Homemade Stage and Puppet Theater

I was recently reading the book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. This book had a wonderful idea on how to make an inexpensive theater stage using a tension rod and long curtains or bed sheets. I realized we had an extra shower curtain rod and some long curtains in the house which would make a perfect theater stage. The shower rod was long enough to fit between our kitchen and living room. The couch in the living room became a comfortable place to sit and watch the plays put on by Jacob and Rosa. Jacob made up a cute play about a king and a fairy who had to defend their kingdom from a terrible dragon. Jacob also came up with the idea to make a back drop from a large sheet of paper which he clipped to the theater curtain.

Later that day, Jacob dictated his play to me and I wrote it out for him on primary handwriting paper. He then copied his play and added illustrations for his writing/handwriting lesson over the next several days. We printed off paper with primary handwriting lines and a place for illustrations from Los Banos Homeschoolers. This is great paper to use when your younger child wants to write their own story with illustrations.

Our stage was easily converted into a puppet theater with the addition of a blanket draped over our two kitchen stools. The total cost of our stage and puppet theater was $0 and it was easy to take down and put away when the kids lost interest in it. The Creative Family book, where I got this idea, has lots of other great ideas for nurturing creativity in your children and it is a book I would definitely recommend.