You and the kids can create your own puppet theater. All you need are * 1 table, * 1 table cloth large enough to completely cover the front and sides of the table, leaving the back exposed * Stiff white cardboard (or colored paper) * pencils and color pencils * scissors * glue * plenty of time and creativity

Granted, this puppet theater is nowhere near as impressive as these puppet theaters for kids but they are a lot cheaper when you make them yourself.

Ready?

The puppets for your theater will be finger puppets. These are the easiest to make. My inventive 6 year old boy ignored my intended design and made his own instead.

My 6 year old kid thought up this one all by himself. He used colored paper, wrapped loosely around a finger and taped closed. He made them loose enough so he could put on or take off the puppets as he wished. Then he would draw a face on the tip of the puppet. His elder brother liked that design and helped him make a variety of such finger puppets with different colors and different expressions.

The puppets I had originally taught them to make required a lot more work though. The steps are as follows

1. Decide what characters this puppet show is going to feature. 2. Draw pictures of these characters on the white cardboard. Each picture has to be big enough to cover 1 finger. 3. Color the pictures 4. Cut out these pictures. 5. Cut a white strip of cardboard about half inch thick, 1 and a half inches long. (adjust the length according to your child's finger width. Make 1 puppet first then you can roughly tell how long the strip should be. 6. Form a circle with the white strip. 7. Glue this circle behind the picture so that a finger can go through it to support the puppet. 8. Let the glue dry completely and you have your finger puppets.

Once you have enough puppets, you can make the theater.

Drape the table cloth over the table, so that the front and sides are completely covered, but the back of the table is fully exposed.

That covered table is the puppet theater.

The children can hide behind the theater, put on the finger puppets on their fingers, lift their hands over their heads to perform the puppet show.

Be attentive when your kids perform their puppet show for you.