After a few years attending our classical program, we decided to venture out and also join another homeschool group that only met once a week in the mornings. Being a true co-op, every parent had to teach or chip in somehow. Since I love drama and had done a few plays at that point, I offered to teach a drama class.

Hi! My name is Danielle and I have homeschooled my kids for 20 years. When we started homeschooling, I was concerned my kids may not be able to participate in some of the fun activities like drama that I was able to do growing up with a public school education. I quickly found out that I had nothing to worry about. There are a lot of ways to fit drama into your homeschool.

You're Leading Drama? Take it One Week at a Time

Sometimes I look back at the things I have done and wonder why I thought I could do something that I had never done before. Those thoughts try to stop me from doing something new. Then I remember something that I have learned throughout all my years of homeschooling – one week at a time. No matter if I was putting together a science fair or doing something I was more passionate about like drama, I have learned that you don’t have to be an expert, you can just take it one week at a time. It has helped me tremendously as I’ve homeschooled my own children through graduating high school and led many more.

The first year we were a part of this group I put together a plan to do drama games each week. I tried to focus on certain skills I thought the kids would need to learn and blend that with some really fun games. The kids loved it and looked forward to coming every week. (Check out Places Everyone!)

During that fall semester I wrote a Thanksgiving Play, A Reason to Be Thankful, that used some of these skills that they had learned and they performed it in front of the rest of the co-op. In the spring we made plans to perform Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

This play has a special place in my heart because in 6th grade I got to play Alice for our school play. There was a role added for my best friend in the beginning where she roller skated in through the audience to come talk to me before I eventually went down the rabbit hole. I think it was in place of the sister. Her rolling through the audience may be one of the reasons I love to have scenes that interact or move through the audience and have written that into many of my plays.

Other than the beginning of the semester where we did a few more drama games to work on some more specific skills, we spent a lot of our time on rehearsals. We only met once a week for a class period, so we had to make the most of our time. 

It is always fun to watch kids grow in their roles and abilities. They start out having very little understanding of what they need to do, then at some point they become the character they are portraying and can confidently move on and off stage and interact with the other characters throughout the play as if they are that character.

 
That being said, not every student becomes totally confident, but usually you see growth even if it is small. Sometimes you have a student that seems to whisper when they talk, so getting them to project is a huge milestone. Sometimes you have pre-teens who are aware of what they look like and what people may think of them and therefore do not embrace the roles of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum quite how you imagined. When I was in 6th grade, I remember those roles as being so much fun, but some see them as being more embarrassing, so sometimes you have to change it up a bit to make it work. Being flexible is definitely important when doing a play.

One parent helped me lead the 2nd – 3rd grade class and the 4th – 6th grade class. Then I had other parents that helped with brainstorming and the 1st grade class that would also be performing in the play.

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

You may have heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant?" with the answer being, "One bite at a time.” That is exactly how you need to think when taking on a project like this. You cannot worry about the night of the performance and the microphones the first week. Nor worry about the costumes or the scenery quite yet. You just have to think about how many students you have and how many roles you have to give out. 

Since the main actors were broken up into two classes, I needed to divide the play in a way that one class could be in certain scenes and the other class could be in the others. This way they did not need to rehearse with each other until the end. Since Alice and the White Rabbit have so many lines and are throughout the entire play, I split those roles so there were two of each – one for one class and one for the other. 

When we held auditions, we knew that certain kids would only be trying out for the roles that their class was a part of, which made it a little easier to break down and make decisions. There were some animals with one line a piece in two parts of the play, so we used those parts for the 1st grade class. They could spend most of their semester doing the class they had originally signed up for, then switch to the play toward the end of the semester to learn their line, get a simple costume and run through it with the big kids before the final performance. 

As the semester moved along and I continued to study the script, I would make notes of what props were needed and possible scenery. I had a brainstorming session with some moms as we considered how to make a mushroom that the caterpillar could sit on and how to make Alice look bigger as she grew in the house. It’s always fun to brainstorm and we came up with some really creative ideas. The students were also a part of the creative thinking and came up with some unique ideas themselves that we ended up implementing. It was a team effort and something everyone could be proud of once the show was performed.

The hardest thing about putting on a production like this and spending all semester on it, is that once it’s performed, then it’s all over. You have to really take it in and enjoy it AND RECORD IT, so you can watch it again later since you may have been running around backstage during the show. 😁

You Can Fit Drama into Your Homeschool by Joining a Co-op That Offers Drama

Sometimes you may be the parent that leads the drama class and production, and sometimes you may be the parent that goes along for the ride. Either way there are opportunities for you to find ways to fit drama into your homeschool. Just remember: 

• Take one week at a time

• It doesn’t have to be perfect

• Be flexible and make it work for your group

• It’s a team effort

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Want to lead a drama class or play some drama games with your kids, but there are too many games to choose from? We’ve got you covered with Places Everyone! - drama game fun for the whole semester curriculum!

You can also perform Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with this 30-minute play!

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com