In 7 Skills Your Student Can Learn by Including Drama in Your Homeschool we talked about the benefits of drama. Here we will discuss the specific skill of how to start your own drama club.

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.

Here is the beginning of our journey from preschool all the way through high school. The cool thing is many of these ideas can cross over to all different age groups, so you are not limited to only using them with your little ones or just the older ones.

When my kids were preschool age, we had just moved into a new neighborhood. As we walked around the block and often played outside, we started to meet other neighbors who were interested in, or already, homeschooling their children. 

Meeting With Neighborhood Friends for a Drama Club

We would meet in the backyards to play, at the playground, or even at the community pool. When Christmas came around, we decided to have the kids perform a little Christmas pageant. We chose some songs for them to sing. We practiced a few times, chose some simple costumes for them to wear and had them perform at our recreation center for the families involved. 

It was so fun to see the kids come together and enjoy this opportunity to perform. It was also fun for the parents to watch their kids bravely stand up in front of a group and perform what they had practiced.

One of the many things I love about homeschooling is that kids of all different ages can come together to do different activities. It’s fun to see older siblings helping younger siblings and older students encouraging younger students. The kids all learn so much about relationships as they play and work alongside kids of different ages. We also can give the older students more opportunities for leadership roles as they grow and mature.

Anyone Can Start a Drama Club

What's nice is that anyone can start a drama club. All you have to do is find at least one more family, but hopefully a couple more, and you have a group to do drama and life with. We did a simple Christmas pageant for our younger students; older elementary students could do a Christmas Nativity play; or high school students could perform a story that is popular over Christmas like A Christmas Carol (available for free on the public domain or you can write your own with our How to Write a Playscript - A Christmas Carol drama curriculum). 

If your student is younger and wants to start a drama club, then you will have to help them arrange some of the details like who will you include in the club and having a place to meet. It’s always great to let them be a part of the decision making. 

If your student is older, they can do all the work including organizing who will meet and where. This can help them to develop leadership skills.

Remember to keep it simple. A lot of times we are waiting for the perfect situation to get started, which often causes us not to get started at all. Encourage your student that it doesn’t have to be perfect, just get started!

Start a Drama Club With Your Homeschool Co-op

Then ask your families that you meet with if they want to be a part of the drama club. It doesn’t have to be a big group to get started, just a few kids are all you need to enjoy some drama games and/or to perform a small skit.

A reader's theater is a fun way to act out a scene without having to memorize all the lines or spend a lot of time prepping. It can be very spontaneous and doesn't require costumes, props or a set.

What if You Are Not Part of a Group?

Consider your neighbors. During the summertime our public school friends were off from school and always looking for something to do. This gave us the opportunity to join with them and do some fun drama activities together.

One summer my daughter wrote a play and gathered all her friends to act in it. She held rehearsals and then they all performed in front of their families in our living room.

What if It's Just Your Family?

You can have fun playing drama games and doing short skits even with two kids. Chances are, once you start and meet new people, you’ll find others who want to join in on the fun. If not, make it a fun family time each week to play a couple drama games or allow the kids to act out their favorite stories. 

No matter what your situation is, encourage your kids as they work to figure out the details.

Our little group met for a couple of years in our backyards, then many of us helped to start and joined a homeschool group for classical education. You can read Add Drama for the Younger Siblings to find out how we fit drama into our homeschool in addition to what the kids were doing with a co-op we were meeting with once a week.

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Excited about starting a drama club, but need an easy curriculum to follow? Check out Places Everyone! drama game fun for the whole semester.

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com