Plays, as I explained on Friday, are important because they satisfy so many of the kindergarten standards expected by any school. They build cohesiveness among students. Plays offer children opportunities to explore that no other teaching technique does.

Does it always work, and can every parent hear and understand every word? Nope. It’s a developmental structure that individualizes every child, but just trying, just getting in the game, just playing the part to the best of his or her natural ability is what is important. This breeds success, confidence, and the knowledge that the child can and did and is successful.

With that success under his belt, it’s time to return to learning. It’s hard with Christmas looming in the near future, but with enough games, prizes and new material, the natural course of learning just takes off now. Readers will be stronger, math skills will come more easily, and there is a huge new level of being grown up that paves the way to more success during the cold blustery winter months.

Children all learn at different rates. Two of our stars are four. Public confidence, the ability to project a line, the natural clown of both children burst forth in a success that will carry these four year olds the rest of the year – they are in Kindergarten already and reading.

Yet, there are other four year olds who can’t remember their lines, can’t pay attention, and can’t deliver an ouch if you stomped on a toe!

So what makes one child so far ahead of another? Nature and nurture. Some children simply grow up fast. They want to know, to do, to explore, to understand, and you hear that in their questions because they see that these desires open the doors to success. It’s intelligence right up front. You can see them try to understand what is expected of them, and they try very hard to comply. It’s called motivation, discipline and virtue.

The home is also a source of advancement. When parents have expectations, children tend to be more grown up. When time is spent on directing children’s activities and behavior; when correction is made, when rules are made and enforced, children tend to be more aware of their surroundings. Children who are talked to, directed and taught at home have a wonderful advantage.

Children who are unmotivated and have neither discipline enforced or encouraged at home won’t have any. Chaos is chaos and it fails to breed virtue. When one child could recite the whole play, and another is busy pulling his velcro shoes wondering where he is, there is a sad difference.

So when working with a group of children to produce a play, there are many things to be considered. The writer and director choose lines they think a child may, could, might and probably will deliver. Sometimes those lines have to be changed to fit the ability of the child.

The standing statement before every rehearsal is: This is YOUR responsibility. This is YOUR homework. This is YOUR part of the whole. Do it well for your classmate’s sake. Then, when they do their lines well, it’s a HUGE hurdle, a huge learning process, and a huge success.

Our children will be involved in group activities right through college. Each one has a voice, a separate need, a desire to be singled out, and sometimes they are, but when there is discipline and virtue, it all works together. I think they worked together brilliantly and did a fine play. Our congratulations to children and parents!