We all love going and watching our children perform. It brings us so much happiness to see them up on stage, getting involved in something they enjoy so much! But did you know that by children being involved in performing arts, this not only benefits us as parents (we can all agree nothing makes us prouder than seeing them up on stage!) but children also reap the rewards of getting involved in performing arts- happy days!
Helps with Academic Performance
Studies from the Arts Education Partnership have shown that school children who had been in activities such as drama, music and dance were also more proficient in the maths, reading and writing. In countries with the highest results in maths and science, including Japan, Hungary and the Netherlands, there is a great focus on the arts and music as an extracurricular – in fact, it is mandatory and part of the school curriculum! So, why not get your child involved in as much performing arts? It will benefit them in other areas of school too!
A confidence boost
As well as performing arts being fun for children, they also help largely with confidence! In order to execute a good performance, children must learn how to present themselves and keep the audience engaged. Through having to present themselves well on stage, this helps to boost their self-esteem and confidence as they refine their performance skills and ‘bite the bullet’ when it comes to fears such as stage fright!
Refines their ability to think on the spot
The need to stay calm and continue what you need to do is something that is important no matter what stage of life you are at! Since no performance is ever perfect, this helps children to refine and quickly overcome minor errors to ensure that the ‘show goes on’. Often in dramatic and musical performances, it is not uncommon for a performer to miss a cue, or forget a lyric – the performing arts just helps performers to keep calm and carry on as the saying goes!
It creates team players
Often in choirs, dance troupes and plays there are many players and they all must work together to ensure a smooth performance. The quality of the performance is often dependent upon how well the team can cooperate together, if people aren’t considering where they fit in with others the performance can quickly turn messy and look disorganised on stage. In this way, through the performing arts being very much a group orientated activity, this helps kids to develop their teamwork skills!
So there we have it, the performing arts – something that is often seen as ‘not important’ in the school curriculum, has proven to provide kids with some of the most important life skills!