I would love to introduce my DDs to a public speaking course via dvd. I feel this is a very useful skill to master. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have searched for public speaking groups in my area with no luck. Any ideas welcome. God bless!
Have you looked into "Toastmasters"? I seem to recall a group near us offering a kid's toastmaster. You could try looking into that. www.toastmasters.org
Squarepeg, you have to be 18 to join a regular toastmaster's club. I guess some clubs have begun a youth program, however, as you have suggested. Having been a toastmaster for a short period of time, I highly recommend the experience. My children are all pretty good public speakers and they did most of their learning through 4-H. 4-H has demonstration and speech contests that my children would participate in every year and could even go on to the county and state levels. There were also things like animal "teams" where a team of four children would compete against four others testing their knowledge of an animal. They were run like the old "bowl" teams and the children participated in front of an audience. Even things like the foods revue and dog show you have to speak to the judge about your food creation or demonstrate your knowledge of your dog, so you need to learn to communicate effectively. I found 4-H to be a great way for my children to be with others as well as expanding their experiences.
I found this website which has some online resources listed. Hope it helps a little! http://www.surfnetkids.com/publicspeaking.htm
One mom in our area organized a "speech" day at the local library. HS students would prepare a short presentation about a project they had completed or were working on, and each had a chance to present it. It was during regular library hours, so the students had a real audience too. Apparently it went really well. My DS was still to young, but I loved the idea. I know you are looking for more of a curriculum, but if your DD gets into it, an event like that could be a fun way to wrap up your work!
Great idea Thanks MKR for the idea. That is something to ponder on. My DD's are in 4-H & are very active with all aspects of the club. I am just looking for something more structured to work toward mastering the skill of public speaking. I have read about Toastmasters & wish greatly that it was available in my area. Have even emailed them about starting a group locally. Unfortunately, it takes no less than 20 kids to start & it costs a pretty penny as start-up costs according to their website. Thanks for all the ideas everyone, I apprecite them so much. God bless!
The Institute for Cultural Communicators (a.k.a. Communicators for Christ) has some great resources for sale on their site. They may even have a chapter near you. http://www.instituteforculturalcommunicators.org/store/default.aspx
Our daughter is currently in a junior toastmasters leadership class. It cost $15 per child for the book and one adult toastmaster volunteer. We didn't pay or register anything with toastmasters. The adult volunteer bought the books and we reimbursed him. There are about 14 kids in the class. Perhaps you can just find an adult familiar with the toastmaster's format who would be willing to lead a group? Or just buy the book and work through it for yourself and/or with a few friends? We started video taping the speeches which really helps the kids see what they need to work on.
Great iddea mom2ponygirl. I will probably see about getting the book. I really wasn't aware that there was 'a book'. Now that I know, I will act on that. Thanks all for the help. God bless!
We actually used the Beginning Public Speaking curriculum from this group in our 4-H group. IMO, the first lessons were excellent. Toward the end of the course left alot more up to the "teacher" as far as exactly what the assignment was (some of the directions were very confusing.) It was like the writers got "tired". Overall, it was a good program and all the parents/kids in our group thought it was beneficial.
