Did you know the biggest fear most adults have is public speaking? Drama is a great way to overcome that fear and develop great presentation and public speaking skills. You don’t have to add another subject to your homeschool day, just incorporate it into your history studies.

After homeschooling my kids for 20 years, I have learned a lot of creative ways to fit drama into our homeschool and now want to share them with you. 

Integrate History and Presentation Skills Together

Every year my kids learned something about history. We chose to follow a writing curriculum that integrated with our history studies. When a paper was written, the students at our one day a week program had an opportunity to present it in front of the class to get experience and feedback. One of the many bonuses of presenting in front of a group of students was that the kids would learn techniques from hearing other papers. Every student may have been given the same assignment, but no two papers sounded the same. What a gift to learn from others, plus have the chance to grow in presentation and public speaking skills.

Each year, the elementary students had an opportunity not only to read their papers, but to dress up and act like the historical person they wrote about. They could choose anyone they wanted. One year, my son was studying American history, so he chose Milton Hershey. You know… the chocolate guy. 😉 

He researched the life of Milton Hershey and put together an outline in preparation to write the paper. He then wrote it, keeping within the guidelines of the assignment and added any stylistic devices they had been learning. Then he practiced presenting it, so that he could give good eye contact and only use notecards. It was fun for him to get to choose what he was writing about because not all assignments were like that.

What About the Costume? Ut-oh!!!

The night before he was going to present we realized he had a problem. He didn’t have a costume to wear. How was he going to look like Milton Hershey? At his age he didn’t own a suit and knew none of his athletic wear would fit the bill. Panic started to sink in as the reality hit that he may not be able to present it in costume like the rest of the students. 

The mom in me wanted to start lecturing on how you shouldn’t wait until the last minute, and how you should think through all this well before the night before, but something better happened instead once he started to brainstorm ideas. What started as a possible lesson in procrastination for the student, soon turned into a lesson in being creative and thinking outside the box for the mom.

Remember, the whole paper was written and had been rehearsed many times to make sure he could present it well. That’s what makes this next part even better. 

Since my son didn’t have a suit of his own, we decided to raid daddy’s closet. Well, daddy was way taller than our little guy at the time, so the suit was going to be very big on him. How would this work? 

My son came up with the idea of being the boy version of Milton Hershey. He would tell the story from the child’s point of view and talk about what he wanted to be when he grew up, rather than telling it as if it already happened. It was actually quite genius, but that meant he had to reword everything in his paper to make that work, and it was going to be presented tomorrow!

 
Never Put Limitations on Your Child

My son may have been young, but he was able to quickly adapt to his new role. He chose to speak in a little kid voice and talked about what he wanted to be when he grows up. The audience loved the perspective and how he presented it. It was incredible how quickly he adjusted as if he had practiced it this way for weeks. It always amazes me what a child can do when they use their creative mind.

Through the years, I have often learned many lessons from my children and others I have led when I’ve given them a chance to think and be creative. I wonder if adults are equipped to adapt so quickly? Since most adults have a fear of public speaking, would this put them completely over the edge? Would they shut down and just not show up for the presentation? I certainly hope not, but if they are trained as a child to have these skills, it would definitely be less likely.

Adding Drama Can Help Students Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking

It’s fun to play a character, so why not choose someone from history that you are studying? You can incorporate drama into your history studies, so you don’t have to add another class. Learning good presentation skills will help your future adult to be a confident speaker instead of one of the many who fear public speaking. 

Using drama can help your student:

• Build confidence when speaking in front of other people

• Expand their creativity as they consider their character and how to present it

• Adapt to the last-minute changes in life

• Have fun while learning a subject like history

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!

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com