Age to Begin Children doing Puppets?

[synchronizity4jesus]

Hi All  

Here's my first official post...a little question based on Your opinions and experiences!

My husband & I are beginning a new Puppet & Drama Ministry.  We are wanting to open this ministry team up to a wide range of ages.  We strongly believe in mentoring & building bonds between age groups.

Ok, so...we had & still are considering having the "age" requirements general in that the youngest & oldest members must be able to read fluently.  We are wanting to go this route instead of basing it on a given age or grade in school for a couple of reasons.  My own girls are a prime example...my oldest is 9 & is in 4th grade while my middle is 7 & in 3rd grade.  My 3rd grader can read more fluently than her sister.

I have had a few parents say that younger than 9yrs is not good because of perfect technique...my thought, everyone has to start somewhere.  I have, also, had those say that kids younger than 4th grade are too immature & rambunctious to learn & use puppets.

I am torn between wanting to be able to allow the younger children the opportunity to be apart of something special that they can grow & benefit from and from being able to accurately communicate & justify the use and abilities of the younger students.

Any of your knowledge, opinions, and experiences would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance for your time & help.

[Susan]

Hi there, synchronizity4jesus!

Been there!
SAME THING!  My 12 year old does not read as fluently as my 8 year old, either!!  (whispers: That's cause by the second child, mothers have that teaching how-to-read thing down pat...my theory.)

I like using all ages.  I do some puppet skits every Wed night at church.  I have used ages 8 through adult.  Actually, I have had more problems with some adults who have forgotten how to play!  (whispers: That's cause they out-grew their I-can-do-anything stage...my theory)  
I have found there is no hard and fast rule.  It depends on the individual puppeteer.  

If you want opinions and tips, here are my souvenirs (hehehe, listening to John Prine cd here)  

I like opening things up to all ages.  The younger ones seem to want the puppet to bite something or someone first time they put it on, but they soon get over that if you teach them well straight off.   Before I hand out puppets, I say, "Puppets are nice people, they don't like to bite others.  Besides they got no teeth and biting hurts their little puppet gums."  

Tips I have used to help younger kids who are following puppet scripts:
If there are only two puppets in the script, I highlight the lines the younger puppeteer has to read.  I also break down how I print out the dialogue.   For example:

Sparky:  Hi Madeline!
Madeline:  Sparky!!!

Sparky:  What's up?
Madeline:  That cowlick on back of your head?

I put a space or two in between each grouping of talking and highlight the child's part to help them better keep up while they are trying to balance concentration between the puppet action and the dialogue they are reading/learning.  

If the script calls for more than two puppets, I highlight one color for the puppet who speaks before the child puppeteer and then highlight the child puppeteer part another color.  This helps them have a visual cue that they are about to speak.   I always use a larger than normal font for printing skits, too, unless it is a long skit.  I think I use 16 or 18 arial most times.   Last,  I pin the script up in front of the child behind the puppet stage so they don't have to mess with flipping pages or holding a script.  

The thing I have found is younger kids can do quite well if you try to think through what they are doing and eliminate as much as you can in the way of things they have to do like holding scripts or having to look for where they are in the script.  Their enthusiasm is a marvelous!  

At age 7-8, they are learning to read with feeling so they GOT it...They know what to do with their voice when they see a question mark or exclamation mark and the best part is, they are not afraid or embarassed to do it.  With adults, I have to  say, "YOU CAN'T OVERACT with a puppet"    The great thing about the preteen set is they come up with the greatest actions/motions for the puppets to do while they speak.  For instance, we had a script where one puppet asked the other, "Can you hear me???"  The kid came up with the idea of letting his puppet look in the other puppet's ear as he said his line.  He actually had his puppet put its eye where the other puppet's ear would be.  The kids in the audience howled and I was SO proud of that kid!  Better yet was the beam on his face at that moment.  Priceless!

The thing I have also had to work with on all ages is letting the puppet lean downward like he is getting tired as the child holding him.  I have been known to say, "Dead puppet speaking" in walk-throughs.  This usually perks the lil puppet right up!

Using younger age kids for puppetry has worked for me.  I have seen how it raises their self esteem to be part of something.  

I say RAISE that ESTEEM and LET the kids SERVE...it's a Two-fer!    

grace

[synchronizity4jesus]

Thanks Grace!  

My feelings exactly.  
I am soo glad to know I'm not the only one out here who believes children can do more than many adults give them credit for. :rolleyes

If you don't mind, I'd like to use some of your comments to help getting my goals across to those who are doubting the kids & their abilities? Again, thanks!

[Cameron]

Children will only rise to the expectations you have for them. If you have low expectations then you will get low value from their performance. My wife and I ran a puppet troupe in our church for 5 years. We expected a lot form these kids. Most of the parents, and others, felt we were expecting too much from them. Everyone, including my wife, were surprised at how high value these kids performances were.

Cam

[Shawn Sorrell]

I my opinion even the ability to read is limiting yourself.  The son of a puppet company I have worked with has been involved in the process since he was able to walk.  Well ok even before then since she often had to have him along backstage in a a car seat.  It is true that when she preformed she always tried to have someone available to watch him but during set up he was always allowed in the theater.  Often he would "help" us set things up.  I would say that even before he started pre-school he was able to recognize puppets and know often where they needed to be packed away.

Although he never preformed publicly at this age he always had his own puppets that he was allowed to present shows with at home or in the workshop. Now he is in I believe about 2nd or 3rd grade and has started doing some preformances with his mom.

There is also the daughter of a puppeteer that is a teacher here in Kansas City.  Again the child was included in the process from the very beginning and is now preforming on thier own.  I remember when the local guild her was the sponsor for a regional PofA festival.  Normally the PofA does not allow children under 4 in preformances or to participate in workshops.  This was not something this puppeteer was willing to accept for her child and since she was also on the commitee that worked on the festival insisted that the child be allowed to particpate.  The child even presented thier own show at one of the informal evening preformances and did very well.

Now I admit that these may likely a unique situations since the child was that of the puppeteer but I do think that even younger children that do not read can be included.  I think that even if they can not read that they could still be given a "story" and asked to act it out with the puppets.  I do think that in the a puppet program you would maybe need to require that the childs parent be involved in the program also.

[Susan]

synchronizity4jesus, Absolutely, if you want to use anything I post on here, by all means, have at it.  

Joker, You reminded me of something I had not thought of in years when you said the thing about even the ability to read can be limiting.   My son was my mother-in-law's first grandchild, so she went overboard with him.  She would send us boxes of books. She couldn't buy one Dr. Suess or fairy tale books, she would send sets with others mixed in that she caught at flea markets or yard sales.   I loved reading to him when he was little.  Some of our best time was the time she sent a box with that had some hand puppets.  They were fur.  There was a chickie, rabbit, shark, and a turtle.  I loved the turtle.  You stuck your hand through his shell and the hand part ended at his head.  We used to have a lot of fun playing with that turtle...till the dog ate him.  
Only ones I have left now are the shark and the rabbit.  I am so glad we kept them.  

It was so sweet to hear about the little ones using puppets.  Don't you love the way little kids without reading talk through their scripts?  
What a smile!  

grace.