homeschooldrama.com blog
How to Fit Drama into Your Homeschool
We often focus on the core subjects to fill the transcript we’ll be sending off to colleges for our kids. Are we missing important skills because we are just checking off boxes? Could adding drama to your homeschool actually help prepare your kids better for college life? The answer is YES!!
Hi! My name is Danielle and I have homeschooled my kids through high school and have found a lot of benefits for fitting drama into our homeschool and want to share what I’ve learned with you.
7 Drama Skills that Can Help in College
Coping skills
Problem solving
Study skills
Communication skills
Leadership skills
Working on group projects
Presentation skills
Coping Skills
Drama helps students get in touch with their emotions by being vulnerable and putting themselves out there as they portray a character using emotions to express what they are going through. It also teaches them to deal with disappointment and move on when they don't get the lead and have to embrace a smaller role.
There are going to be some tough things that happen in college, so it’s important kids feel equipped to deal with them. There’s no way to fully prepare them for everything they might experience, so it’s important to equip them with certain skills so they can cope with what they are dealing with. Learning how to express their emotions and communicate what they are going through is vital when experiencing the challenges of college life.
Most parents expect their kids to have relationship challenges with friends and dating. It comes with the territory as kids learn to get along with their roommates, teammates or deal with the ups and downs of dating. However, many parents don’t even think about if their kids are prepared to deal with a friend attempting suicide. Sadly, it has become more and more common in schools. Knowing when to go to an authority and not just keep it to themselves or try to handle it themselves like they often see on TV and in movies is important. Whether they are experiencing these feelings or a friend is, what should they do? Who can they trust? How can they cope with hard times?
We were surprised when our son told us he had to help a friend perform CPR on another friend that almost drowned. Who would have thought that would’ve been part of his experience his first year in college? We had no idea how much trauma it was not only for the kid that almost drowned, but for the kids that helped save his life. Are your kids equipped to cope with trauma and tough situations? College can be a lot of fun, but it definitely comes with many stresses in the academic aspect, relationships and extracurricular activities. Will your kids share their emotions with someone they trust and deal with the stresses, or will they bottle it up and struggle even worse not knowing how to cope?
Being aware of their feelings and learning to cope with them is an important skill for any teen or adult. Drama can help them learn to express emotions and deal with the challenges that come their way.
Problem Solving
Part of coping with a challenge is learning to problem solve. Most psychologists work with a patient to help them come up with their own solutions rather than giving them one. This helps the patient solve future problems without always having to lean on the psychologist for a solution.
When studying different storylines for plays or performing a mock trial (check out Literature-Based Mock Trial to learn more), kids learn there are different ways a problem can be solved. While studying a story, we would often talk about whether the character should’ve done this or whether they could’ve done something else to get a better result. In a mock trial, kids prepare for what the other side might argue and how they are going to help their client win the case. They have to problem solve quickly in the moment but have equipped themselves with the skills to solve problems well before entering the courtroom.
When on stage an actor might forget her lines, a prop might be forgotten, or part of a set falls down. What does she do in that moment? In college your child may be put in a situation and discover that he shouldn’t be there, what does he do? Does he go along with it, or does he leave? If he can’t leave because he needs a ride, what does he do? Whether they are working on homework, a big project, or are in the middle of a mess, we need to equip our kids to know how to solve a problem on their own and think quickly on their feet.
Study Skills
Drama is very helpful when learning study skills. When playing a role in a play, students have to study and memorize their lines, possibly research that character, and learn the story well to perform it. They have to learn to focus in rehearsals and when performing, and set aside specific time to work on their role. When performing drama, most students have other subjects they have to work on, so they have to learn to schedule their time wisely. All of these skills are tremendously helpful when entering college.
Communication Skills
When performing a play, actors have to learn to listen to what the other person is saying to know how to respond. Sometimes the other person says the wrong line, so it’s important for an actor to give her full attention and hear what her fellow actor is saying to ensure she gives the appropriate response. Now while a play is scripted, a mock trial is not.
In a mock trial it is extremely important to hear what the other side is arguing and what the witnesses say during direct and cross examination. This helps students build a case and give a final argument that can tie all of their points together and win the case. Good listening skills and the ability to articulate what they are trying to say are important skills learned in a mock trial. These skills help tremendously when needing to communicate with a roommate, friend, professor, or coach.
Leadership Skills
Leading a drama club or directing a play (check out our How to Direct a Play series) are great ways to learn how to be a leader. When leading a drama club, a student usually has to coordinate meetings and activities and encourage their fellow actors in the activities they are doing. When directing a play, the student usually has to find a location to perform the play, schedule rehearsals and give feedback to the actors pushing them to give their best. Being a leader is not about being a boss and telling others what to do; it’s about thinking through what it takes to do something well and encouraging others along the way.
Is your child a leader or a follower? There are a lot of kids in college that are away from their parents for the first time and ready to party. Will your child join in or draw the line as to where they will hang out with certain friends? Will they encourage their peers to do other activities, or will they just follow along? Do they understand the dangers of alcohol, drugs and other activities or the consequences of getting little sleep and how that can affect their GPA? Are they willing to stand up to someone, or are they used to being compliant and doing whatever someone says?
This last question was brought to my attention after reading the book Boundaries by Henry Cloud. If you have a child who is so well behaved and does everything you say, you may want to start asking some questions. It may be great as a parent, but what if this child doesn’t know how to voice an opinion, stand up against something they believe is wrong or simply make a decision on their own. This child will be ill-equipped for the real world or start following the wrong people. This doesn’t mean you want to raise a defiant child; you just want them to be confident and feel comfortable voicing their opinion, even if that is sometimes opposite to your opinion.
Leading in drama and experiencing the consequences of characters' choices in different plays can also give them the confidence to speak up.
Working on Group Projects
When rehearsing for a play, students learn to work together on a project with a common goal. They learn to work as a team, that not everyone is going to give equal effort and how to overcome that. They learn that they can’t do it all and it requires the whole team to chip in. If someone doesn’t do their part, it affects the entire play.
In college, they need this skill because not everyone on their group project will give equal effort, but they don’t want to be the one doing it all. They have to find ways to encourage their team to do the work, but also learn to move forward even if someone is not helping out. Hopefully the professor grades based on each individual’s effort, not just as a group, but that’s not always the case. It’s your student’s grade, so he has to be conscientious enough to finish the project well because his GPA is on the line.
Through the skills learned in communication, leadership and working as a team, students can learn how to encourage someone who doesn’t seem to be chipping in. They can learn what gifts each team member has and assign roles based on their giftings rather than taking over the entire project. Learning to collaborate is a wonderful skill for college and beyond.
Students can also learn how to break down a big project through rehearsing week by week for a play, writing a play or directing a play.
Presentation Skills
This one is probably the most obvious, but still a very important skill as your student enters the college and career world. Most adults have a fear of public speaking, so helping your student overcome that fear and developing the skill of presenting in front of people is a wonderful way to build confidence as a student prepares to give many presentations in college.
You Can Equip Your Student for College Life
By fitting drama into your homeschool, you can help your student feel better prepared with the skills she needs to succeed in college. These are just some of the skills a student can gain with drama to prepare him for college:
Coping skills
Problem solving
Study skills
Communication skills
Leadership skills
Working on group projects
Presentation skills
Want to make life easier and be the first to know when the next blog is posted? Sign up below for our email newsletter to get the latest news.
Want to have a play to read and perform, plus create a mock trial in one? We've got you covered with our new drama curriculum Macbeth - The Mock Trial!
Thanks for joining us!
Danielle at homeschooldrama.com