Summary: Why is acting important for your kids (and for you)? Great question! The answers are many and I will address them further down in today's post. The great thing about acting is that you're able to do it any time, any where, with only your voice or pantomime if you choose. My personal experiences with acting or simply standing in front of other presenting a speech as a child and young adult are not filled with many positive memories. I was often fraught with fear and distinctly remember not liking the experience. It wasn't until I joined Toastmasters that public speaking became less of a chore and more of an enjoyable process. The skills I learned from speech craft to delivery through the Toastmasters organization help me everyday. I learned that acting is simply an extension of public speaking. In public speaking, you must take on the character of the speech through your words and demeanor which is not much different than acting. Actors usually get to wear elaborate costumes and makeup that public speakers often do not (maybe they should!). To this day when I speak to adults, I find that one of the most prominent fears is public speaking. Many adults would rather endure and experience like being hit by a car (yikes) than stand and speak in front of others! I also learned that public speaking and acting are not activities in which kids (or adults) have much opportunity to engage. With our ever changing economy and corporate landscape, the skills of public speaking are ones which should be fostered and um…enjoyed (hopefully). What about you? Do you like to speak in front of others and put on your acting hat? If not, take a moment to analyze your feelings and jump into your fear or trepidation. The good thing is that teaching your kids to gain confidence in public speaking or acting can be a simple as engaging in an activity like Storybook Theatre. In our preschool, we often used this method to weave literature into our classes. Rather than simply reading a story, we would talk about the characters and become them through our way of speaking or dress. We would transform our classroom's stage into a theatre set to complete the story. To this day, my 7 and 10 year old daughters love to dream up their own stories and characters, get dressed up, make props and sets, and put on shows which I adore. I will continue to foster this activity as I feel kids absolutely need to feel comfortable with presenting their ideas in front of others. Through public speaking and acting, our kids gain confidence (which is increasingly important), learn to cooperate and communicate better with others, and learn to express their feelings openly. Becoming the characters in a book literally bring stories to life and allow our kids to be inspired to use their problem solving and critical thinking skills to come up with new ideas, new story lines, or even new books that can be published! Helping our kids grow their minds through acting and developing into confident, creative, and productive citizens that are also great communicators is what we dream of for our kids. Acting with with our kids will also help us adults to expand our thinking and continue growing!
