the name.
12. What is the first meal of the day called?
Answer: Breakfast.
13. What do you call the white fluffy things floating in the sky?
Answer: Clouds. They're made of tiny water droplets.
14. Which bird is famous for copying what people say?
Answer: The parrot.
15. What do caterpillars turn into?
Answer: Butterflies.
Big kids (ages 8 to 11)
16. What is the tallest animal in the world?
Answer: The giraffe.
17. What is the largest animal that lives on land?
Answer: The African elephant.
18. Which planet is famous for its beautiful rings?
Answer: Saturn.
19. Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Answer: Mercury.
20. What do pandas spend most of their day eating?
Answer: Bamboo.
21. Which sea creature has eight arms?
Answer: The octopus.
22. Do penguins mostly live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
Answer: The South Pole. Antarctica is penguin country.
23. Which country do kangaroos come from?
Answer: Australia.
24. How many legs does an insect have?
Answer: Six.
25. What is the biggest wild cat in the world?
Answer: The tiger.
26. How many hours are in one day?
Answer: Twenty-four.
27. What is a baby frog called?
Answer: A tadpole.
28. What is a baby kangaroo called?
Answer: A joey.
29. What do snails carry on their backs?
Answer: Their shells. It's their house and they never move out.
30. What is the closest star to Earth?
Answer: The Sun. It counts!
Family stumpers (grown-ups miss these too)
31. What is the hot melted rock that comes out of a volcano called?
Answer: Lava. Before it erupts, it's called magma.
32. What gas do people need to breathe to stay alive?
Answer: Oxygen.
33. What is Earth's only natural satellite?
Answer: The Moon.
34. What is the tallest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest.
35. What do you call a group of lions?
Answer: A pride.
36. Which insect lights up at night?
Answer: The firefly, also called a lightning bug.
37. How many strings does a standard guitar have?
Answer: Six.
38. How many zeros are in one thousand?
Answer: Three.
39. Which shape has no corners at all?
Answer: A circle.
40. How many players from one soccer team are on the field at once?
Answer: Eleven.
41. What color is an emerald?
Answer: Green.
42. Which sense do you use with your nose?
Answer: Smell.
43. What do cows drink?
Answer: Water. If you said milk, you fell for the oldest trick in the book.
44. What are the five senses?
Answer: Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
45. How many months of the year have 28 days?
Answer: All twelve of them. Every month has at least 28.
Keeping score
A tip from running way too many family game nights: let kids take turns being the question reader. Half the fun at that age is holding the answers and feeling like the host.
When they age out of this list, our 40 general knowledge questions pick up right where it ends, and this guide to hosting a trivia night works for birthday parties just as well as bars.
Trivia the whole family fights over
Trend Trivia has questions across every difficulty, from friendly to brutal, refreshed every day. 14 game modes, free on iOS and Android.
