Charades

Of course I can't leave Charades off the parlor games list! This is a game known by many people. Our family used to play this more when the kids were little, though it would be easier to play now that they are older and more capable of acting out the titles, as well as knowing more titles.

Charades is easy for any age to play and can be fun. Do watch for frustration from the younger players though, as they do no know many of the titles as others, and can also have a hard time acting out each word of the title (ours would more likely act out a scene from the movie.

In Charades, you can act out either a song, book title or movie title. You may only act, no words allowed. (some allow sounds, just establish this before the game) First, you need to establish what it is you are acting out, a song, book or movie. Use a hand symbol to show this. Next, hold up however many fingers to represent how many words are in the title. Finally, you do whatever it takes to get the other players to say the word you are looking for. You can do a "sounds like" word as well. If it helps, you can break your word into syllables as well.