Children love to play. Just ask any three year old what he or she wants to do. The answer most of the time is “I want to play”. There are limitless opportunities to create a play scenario. We always enjoy seeing the endless imagination of kids whether is playing with cars, trains, making a smoothie or pancakes. If you’re lucky and live in a warmer climate, outdoors playing is best. However, if you’re stuck in the colder months, there’s no better way than creating a theatre at home. The aim of this post is to cover how to create a children’s theatre at home that involves no cost, it’s hassle free to set up and provides lots of entertaining for both the kids and the parents.
There are mainly four areas to make a fun and engaging theatre.
Create a captivating story.
The first aspect of creating a children’s theatre at home is a good story. In fact, a great story always captivates the little minds and keeps them engaged for longer period of time. If you don’t have one in mind, you can base your home theatre story on a few favourite books. For example, if your children love Thomas The Train or other educational books, build your story around those characters. This will help your children relate to the story from the start, recognizing names of characters, sounds and setting.
Involve children from the start.
Don’t wait for the children to be involved at a later time in the actual play. It’s best to start with their input about the actual story. For example, ask them what they’ll like to interact with, what characters, how they should be interacting with others in the story, the placement of toys, cars, etc. This helps the children relate to the story in more detail. No only that but they’ll feel that it is their story, their play, their “real life” experience. What better way to start getting your kids input from an earlier age.
Let them be kids.
Children’s imagination is a wonderful thing. Given our hectic lives, we as adults, forget how to exercise this gift. Let them be kids. Don’t patronize them. It’s always important to “go with the flow” and not be strict about following a particular story perfectly. That’s the beauty about child play. Also, whether the children are loud or quiet, it doesn’t matter. Go with the story line and let them be kids.
Set up a simple stage.
You can set up a simple stage in minutes. This can be done by having some play mats in the shape of a square. Set one chair at each end and then use a blanket as a curtain. If you like to have an open stage, you can create a raised stage by having a few sturdy boxes side by side. One simple way to create a stage for children’s theatre at home is to use your couch’s cushions on the floor. You can also use a deem light or a spotlight if you wish. Just make it simple and fun. Don’t overcomplicate things.
Bonus: Take the children to an actual theatre play.
Keep an eye for a children theatre production in your town. It’s a great way to spend a few hours especially if you’ve never taken the kids before. This way the kids can relate even further to playing theatre at home. At times you may be able to get in a free show or a great deal on a theatre production so it doesn’t have to be expensive. Here you have it: the easy way on how to create a children’s theatre at home.
Pleas share with us some other ideas on how to create a children’s theatre at home. What works well from your experience as a parent? What did children love?
