How to put on a play with your children at home

Most people hope for sunny days. But there’s power in a rainy, cold day. For one thing, it gives you a perfect excuse to spend the day at home, and that presents untold possibilities for you and your children to have fun. There’s no shortage of things you can do at home during inclement weather. Arts and crafts, board games, or just curling up on the couch with some family-friendly movies are all guaranteed good times. If you’re looking to get a little more creative, however, then you could put on a play together with your children at home! They’ll love it, and who knows, you might even discover that you have the next top talent on your hands. If they love pretend play generally, do check out our best pretend play toys while you are here too.

Below, we’ll take a look at a step by step guide on how to do it.

Clear the schedule

You need time to create a masterpiece! No one puts on a play off the cuff; it’ll take several hours of planning. So make sure you pick a day when you’ve got nothing else on the agenda. That way, you and your kids will be able to fully commit to the performance without having to take a break because you’ve already agreed to go to their aunt’s house.

Plan in advance 

You don’t necessarily need any special equipment to put on a play at home. But the performance will be all the better if you do. It’s a good idea to stock up on your arts and crafts supplies, so you can create a stage that’s in line with the theme of your play. It’s also a good idea to invest in some costumes, too, so you and your little ones can really get into character. It’ll help if you have an idea of what type of characters you’ll be playing, but it’s not a big concern if you don’t — you can adapt the costumes to suit your needs.

Get to work on the script

It can be a lot of fun to work on a script. The magical part about putting on a play for your own enjoyment is that there really aren’t any rules that you need to follow. If you can think it, then you can do it. The most difficult part will be coming up with the initial idea. Once you have that, you’ll find that your children’s imaginations take over. If you’re struggling to come up with an idea, then take a look at some online writing prompts. 

Your script doesn’t need to be too long, which is just as well because it can be difficult to come up with a long script! In total, your play doesn’t need to be any longer than 3 – 5 minutes, though if you feel you’ve got enough talent to make it longer, then go for it.

Manage conflicts

In an ideal world, your kids would respect each other’s ideas. Indeed, they’d even encourage and support their siblings’ ideas. Alas, it’s not a perfect world. There’s a chance that there could be some minor conflict when working on the script, including a debate about what should happen, who gets to play what character, and so forth. It’s best to do away with this problem entirely by going back and forth with your final decision (one sibling gets one call, and the decision goes to the other sibling the following debate).

Rehearsing the play

The rehearsal part of the day may be the most fun part. This is when you’re putting your creation into practice for the first time, in a relaxed and humorous environment. Mistakes are encouraged! It’s best to go through the play as many times as you can to ensure that everyone has their part locked down.

Set the stage

The final thing to do before you gather your audience and perform your play is to set the stage. This will likely not take too long since you won’t have too much material to work with, and there’s only so much that you can do in your living room anyway! But at the very least, you can arrange the furniture so that it’s like a stage and maybe add some streamers and other touches to give a razzmatazz feel. 

Perform! 

Finally, you’re ready to perform the play for your friends and family. Remember to remind your children that it’s not about winning an Oscar, just about going out there and having fun. We trust that you’ll enjoy it so much that you will do it again in the future.

We hope you like this ideas – if you are looking for other indoor activities for the kids – take a look here:

Alternatively, what about some of these imaginative play ideas, or even design you own board game too?

Here are some ideas from off site as well:

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Thanks as always for stopping by, and we do hope to see you again soon.

Helen

This is a collaborative post.

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