Puppet Play

There are a variety of resources available for puppet crafts, purchasing puppets and puppet plays that produce hours of engaging fun for both you and your child.  Kids and puppets have a history and indeed there is evidence to suggest that children were playing with puppets 3000 years before the birth of Christ.  The reason puppets have provided such enriching entertainment for old and young alike is because puppets are fun.

Whether making puppets or playing with puppets, puppets stimulate, encourage and cultivate your child's imagination. When children play with puppets they are in a world of their own making. In a world where much is outside a child's control, the world of puppets is one in which the child is both the creator and the master.

Introducing your child to the art of puppeteering is a rewarding experience for both you and your child. Whether you are making puppets with your child, putting on a puppet show together or simply sitting back and enjoying your child's performance the opportunity to interact with your child through puppets can only benefit you and your child.

From simple sock or paper bag puppets to the more complex string puppets the variety is as rich and as varied as you and your child's imaginations. Together you will learn things about yourselves and each other that will serve your relationship long past childhood.

Through your child's bringing an inanimate object, the puppet, to life you are afforded a look through the window of your child's inner world. If you allow your child to take the lead you may well find yourself amazed at where you will go.

In addition to stimulating, encouraging and contributing not only to the benefit of your child's imagination but to their building social and relationship skills as well.  Puppets will assist your child's development of speaking and listening skills.  They can experiment with different characters and personalities and be at cause over them.  Playing with puppets increases your child's manual dexterity and affords them a means of communicating feelings and emotions they may otherwise have difficulty expressing.

Children often act out badly when something or someone is bothering them. Through their bringing an inanimate puppet to life they may well bring to view the source of their troubles. Their puppet play will often reveal how things are going at school, how they are getting along with their friends or siblings or a problem that they are having difficulty solving. Therapists use puppets as part of cognitive therapy as children are often more comfortable speaking through puppets than they are in directly communicating with an adult.

In short, not only does playing with puppets stimulate the imagination it often uncovers what is stifling or suppressing it.

Puppets can be made from anything, scraps of material, old buttons, pieces of colorful yarn and ribbon, a splash of watercolor, felt markers applied to a paper bag, an sock that has lost it's mate or a pair of gloves or mittens that have been grown out of all lend themselves to the making of wonderful, imaginative and unique puppets.

There is a wide variety of puppets available for sale either stringed or hand puppets. They make great birthday gifts as well as wonderful momentoes of family vacations.

An old sheet, the back of the couch or a chair or an empty appliance box all lend themselves to setting the stage for a wonderful puppet show.