How and Why to Play Charades with Young Kids

When my parents were visiting us a couple of months ago, they started playing charades with my oldest girls. We played charades about a dozen times during the couple of weeks they were here. It was side-splitting fun!

When I say side-splitting, it’s not much of an exaggeration! One night, Mebop (what my kids call their grandfather) actually split his pants while pantomiming. We all got a good laugh out of this! Thankfully, this only happened once, but each time we played was great fun.

Charades can be tricky for younger kids to play. In fact, kids ages 3 and under simply don’t have the knowledge and skills needed to play. Many 4-year-olds are able to act out and guess common words or phrases (frog, using scissors, penguin, tying a shoe, etc.). Once they reach age 5, most kids are going to be at a place in their development where they can have a blast with this game. This was true for my 5-year-old, but we did make a couple adaptations to make it easier for her to participate. I’ll describe these below.

How to play charades

Charades is a game where you act out phrases without speaking while fellow participants try to guess the phrases. To begin, choose a player to start the game. The player thinks of a thing or phrase (an animal, a famous person, a sport, a book/movie title, an action, etc.) to pantomime. The player should choose something with which fellow players will be familiar.

The player then pantomimes (silently acts out using body movements and facial expressions) the word or phrase to the other players. The first person to guess correctly gets a point. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. If you’d prefer, you can play without keeping score or you can divide into teams that compete against each other. Click here for a thorough explanation of how to play charades in teams.

How to adapt charades so younger kids can play

As I noted above, it can be challenging for young kids to play charades. However, a couple simple adaptations make it easier for them to participate. The first is to allow players to make noises and use simple props. In traditional games of charades, players are only allowed to use body movements and facial expressions when acting out words and phrases. Allowing the use of noises and simple props (blankets, pillows, a yard stick, a ball, etc.) allows younger kids to express their word or phrase effectively.

A second adaptation is to use cards that contain words or phrases instead of having players come up with their own. When we play charades, my girls tend to come up with very specific phrases (for example, “picking a bouquet of wildflowers to give to grandma”). It’s impossible for the rest of us to guess these phrases, so you can see how cards that provide simple words and phrases (for example, “picking flowers”) would be helpful! There are several collections of these available for free online (see here , here, and here). There is also a “no reading required” set available for sale on Amazon.

Why play charades with kids

We play charades because it is fun. However, playing charades is also educational. Here are some things kids can learn from the game:

• Social skills (from teamwork and collaboration)
• Patience (from turn-taking and focus)
• Problem solving (from interpreting non-verbal cues)
• Communication skills (from using facial expressions and body language to communicate)
• Creative thinking (from having to “think outside the box”)

Final thoughts

Given that a game of charades is fun, educational, free, and doesn’t involve electronics, it’s a real winner! Another great thing about the game is that it is “new” each time you play—players will come up with different words and phrases, so it doesn’t grow old.

What has been your experience playing charades with kids? Do your kids like it? What similar games do they enjoy playing?

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