Super Quick Puppet Stage

When I woke up yesterday, Aidman was standing next to me. The first words out of his mouth were "Can we make a puppet show Mom?", as a non-morning person I rubbed my eyes while agreeing that yes we could make a puppet show. Then he said "we need a big box, do we have one?" and I answered that no we did not. "Well, how can we make a puppet show then? We really need one" he said. That's when Mommy Genius came upon my sleepy body "we can use a sheet and tie it to two chairs", I said. That set Aidman in motion to get everything he needed.

I ate breakfast while watching an awesome puppet show! I am one lucky mama!!


Once the puppet show was over the puppet show quickly became a tent. The kiddos all had a fun morning playing together.

Imagination/Creative Play

I have always LOVED creative play and providing children with things to inspire them to get really creative and imaginative. We have the standard play kitchen with tons of play food and suppplies, a dress up box full of silly outfits, puppets, a doll house, little people things, tons of toys for them to play and pretend with, and about a month ago I even turned the kitchen area into a grocery store for 2 weeks.

But lately, I haven't provided MY favorite things ( prop boxes) for my kids, that I was ALWAYS sure to have in my preschool classroom. A classroom and a home are such different atmospheres, but sometimes I just really get sad that I'm not providing the same things at home for my own kids that I would have fought for in my classroom. So THANK YOU to ABC and 123 for providing this weeks Picnic Table Talk with the topic of Imagination because now that it has been brought to my attention I will be working hard to get some prop boxes made to inspire my kids alittle more.

So, on to explaining how I like to inspire kids to get creative! I LOVE to provide prop boxes! If you set up a tent and some camping gear, they will have their own campout. Normally, I will get out a box filled with a theme of things and set everything up really nicely in a certain area, but I could very easily just set out the box and let the kids figure it all out. Rather than me listing tons of things that can be set out or made into prop boxes, I'm going to refer you so some of my favorite websites for getting ideas.
Prop Boxes
Dramatic Play Props

AND if you promote imagination and silliness in your kids now, they will grow up to STILL want to be silly sometimes!!


Here I am dressed up for a Murder Mystery Night where I had to be a blond Miss Priss.
Here some close friends and I went to a 70's party!

Thank You Mahalo and ABC and 123!!

A couple weeks ago, we won a giveaway at ABC and 123 for some cute Mahalo circus puppets. They arrived today and my kiddos could not be more excited! Right away they asked for my to make a puppet stage (luckly I had been saving a big box for a moment just like this). As you can see, I did not get fancy (because they gave me no time to) and just cut a rectangle out of a box. They have spent over an hour playing with these today!

We got a pretty acrobat, a silly clown, and an elephant that has a funny hat. All of these puppets are nicely made and are sure to hold up against lots of playtime.


Aidman peeked up to see what was going on on the other side.


Lyssy and Daddy had snuggle time while watching Mommy and Aidman do a silly puppet show.

Thank you so much ABC and 123 and Mahalo for this Awesome giveaway!!

Dressing Up!

If you don't have a dress up box, GET ONE!! Not only is it Hysterical to watch your kiddos try on silly outfits, but they are learning SO MUCH while they are doing it. They are learning to role play, gaining imagination, self esteem, cooperative play, and motor skills to put on different types of clothes, etc.

The types of dress up clothes you could have are: old halloween costumes (I find them for Cheap right after halloween), old clothes from mom and dad, wigs, scarves, hats, tiaras, purses, shoes, etc.

Aidman looked like a Christmas Pimp.

My niece Laneybug had so much fun dressing up!

Lyssy looked like she was ready to go out on the town.