Learning to Speak in Front of Crowds

One of our goals as home-schoolers is to teach our boys to be effective communicators.  We strive to teach all of the boys to be excellent in both their written and oral communication skills.

As future Godly men, we believe they need to have the confidence necessary to stand in front of a crowd and deliver a speech.Without dying. Without breaking into a sweat. Without cowering in fear.

One of the things we do for our boys is to look for speech competitions. One of our current favorites is called Oral Language.

The Boys select a piece of literature three to five minutes in length that they not only commit to memory but then perform dramatically in front of a panel of judges and an audience.

All three of our younger boys competed this year, two of them are moving on to the next level. The reason we are so proud of the boys has nothing to do with how they perform their pieces, but rather how they handle the stress of being in front of a crowd.They are all champions to us!

This is not a small task for either the boys or me.

• It takes FOREVER to find acceptable pieces.
• It takes weeks to memorize the pieces.
• it takes dozens and dozens of practices to figure out how to act the piece out.
• It takes me hours and hours to help them perfect their enunciation and timing.

It is always worth it!
Today I recorded two of the pieces to share with you and your children. Enjoy!

What kinds of things do you do to help your children become comfortable in front of a crowd?

Thanks to Anchor me Designs for the cute graphic above~