These days we are trying to keep our kids at home as much as possible, but what can we do to keep them busy? One option to help your kids develop their creativity and confidence is an online drama course. We previewed two modules of this course and here’s how it has been going.
Each lesson consists of a warm up. These are normally breathing exercises, saying the alphabet moving your mouth and tongue twisters.
Here’s an example of a lesson. It was about characterisation. Nicky could choose whether to be a mad scientist, a surfer dude, an old person or a strict teacher. He chose to be a strict teacher. He lined up all the fluffy toys and gave it to them.
The way the exercise worked was in stages: first you had to figure out your movements, then your speech and then your mannerisms. Also in the lesson we had to make our own tongue twisters. Nicky was actually quite good at this (he used the Letterland’s characters e.g. Talking Tess) and made some sentences typical of his age e.g. Talking Tess was next to the toilet tipped a telephone (ok this does not necessary make sense but it is a tongue twister from an eight year old!)
Nicky also had fun with Lesson 5 (Module 2) where he had to do impersonations of family members. He took me to his chore chart and told me what I had to do and then firmly led me to his bed and told me to watch TV while he would work on the computer! I think the finer points of the exercise (the way I walk or talk) may have been lost on him but he enjoyed the exercise.
These lessons are also very good for creativity – one example was making up your own movie and then presenting it. Or talking about a random topic (such as tomatoes) for 45 seconds. I think Nicky struggled a bit with this one although he is pretty good at talking nonsense I had to push him a bit to make intelligent sentences.
Another side benefit is confidence. Nicky put on his own puppet show for my birthday for everyone which was really cool. It was all his own idea.
I think these lessons gave us a nice break from routine and a constructive activity to do. They also came with a nice pack of goodies which he kind of played with right away. This included a farting cushion and building an animal out of fuzzy balls (clingabeez). There were characterisation cards with names of feelings and occupations which we used in the lessons. We also loved the slime.
There always seem to be technical glitches with online education (I’ve had them all as an online teacher). We found it difficult to operate the stopwatch for the exercises (I used my phone in the end) and I couldn’t figure out how to download the activity sheets (but they were emailed to me on request).
I think the whole set up is very professionally put together. The videos are clear and helpful with Coach Donnaley Avis.
If you have a child who is interested in drama, or you’re just looking for something to keep them busy with meaningful creative activity, The Drama Academy will definitely do that.
The Drama Academy was founded by Jill Avis, owner and Head Coach of Upstage Concepts Performing Arts Studio. Upstage Concepts is currently the top studio in South Africa, having won the Top National Institution Award for the National Eisteddfod of South Africa for the past five consecutive years. Upstage Concepts is a leading studio at the South African Championships for Performing Arts and the Kids and Youth Talent Festival.
Drama is a great way for a shy kid to come out of their shell or for a natural extrovert to bring forth the diva that’s already there. It’s also a great way to get them off Peppa Pig for a bit to do something more creative….
For more information see their website, and Instagram
If you found this post interesting please share it with your friends and remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram and join our awesome group called Mommy’s Me Time.
This looks very cool.