Speech #1: My Summer She brought in her Mickey Mouse and talked about going to Disney World over the summer. To prepare, we looked back through our Disney World pictures together and discussed some of the fun memories we made. Unfortunately, the beautiful smile pictured above was noticeably absent when she presented about our vacation.
Speech #2: Show and tell Columbus Even though she still wasn't thrilled about presentations, I was happy to see a glimpse of my daughters true personality emerge for this speech. No one else in the class noticed, but I will always remember how she insisted she should wear her ship dress for her Columbus presentation. Since 4 ships were embroidered on the dress, she covered one up with some painters tape so all that remained on her dress was the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
Speech #3: Recite a favorite Bible verse Belle immediately choose John 3:16, and I encouraged her to keep this simple selection in hopes that we could focus on her communication skills since she has known the verse since she was John's age. During practice, Belle and John alternated reciting the verse. John was so cute saying, "Hi, I am John, I am 2 years old. John 3:16 says...." Although Belle was still not overly confident in front of her class, I could see light at the end of the tunnel after this presentation.
Speech #4 Show and Tell By week 4, she was no longer complaining about presentations and happily ran to get Aslan, which she selected as her favorite belonging. Since we had a lot of family in town, she practiced for an audience beforehand and easily chatted about Aslan who is one of her favorite characters in Narnia.
Speech #5 Show and tell about a favorite piece of art Belle sort of deviated from the directions on this one. Although I encouraged her to flip through an art book as suggested, she really wanted to discuss her own artwork instead of a famous artist. Since our ultimate goal is working on presentation skills anyways, I didn't push the issue. She comfortably talked about the orphanage she drew and the five elements of shape. (Very clearly on the presentation schedule, it states the topics are only recommended and parents are free to alter them. I am thankful CC emphasizes parental control over education. Apparently, I wasn't the only parent who allowed some wiggle room, as the majority of the class presented their own artwork :)
Speech #6: Show and tell about one or more of the 5 senses.
The entire family enjoyed experimenting with different objects that could be used for this presentation, and Belle finally decided to bring and discuss play-doh. She excitedly divided out some play-doh into little sacks she made for her friends and had fun rehearsing.
After listening to her final presentation of the quarter, I can honestly say she has come a long way in 6 weeks. Not only is she talking rather than whispering, but she has also gained confidence. Of course, she still has a lot more room for improvement, but thankfully, speeches have become a more enjoyable assignment to work on rather than a burden.
