Home Public Speaking Practices for the March Holidays!

It’s that time of the year again, and we are sure your child will be looking forward to the rest! While winding down remains a priority for your child, some may want to take this opportunity to pick up or explore a new skill before school resumes. With the many options out there, it may be difficult to find a suitable activity or skill that your child would enjoy and be motivated to explore. This March break – take the opportunity to introduce your child to something new!

Exploring something new can be daunting, especially if you are tied for time. For your child, the aim for this short holiday is to find something that they can have brief exposure to while gaining some practical knowledge from there. What if this can be done in the comfort of your own homes? It may be an oxymoron, but public speaking can start from a private space at home! Through a supportive structure and some easy exercises, your child can start building some new public speaking habits.

If you are ready to kickstart your child’s learning experience this March holidays, here are some public speaking tips perfect for home practice!

Creativity + Logic = Victory!

We start first with an introduction to content – the ‘boring’ method would involve asking your child to prepare speeches all day long simply. The better method is to start by identifying the interest centres for your child! Our starting point in our public speaking classes is to explore speech content-crafting from a position of interest or passion. We believe that if a communicator speaks on a topic that they feel comfortable and competent in, the confidence on stage will shine through.

For your child, start with simple content-building exercises by inviting them to examine the content they are digesting critically. For example, if there is a specific game they enjoy playing, have them explain the game to you and go into unique experiences (what was a memorable gaming experience), emotions (how did you feel when you lose?), or values (what type of values did you gain?). Encourage them to record this for the holiday week as a journal, and reciprocate by sharing your answers to the same prompt for your activities (e.g., TV, movies).

*** Let’s start from what you’re passionate about ***

Watch and Learn!

As communicators, we often try to pick out and apply the speaking habits that stand out as positive building blocks of confidence on the speaking stage. This learning process can start young, especially as young learners are exposed to technology and social media. The idea is to positively channel the content they are consuming into a learning opportunity.

For public speaking, the better opportunity now is to pick out videos that act as good examples of public speaking! This can come in communicators, politicians, or available online videos that aim to engage the audience. As they observe these speakers, engage in a reflection exercise on what works (and what did not for the speakers). This can be in the form of general audience engagement, content building, or body language!

 *** #Flexing ***

While the first two suggestions are more focused on content and structure building, body language is one of the key areas for a communicator. It is often referred to as a discerning factor for a communicator to stand out. This holds even for young communicators starting to explore body language and how to optimise that for the speaking stage.

During this period, it may be a good opportunity for your child to digest the content (from the practices above) and present it in front of the family! For example, one of our young learners shared how they have a monthly (informal) sharing within the family – our motivated learner saw it as an opportunity to practise the techniques they are exploring! Remember that this should involve the buy-in from your child so have a conversation about how best to put this into practice!

The holidays are a great opportunity for our young learners to rest, disconnect, and take a pause in their learning journey. At the same time, we understand that some young, motivated learners may be keen to explore something new, even on this short holiday. We hope that the three suggestions above can be something for your child to explore and try out and grow as a confident communicator!

If you are keen to take your public speaking skills & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation / kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may communicate and deliver speeches with greater flair and charisma, feel free to check out our public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults and public speaking course for children below!

We want to help you bring out the best in your team, organization, and company. Public speaking and communication skills for the workplace, such as persuasion, remain a priority for most corporate training out there. We believe in staying ahead of the curve in sharing the contemporary communication skills to help you and your team remain relevant, competitive and nimble. Through our customized corporate training programmes, your team will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on, and potential-maximising public speaking & presentation skills training programme!

Feel free to reach out to us to curate your own public speaking corporate training programme for your team, company, or organization! Let us help you develop them into highly effective public speakers at work, empowered with effective presentation skills & storytelling skills – them giving speeches with charisma, influence and impact is something you can look forward to!