Anastasia Suen, author of Toddler Two and Baby Born, visits schools frequently. Here’s one of her tips for surviving a school appearance—based on long experience!
After talking all day at a school visit, you may come home to find that you don’t have any voice left! On the days that you stay home and write, you aren’t talking all day, you’re typing. To jump from silence to projecting your voice to a room full of kids over and over again puts a strain on your vocal cords. Your voice becomes scratchy and by the end of the day, it can disappear! (Been there, done that…)
I found a solution to the disappearing voice problem in the business section of the newspaper. It seems that stock traders also lose their voices after yelling out prices all day. All of that talking dries out your vocal cords. The advice given was to drink eight ounces of water for every ten pounds of body weight. That’s a lot of water, but I tried it, and it works! I drink water in the morning before I begin speaking and a half liter bottle of water after each presentation. I also drink water at lunch. I continue drinking water after I leave the school for the day, and the next day my voice is back to normal. Problem solved.
