I think most parents realize how important play is in the development of our children. There is also research out there that says that play can also aid in learning. Jeffrey Peyton, the creator of Puppetools, feels this is very critical in helping educators and us parents in this area and he has a plethora of information to provide us with tools to add puppets into their daily school time as well as fun time. He has devoted many many hours to researching this and has developed a web site filled with tons of information and videos showing us how this can work for us in our schools as well as homeschools.
He has provided lots and lots of patterns for you to print out to make puppets, directions for his special hinge that he came up with (which is fantastic) and of course if you need some help he has the video examples of puppets other people have created and how they use them. You see when a child enjoys what they are learning and has fun; they retain a lot more of that information. If you have a child with learning disabilities, just think about how much more of their attention you will have.
Both my son (6) and daughter (3) really enjoyed this. I was not sure about the whole puppet issue, but it has turned out to be a fantastic addition to my homeschooling. They were very easy to make and both my kids made several. They re-act to the puppets questions quicker and want to talk to the puppet. I don’t use them every single day, but I do incorporate them into our learning about 2-3 times a week. They really look forward to it as a treat and ask for the puppets to come out and play.
They do have a subscription if you want to join and be able to read all the wealth of information and watch the abundance of videos. $99 a year for up to 30 users. This subscription would be best for a school or a PSP or maybe even a co-op. But for most of us we could use the $20 a year for just the one family.
Score 7 out of 10
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