Why for children?

Because what we do for them is timeless.

Why I perform for children–a FB friend asked this and I gave a short answer, but the feedback on our Easter Puppet show is a much better illustration.’ Our church, Faith Presbyterian in Myrtle Beach, put on a puppet show. I wrote it and helped , two other members helped with puppets, yet another person dressed the puppets, The show stuck pretty close to the scripture story of Easter. Easter is over, but the show goes on–one of the women filmed it on her iphone and now the show is posted on the page. A former member in another city just commented to say her three year old has watched it three times and loves it. So, Easter bunnies and  chocolate are gone but the Truth marches on into the hearts of little ones, even after The Day. Humbling and reminds me how important is the work we do for little ones.

Puppet Show

Puppet Show

We did a Bible-based short Easter Puppet show. Take a look at the video

Reading with Hands

Reading with your Hands

 

Story and craft are a great way to help your little ones learn sequencing, story development, and how to develop an understanding of story. The simplest craft idea to help children understand the meaning of a story is puppetry. You don’t need fancy things. Paper bags, or craft sticks make wonderful puppets.

 

Why the craft? To engage the child on many levels–visually, and with hands. Then, when retelling the story using the puppets, you have movement. They can dance, sing, tumble–whatever.

Key to letting this unleash their creativity is to be unspecific about what the puppets should look like and how to construct them.

 

To help the younger child it is good to set some parameters, but allow freedom within. Let’s say you are doing the three bears. (And it is good to start with a very familiar story)Tell the child that they definitely need  one puppet for each bear and one for Goldilocks,. Anything else is up to them. Don’t tell the child how to make the bears or what color the bears should be. Let the child drive the creation. Then, be a good audience, responsive and appreciative when the child performs the story for you.

 

There may be deviations from the tale as you know it. That is good.