Puppets

One thing I love about my adventure with the TOS Homeschool Crew, is the opportunity to try new things that I might not otherwise have considered. I would not have stopped to check out Puppetools if I had not been asked. I guess I thought I was just too cool for puppets. (ha!) Years ago, I worked with them in children's church, but had never thought of puppets as something to let the kids play with. I'd never even considered it. I certainly hadn't incorporated it in my teaching at all.....it just feels weird to put on my puppet voice to 11 and 9 year old boys.

But we gave it an honest try and my boys have loved it. I sat them down in front of the instructional video and had them learn the "hinge", a basic fold that is the foundation for a lot of awesome puppets. At first, my boys ran around with faces drawn right on the hinge and named them all "Mappy". I have no idea where that name came from and neither do they. Since then, they've added various faces to their "mappies" and renamed them "Jack-mappy", "Fire-mappy", "Lassie-mappy", and "Weston-mappy". They've shared the design with friends and their friends have loved it as well. I'm not sure they could do that in public school without being beat up, but their homeschool friends have had a blast with it. :D

I had a little trouble finding the instructional video. When I viewed the patterns, the instructions said the patterns required the “hinge” which could be found in “the Online Workshop”. But I couldn't find a clear link to the Online Workshop. I eventually found the instructions under the "Student" tab. So no, I wasn't a huge fan of the layout and I never could get myself to sit through the dry videos with the boys, but the website does have some excellent contributions to make in the area of creative play and learning.

My family has greatly enjoyed using puppets. I grew up making them with my cousins, but had forgotten those paper sack inventions. My main pleasure used to be in the making of the puppets. My cousins and I would spend hours building them. I cut construction paper strips so skinny they were hard to glue....all so I could have perfect eyelashes. I braided the yarn hair on my paper sack puppets. So it was a surprise to see my boys satisfied with making rudimentary puppets and running around playing with them. Why, their dogs didn't even have whiskers! This was all backwards to me, but just perfect for them.

It is not as if the website doesn't offer excellent models for elaborate puppets. There are pages and pages of printable patterns. My boys don't believe in patterns. If they print it and cut it out, then it is someone else's design. They are very particular about full ownership of their creations. The patterns really are very cute and some are even available for free if you visit their website. But the emphasis on the website, and certainly for my boys, is on encouraging creative play; letting the child lead the exploration and giving them room to discover and learn. They have certainly done that.

Here is a brief video (1 min. 30 sec.) of a play that Joel created completely on his own. 100% of this is his. He asked me if he could make puppets for art and then he ran with it, coaxing his brother into playing a brief part. The entire play is actually almost 9 minutes long, but I am just sharing the very beginning.

It is the story of a grumpy star complaining on the top of a cheerful Christmas tree. The tree eventually explains the reason he is cheerful at Christmas by reading the Christmas story. Joel had his bible behind the curtain and traded hands with Ethan so that Ethan could move the hinge of his puppet while Joel held his bible and read the entire Christmas story. It was so beautiful to see him take charge of a project like that. It was so wonderful to hear him read so well (you won't get to see this in the video) even though he did read that Mary "convinced" a child and that Joseph didn't have "relatives" with her. Best of all, it was a delight to see him so proud of his own accomplishment.

One more video, also a minute and a half long, is of Sarah, who insisted on putting on her own show after watching the boys. I LOVE hearing her put on her "puppet voice".

The pricing for Puppetools is based on an individual basis or a group basis. You can have access to the patterns, an excellent discussion forum, and advice from the creator of Puppetools for $20.00. This membership lasts 60 days, which is plenty of time to learn what you need to know and to save your favorite patterns. If you join with a group, you have a full year's membership and can split the $99.00 cost between everyone in your group, up to 30 members. I think this could be a fun idea for a homeschool group.

Thank you, Puppetools, for adding this experience to their childhood memories.



For more reviews of this website, be sure to check out the TOS Crew.

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