Teach your children how to give quick-and-simple one-minute speeches. Get ready for some super family fun with this idea. Your little ones can do this, too. Have a child stand on a stool and say a speech on any topic for one minute, out of his head. These are even what are known as extemporaneous speeches—as are included in some speech tournaments.
The child draws a topic (which you have put in there) out of a hat and talks on it. The stool is everything. Via the stool the child is all of a sudden on stage and everyone is looking up at him. He instantly feels super important. The stool makes it—gets the child up out of the crowd. The stool becomes the smallest most effective instant stage in the world.
'Tis hilarious! You'll be rolling on the floor with laughter in the beginning. Later (much later) you begin to refine their speech-making ability, teaching them how not to roll on the sides of their feet, fiddle with their hair, yank on their shirt, fidget, or say "um" too much, etc. Order our Learn to Speak with Ease for help conquering all that.
As a result of doing this over and over, children grow in their ability to think on their feet and to talk rapidly on whatever topic is handed to them in all kinds of social settings.
No doubt Martin Luther King, Jr. had given plenty of speeches over the years prior to the famous “I Have a Dream” speech he delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall at Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. That speech, by the way, is included in our Learn to Speak with Ease booklet/eBook.
Your children can start with easy topics like:
- "brothers"
- "red"
- "chickens"
- "water"
- "love"
- "angels"
- "worms"
- "how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich"
...and proceed to more difficult topics like:
- "Compare and contrast David and Goliath. How are they alike? How are they different?"
- "Why should a person read the Bible?"
Have everyone in the family take a whirl at it, even the four-year-old and even Mom and Dad. It makes for great after-dinner entertainment. A sibling keeps track of the time with a stopwatch, sand timer, clock or cell phone, and rings a dinger to stop the speaker when the time is up. Have the timekeeper hold up five fingers for a five-second-warning when the time has almost run out.
Get ready for some splendid unusually creative fun. You may be amazed at what your child expresses—and what this may prepare him or her to utter at a later time in life.
