Fitting drama into your homeschool can be as simple as playing some drama games, performing a play with your neighbors or it can involve joining a creative competition. There are so many opportunities to fit drama into your homeschool.

Hi! My name is Danielle and I have homeschooled my kids from Pre-K through high school. We have found a lot of creative ways to fit drama into our homeschool, and now want to share what we've done with you.

Creating Teams for the Creative Competition

One year we decided to join a new homeschool group that came to our area. It was really exciting to be a part of something new with a bunch of other families. Most of us from our little neighborhood group decided to join since there was an established curriculum for us to follow making life easier on all of us. But, we still wanted drama to be a part of our kids’ experience, so we created a couple of teams from families in our co-op and joined a creative competition called Odyssey of the Mind.  

This is a really cool activity for your kids to do if you want them to be creative and think outside the box. Odyssey of the Mind has a lot of different scenarios to choose from, so whether you are a drama queen or love to build robotics or anything in between, they have something for all interests and ages.

Each year they post a list of problems to solve. You choose the one you want to do and start letting those creative juices flow. 

Choosing a Problem to Solve

The first year we did this, I had the youngest group from 5-7 years old. Odyssey of the Mind has a primary level problem for them to work on specifically. That year it was about creating an original candy. The kids must do all the work; there is no input from the adults allowed. This can be scary for some of us control freaks, but once you let it go into their creative minds, it’s amazing what they come up with. 

Our team decided to create a healthy candy factory with a bunch of healthy ingredients. They created a character that would have really weird reactions every time she tried a different candy. She even grew ears and started hopping like a bunny. It was hilarious! 

They all worked to build the candy factory. My seven-year-old daughter, with tight supervision of course, was allowed to use a box cutter to cut out the shape of the store, the window, and the door. It was a little crazy, but the only way they could make their set with the very thick copier box they got from Daddy’s work. Remember, the kids were the only ones allowed to do the work, so parents couldn’t even do the cutting. The others painted and taped and they all worked to write the script.

Creative Competition Day

Competition day finally came and they had to present in front of a group of judges. They also had to perform some other spontaneous solutions to fulfill the requirements of the competition. They had costumes made, scripts memorized, and were ready to present their original idea. They did amazing!

My daughter was a narrator dressed as a door. Her hand was the doorknob and she would shake the hand of all who entered the candy factory. My son was one of the candy store workers and would explain the healthy ingredients in the candies. The whole team worked well together and created a script I never would have thought of, but was perfect for their group and the problem they were solving.

 
This was such a great lesson for us parents to learn, that even at a young age, we should listen to the ideas of our children, as they may even come up with something better than we would have come up with. 

Other Ways You Can Use These Skills

I later used this philosophy in class for a bridge the kids had to build with straws and rubber bands. My little kindergarten class actually beat some of the older classes in a friendly competition because I let them do the work themselves. It was awesome!!! Okay, so I’m a little competitive, but it was the kids who did it. 😉

In middle school I was again able to see the amazing creative minds of my students as they prepared for a mock trial. Because they did all the work and came up with their own ideas, they were able to perform their roles well and defend themselves against the other team and in front of the judge. Incredible life experiences!!! We will talk more about the mock trial experience in a later blog in this series.

Odyssey of the Mind is for all ages, but like anything else in life, it requires a lot of time and dedication to compete at a high level. My advice, think big picture and think about what you want your group to get out of it. Thinking creatively outside the box, coming up with ideas right on the spot, and working well as a team are wonderful skills for our kids to learn whether they win or lose any competition. 

You Can Fit Drama into Your Homeschool with a Creative Competition

To recap the "How to Fit Drama into Your Homeschool" series so far, you can fit drama into your homeschool by:

1. Starting your own drama club

2. Adding drama for the younger siblings

3. Performing a Nativity play with your neighbors

4. Combining two activities in one like ballet and performing in the Nutcracker

5. Creating a puppet show for a Christmas Around the World event

6. Giving back during the holidays or anytime of the year with drama

7. Writing a play for the younger siblings to perform

8. Joining a creative competition with friends from your co-op

You can click on any of the links above to read more about these ideas.

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Don’t want to wait because you want to get started with drama right now… check out Places Everyone! drama game fun for the whole semester curriculum. 

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com