Think back to the last time you made a puppet.  Was it in elementary school, summer camp or sunday school?  Chances are it was made from a brown paper bag and didn’t hold your interest for long.  Puppetools.com founder Jeffrey Peyton takes puppet-making to a new level.  These puppets are still made from paper, but they use a revolutionary, patented paper hinge that flings open the doors of the imagination.  There is now no one and no thing that can escape being transformed into an educational puppet.

The Puppet Tools website offers parentst and educators a wealth of puppet sample photographs created by teachers and students, 37 .pdf puppet patterns, numerous videos, papers and newspaper articles dealing with education through play and puppetry.  A discussion forum is also available, and while fairly inactive all posts receive prompt responses from Mr. Peyton.  

Digging through the papers and articles it soon becomes apparent that Peyton’s philosophy is founded firmly in evolutionary thought; parents may want to stick with the sampe images, patterns and idea-generating videos to avoid becoming mired in a rather abstract, new-agey worldview.  The documents are challenging to access as each is a tiny .pdf file, with groupings of these files scattered across the site, rather than a unified document.  

I think I can summarize the premise here.  If you create a puppet on any subject, its interactions with your child will lead to higher engagement, recall and ‘buy in’ from your child – because puppets are fun.

I had such fun viewing the videos (though this may not be feasible for dial-up users) and actually laughed out loud as I watched educators communicating with their puppets.  None of the videos or photographs are professional quality, representing the recordings of an amateur in classrooms and workshop settings.  Even so, watching educators and children create and work with their puppets stirred the creative impulse to life, and after looking through the website I’m excited to get started.  

Peyton recommends you just get started,ra building your own original puppets, those based on storybook characters, to illustrate scientific concepts and in many other capacities.  Not only can you create topically specific puppets for your teaching needs, but your child can also create puppets to represent your studies, or just for fun.  Don’t forget – puppet building counts as arts and crafts!

Homeschooling parents are always looking for fun and effective ways to reach their children.  New methods such as lapbooking and a heavy emphasis on hands-on activities are often used for reaching tactile and distractible children.  Puppets take these creative teaching methods a step further and can really drive the information home while a good time is had by all.

If you’re interested in liberating your concept of what is achievable through paper puppets, I recommend you take a look at Puppet Tools.  Individuals can purchase a site membership for $20/year.  If you are a member of a school, co-op etc. a membership for up to 30 users can be purchased for $99/year – very affordable in either case.  Our family will be reaping the benefits of this puppet building technique for years to come.  Enjoy learning with your children, however you choose to do so!