So far, the kids have been in 1 Advent Play, 1 Christmas Pageant, and 3 Spring Flings.  The holiday related productions have been with our Catholic homeschool group, and the Spring Flings have been with our Christian homeschool group.  Spring Flings are actually homeschool Musical productions we've put together from various resources.

How to put on a homeschool drama.  We’ve done this for between 5 and 25 families for 4 years, now.  Here’s a how-to outline for a homeschool play.

1. Decide on a theme.  When I choose a play I keep cost in mind.  Some scripts and songs have a cost for each family to get a copy.  If your location will also have a fee, this may make participating in the play cost prohibitive for some families. The other thing I keep in mind for a homeschool production is the ability for families to practice some of it at home.  If you have a drama where all the kids need to be together to practice, then you’ll end up scheduling more practices and some families may not be able to fit it into their schedule.  If you have mini-scenes where each family can practice their scene at home and just have enough practices to put it all together, you’ll end up getting more participation from home school families.  Some plays we have put on are :
   

   1.  A Christmas Pageant - A narrator describes the action and the kids just act out the action broken up by Christmas hymns.
      

   2. An Advent play - It was a dramatization of the Jesse Tree.  Each family chose a bible story to perform.  They chose how to perform it, practiced it at home, and we just had to put it all together with a narrator.  We chose to give our narrator the character of Mary and it was all told from her perspective while she looked back in history as God prepared her nation and world for the baby that was inside her.
      

   3. A Salute to America – Each family chose an American historical figure to play.  They researched and wrote what they would say about their figure.  They designed simple or complex costumes for their child to dress like the character.  Small children just said “I’m an Indian, “ while older kids would memorize a report up to 2 minutes long to recite.  We sang patriotic songs from www.twinsisters.com (we got tapes in their basement sale for $1 each).  The songs would alternate between children’s character descriptions and everyone danced to the songs using props such as posters they designed for a soldier in their family (present or past), patriotic streamers, flags and such.  Each family also brought any historical memorabilia and any projects the kids had done for school that year that applied to the theme.
      

   4. World’s Fair – Much like the Salute to America only using children's music from around the world. Hal Leonard's music site www.halleonard.com has a relatively inexpensive CD with sheet music and rights called "TEACH THE WORLD TO SING".  Each family chose a country to research, report on, and dress like.  We used maracas and world flags.  We made scenery from old refrigerator boxes (Thank you H.H. Greg) we painted with scenes of trees and hills and a map of the world with a train going around the map.
      

   5. Dole 5 A Day – This was really fun.  The dole website www.dole5aday.com has free music & play ideas for classrooms.  Click on Teachers, then Classroom Resources and scan down.  Each family had to register separately as a teacher, since they’re each their own school, but they also have free educational computer games you can order for free to go with it.  Each child chose a fruit or vegetable to be, researched it, and memorized their research.  Parents designed each child’s costume – some were poster board or made from garbage sacks , some were elaborately sewn.  We interspersed songs between the kids’ parts.  It was cute, cute, cute!
      

2. Decide on a performance date - this may be dictated by location availability or a gathering date for your homeschool group.
   

3. Decide on a location for your play.  This is often a very difficult part of the task and you may have to be flexible with the performance date to find this.
   

4.  Decide on how many practices you need and schedule them.  Finding a location that will allow you to practice is optimum, so the kids get used to the surroundings and the sound of their own voices, etc.  We’ve done between 5 and 10 rehearsals over a 4 week period for each of the plays we put on.  The more practices, the better the performance.
   

5.  Invite people to participate.  Advertise in your homeschool publications a month or so before the first practice.  Let people know the theme and how to get the material (music and scripts).  Families should have the material at least partially memorized before the first rehearsal.  Keep track of participating families, contact information, and characters chosen and distribute this information among all the families participating at the first rehearsal so they can carpool, etc. 
   

6.  At the rehearsals, just go through the play once or twice with all the music – depending on kids’ attention spans.
   

7. Give the kids one day off rehearsals before the performance day.  Encourage parents to take it easy on their kids as far as school work the day of performance, so the kids will be well rested and have fun.
   

Adding history, nutrition and religion to our homeschool through dramatic productions with friends has been an incredible asset to our homeschool and our children’s experience in learning.