Puppet Time

It finally all clicked today as we rode back from the library's story time today. Gracie's new fascination with puppets and her somewhat ease from shyness has come from the library's teen puppeteers.

Lets start at the beginning. Gracie is a very shy child. Okay, very shy in public. She clings to me and seems to scare easily in uncomfortable situations. I have thought and thought about ways to help Gracie with this since I know what it was like to be so painfully shy as a child (and adult). I don't expect her to jump up and volunteer to go on stage or make new friends at the drop of a hat, I merely want her to not be quite so uncomfortable around others. That is a lesson I still haven't mastered, and if I can save my child from wringing her hands in while in the company of new people at 28--then I have done my job.

Since my search for Mommy and Me groups, and music time and other such activities for toddlers in this Northern Virginia wasteland came up unsurprisingly empty, I decided to start small. I noticed that our library had a preschool storytime on Saturdays and Wednesday's at 11am. That was reasonable. We have been 4 times now, and even though there is nothing elaborate, the woman in charge is an amazing story teller. She plans fun and active songs between the stories so the kids don't get restless, and then there are the puppets. The library has a small puppet stage and there are 4-5 teens, who I am guessing volunteer at the library, who control the very brightly colored foam people. Those kids love the puppets and sing and dance along. I guess watching the others get up and get silly has helped Gracie a great deal. Each time we go she is more active and more willing to do a few more things. Don't get me wrong, she still won't dance and act silly or socialize, but its a step in the right direction.

Here at home, I have a tub of fun puppets that mom has given me and that I have found at various places, for Gracie to play with. We have pulled them out and had a good time at various times, but for the past few weeks Gracie pulls them all out at least once a day. She loves to make the puppets talk. They usually say "hello Gracie!" She makes sure mommy and daddy each get a puppet too, and she has fun for a very long time.

I had started to notice her improvement during each storytime trip, but it is only now that I realize she is using those puppets at the library and at home to become more comfortable around others.

The summer round of "preschool storytime" is nearly over, but I have a feeling I will do what it takes to be sure she makes it to the fall program.

**Top picture is of Gracie playing with her puppets last week. (That's an elephant on her hand). The bottom picture is of Gracie smiling and clapping her hands at Wednesday's story time. It's not the best picture, but you can see that she is starting to get in to it**

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