- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- dads today articles
- dads today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Puppet Power
Why Puppets Will Never Go out of Style
By Emily Mendell
Quality Time Together: Puppet time with just you and your child offers countless opportunities to share and grow. One of the easiest activities in which Loving engages with her kids is to pick a favorite storybook and retell it together with the puppets. For children who are beginning to exercise their creativity, they can branch out from story retelling to using characters from familiar books and developing "new adventures" for them. However, one of the most positive activities Loving engages in is incorporating real social situations, such as sharing, bullying or telling the truth into the mix of scenarios, giving her children the opportunity to practice the right responses in a relaxed and fun manner.
Social Networking: Group puppet play with other children is best recommended for children over the age of 4, Levin says. Due to the propensity for toddlers to engage in parallel play, it is often difficult for them to work together and construct a scenario that is agreeble to everyone. "When you put a group of 3-year-olds behind the puppet theater, it's not uncommon for them all to be performing a different play," Levin says. However, for older children, puppets are a perfect opportunity to practice compromising and taking turns. "If there are more than two or three children involved, some can be the audience and watch the show – then switch."
