If earlier stage performances only entertained children, nowadays theater is used to improve imagination, speech skills and fine motor skills, as well as to instill an artistic taste in the kid. When and how should you introduce children to the magical world of art?
The first acquaintance of the kid with the "stage" occurs at home - with the help of dolls. Such performances help children to live through situations, trying on various patterns of behavior and choosing the only correct one. Staging will also help in the event of psychological trauma. That is why experts advise adults to play “kindergarten” with their children before going to kindergarten or “doctor” on the eve of going to the hospital. Theatrical games enrich the child's vocabulary, develop imagination and enable mom and dad to bring him up without boring lectures.
When to start?
Some parents think that kids can be culturally introduced from any age. However, this is not entirely correct opinion. A long road, a crowd of people, constant noise will not only tire little children, but also discourage the hunt for a further visit to the Youth Theater. And even the most pleasant emotions received from a short performance (no more than half an hour) will not outweigh such discomfort.
Overly impressionable children are often frightened by scary characters: Babu Yaga, Koshchei, Serpent Gorynych, the Gray Wolf, etc. Therefore, in some theaters, before the show, they prefer to introduce the kids to actors who play negative characters. Seeing them in makeup, even the most emotional young viewer will remain calm.
Psychologists do not recommend mothers to introduce their child to theatrical reality before three years. However, do not just wait, you need to prepare him for performing arts at home.
Finger performances
Already from one and a half years, your son will be able to watch with delight the performance, which is played out with the help of his parents or his own fingers. You can make the necessary props yourself (for example, sew ears to each finger of a garden glove and draw a face on them) or purchase them in a children's store.
Take a fairy tale well known to the child as a literary basis ("Kolobok", "Teremok", "Ryaba Chicken"), re-read it again, show the illustrations and, finally, assign the main roles. At first, the children's attention is not enough for the entire staging, and after 5-10 minutes the baby will be distracted by the toys themselves. Having got used to it, he will gladly respond to the actions and emotions of the characters.
Plane theater
Children over three or four years old can easily be interested in tabletop sketches - playing with cardboard or plywood silhouettes on stands. For this type of "drama" you will need figurines painted on both sides, a variety of decorations: houses, clouds and trees, animals and birds. The kid will be happy to voice all the fairy-tale characters, coming up with his own unusual voice for each character. Such a variety will remarkably develop his speech and phonemic hearing.
Another version of such performances is the cone theater. Characters can be made by yourself or you can download diagrams from the Internet. All you need is to cut out geometric shapes and glue them together. Your kids will definitely help you with this. The dolls turn out to be bright and voluminous, and for greater persuasiveness they can be decorated with paper fringe, sparkles.
Puppet show
For older children who have already mastered the ability to conduct a dialogue and act in accordance with the plot, you can play with dolls. You will need ordinary toys, glove dolls (in the old days they were called parsley) or even puppets, as well as a screen. Glove dolls behave like a real person: they meet, hug, dance, sing songs, quarrel and make peace. Explain the basic rules to the preschooler: index fingers command the character's head, and large and medium fingers command his hands.
Tips for parents to get a child out to the theater
So, the time has come for the real theater itself! If you want only good impressions from the first visit, you need to be very careful in choosing the repertoire, based on your child's age and preferences. What do you need to remember?
- For your debut viewing, choose a puppet show based on a popular fairy tale. Give preference to the classic production, as the little one often knows his favorite stories by heart and may not understand the bold director's decision.
- It is best to start your acquaintance with art with a chamber theater. Not a very large room, muted music creates an almost homely atmosphere. In such cultural institutions, there is no mass gathering of the public and the loud noise characteristic of huge buildings.
- For mobile children, on the contrary, interactive performances are suitable, organized by holiday agencies at home or in a kindergarten. If your offspring is shy and does not want to take part in the general game, do not insist. Let him remain an ordinary observer for now.
- Make sure that watching the play does not break your routine. Avoid purchasing tickets for the afternoon session if your little one is used to sleeping in the afternoon. Also, give up additional entertainment: a trip to a cafe, to an amusement park is better to postpone to another day.
- Be prepared for the fact that the cult trip may end in whims or even tantrums. Strangers, an excess of impressions, prohibitions and new rules of behavior - all this is too difficult for little theatergoers. Do not get angry, better calm the baby down, talk and find out what he remembers the most.
- Come early on the day of the show. Then you will have time to walk around the building, examine carefully different expositions. Try to enrich preschool vocabulary with new words: stage, makeup, intermission, wardrobe, etc. If your child gets tired quickly, on the contrary, come just before the fabulous action, leaving time for the toilet and undressing.
- Do not forget that opera and ballet are the most difficult for a child's perception. A child under eight or nine years of age is able to get bored or fall asleep, watching dances or listening to arias for two hours.
- Do not be discouraged if your children remember not the show, but only the visit to the buffet. For them, this event is one huge holiday, and let them get positive emotions at least from delicious ice cream.
- When the baby is resting and calm, play what you saw for a teddy bear or grandmother. Draw bright decorations, sculpt characters from plasticine. Once again, re-read the literary work that formed the basis of the performance, and at the same time read other fairy tales by the same author.
Undoubtedly, there are many more trips to the Temple of Melpomene ahead of you, but the very first visit will remain in children's memory for a long time. Prepare your offspring for this wonderful world, and then he will grow up to be a cultured person who loves the stage and bright spotlights.
Doctor of Pedagogy, Professor of NGPU Irina Shulga - about the best age to acquaint children with the theater.
