FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Woodland Creatures

When my stepson (who is now 12) was little, he had quite a bit of difficulty waking up in the morning. I would come in at 5am to get him up for school and what are you kidding, of course he was crabby!

Out of desperation to get him moving one morning, I grabbed a finger puppet that was next to his bed and had the puppet wake him. It was a Queen finger puppet that I'd made from a kit. She wore a red dress with gold braid trim, red yarn hair and had the biggest, goofiest head you've ever seen. Ridiculously large, I'd obviously stuffed her head about three sizes too big. In fact, if you didn't hold onto the finger puppet with your thumb, the top-heavy Queen would fall right off your finger.

"Gooooood Morrrniingg!!!", I called out in a heavy British accent. Of course, my crabby kid had to unbury his head from under his pillow to see who was talking. When he saw that Queen on my finger, he sat up and giggled. And so I went on...

"Gooood Morrrninggg, I said!", to which he replied, giggling more.

"It's TIME to get UP!" And I took the Queen's big head and gently bopped him on the nose.

Well, as you can imagine, the Queen was in charge of waking him from that time on. When the novelty wore off, I introduced a few new characters to the morning wake up call, including the Knight and Brownie, the horse.

In addition to being part of his morning, I would also use the puppets when he was upset. It was much easier for him to talk to the puppets than to me. It sounds silly (because obviously he knew that the puppets were attached to me and that it was really MY voice) but it sort of broke the ice somehow and it really did work.

I was looking around on Etsy the other day and saw these PRECIOUS finger puppets and was reminded of how well they worked for us. Try them with your youngster, I'd say any kid 5 and under will still appreciate them and any kid 5 and up would love to play with them on their own. You just really have to go for the gusto; don't be embarrassed to make a complete fool out of yourself. Pull out that wacky accent, dance around, try to use multiple characters at once (keep the accents straight!)...seriously, the kids LOVE it!

And with that here is my FIVE FOR FRIDAY...I was inspired by the sweet woodlands finger puppet sets to make a list of woodlands creatures Etsy items this week.



STAYAWAKE

The detail on these finger puppets is amazing, you have to look at the site and see the other sets (mermaids, princesses, robots, dinosaurs, etc)...they are all beautifully made! I'm already plotting my first purchase.




TRAFALGARSSQUARE

Every print in this shop is lovelier than the next, I'm having a hard time finding my favorite! I've had this site bookmarked for a good long while and I know that when I finally do move into my own place, I'll be sure to choose at least one of these prints to grace my wall. With the soft colors, I think they would make a particularly thoughtful new baby gift.




AFORESTFROLIC

Such a sweet handstamped & glittered blank journal, wouldn't this make a great stocking stuffer? Yes...already I'm thinking ahead to gift giving! Make it a sketch book, a journal, a note pad...a combination of all three?




HIPCHICKCROCHET

Ack, babies in animal costumes, not much cuter in life than this!! These hats are just heavenly. They are being sold custom made or you can buy the pattern and do it up yourself if you are so inclined.




TANYABOND

My grandmother would have called this little guy "schnissy", her way of saying, "isn't this so CUTE!!" The artists has some clever and unique designs from her original paintings on everything from prints, postcards, tees & necklaces like this one.