OTTAWA -- With schools closed and kids at home all day during the COVID-19 pandemic, high school math teacher Nadia Amimi had an idea.
She loves trivia, almost as much as she loves teaching, so she thought why not combine the two.
Every weekday morning at 10 a.m. she has been hosting rounds of trivia for kids aged seven to 12 on Facebook live. They watch her stream, answer her 30 questions on their own piece of paper, and at the end tally their scores. Amimi been doing this for the past nine weeks.
“Initially it was just my friends kids and then their friends were joining,” says Amimi. “And so eventually at one point we were 60 people playing at the same time. Including adults.”
“It gives my kids a great opportunity to learn new things, as well as me,” says Leigh Murray, whose kids play every morning. “It’s a fun way to learn, and do kind of our education component of the morning.”
But asking 30 questions, five days a week, wasn’t good enough for her. She had to take it to the next level.
“Initially it was just ya know, me, wear a different colour hat, wear something bright, wear paint on your face,” says Amimi. “But then it kind of evolved into big costumes.”
It all started when she decided to start asking her players for costume suggestions, and the requests came flooding in.
Her first over the top costume came from a suggestion to do a Star Wars theme.
“And so I dressed up as Chewbacca,” says Amimi. “And I was like oh my goodness. So I think from Chewbacca onwards is when the big dress up evolved.”
Amimi tells CTV News Ottawa that one of her favourites is her old lady costume. It did not take long to create, but it got a great reaction from her players. It was that costume that left her wondering how she would top it.
Amimi says, “I put cornstarch in my hair. I just used eye shadow and eyeliner. And then my husband took a picture and I was like oh my gosh, I look so old.”
Some play for the trivia. Some just logon to see what she will transform into next. But one thing is certain, she has given these children, and parents, something to look forward too every morning, including a chance to learn something new.
“I love the dressing up,” says Amimi. “I love doing the trivia. It’s what I do right. I’m a teacher so I just enjoy sharing and learning. That’s just who I am.”
