Day 26 / 101 - Presentations

Weekly presentations are part of the Classical Conversations Foundations program.  Each week my children have an opportunity to practice their oral presentation skills in front of others.  These presentations have ranged from book reports to presidents to martial arts displays to creative show-and-tells and much, much more.  As my children age their presentations become much more structured and prepared.  The goal of the presentation time is for my children to become comfortable standing, talking, presenting and fielding questions in front of their peers.

This fall, my ten-year-old son's presentations have been brought to you by a ten-year-old boy.  Bald eagles, the woods behind our house, his latest Taekwondo tournament, his Pinewood Derby car, tornadoes, etc.  However, most weeks, my daughter has taken a different approach.  She prefers to give her presentation in costume.  So, she usually begins with a costume she has created and then will work backwards in order to find presentation material to fit that costume.  It's a rather creative approach and greatly encompasses her learning style since she loves to dress-up and be in character.  She is so motivated to research and prepare for her presentation each week when there is a costume involved.  For instance, she wore her Hermoine Granger costume when she gave a book report on Harry Potter.  She had put together the Native American costume above (complete with child carrier and papoose - the baby is in costume, too), and then after brainstorming for a bit, settled on a presentation about Pocahontas and Jamestown.  Although she was a bit disappointed to discover that Pocahontas was living with the English colonists, and had converted to their ways, by the time she had a son and therefore would have never had a papoose.  The photo below is a combination of a couple old dance costumes, so that week she learned all she could, and presented on, the state of Hawaii.