Puppet Show
Sophia in Advent Garden Dreamtree Puppetshow First Week of Advent
When I started the Waldorf inspired parent toddler class, Stargarden Parenting near Boulder, Colorado, I had been a Waldorf kindergarten and class teacher at Shining Mountain Waldorf School and was receiving my training in the Extra Lesson. This is a Special Education class for children with developmental learning issues who need support, guidance and understanding in overcoming obstacles to their development. I felt that if I worked with parents of young children, a great deal could be done to avoid developmental issues and so I began a class in 1992 for parents with their child, birth to school age. Waldorf Education is inherently therapeutic and my training and interest in healing, nutrition, movement, arts and crafts inspired me to create this class which would guide parents in creating a healthy and healing home life for their child in the early years, which are the foundation for life. My puppet shows were created with this in mind.

One of the core beliefs in Waldorf Education is that each human being has had many lives on Earth and that we choose to incarnate again so that we may heal aspects of our soul and achieve our life's purpose. The puppet show is one mode of presenting images which nurture and heal the soul. While my puppet shows are simple, they are delightful and both children and their parents enjoy them a great deal.

The insights I have used could be used in your own classroom, parent education program, playgroup, home school or home. I have used Anthroposophy, the spiritual teachings of Rudolf Steiner, as my inspiration. I strongly suggest you follow his advice that you keep an open mind and not believe every word I say, but use your own inner guide and discernment to determine whether this is true for you. I personally have found this path to be healing, to have saved my soul from a feeling of hopelessness about the modern world and to continue nurturing my inner being. The puppet shows I create, unlike the puppet shows of a traditional Waldorf classroom which are generally based on fairy tales, are based on the four seasons, festivals and the life of the human being, Saints, Ascended Masters, elemental and angelic beings and their experiences together. These enactments are for children birth to school age and the parents as well.

May your life be filled with joy in learning.

The Watermaiden Puppetshow
Trouble seeing the video? Click here.
When I created the rhythm of the day for the Stargarden class I included seasonal and festival puppet shows which would appeal to very young children so that they would imitate in their play the images they had seen and so that their ability to create inner images, known as the mind's eye or visualization, would be cultivated. Over the years I have seen this happen as children began to create their own puppet shows. One little girl named them her "Dream Tree" and created her own frequently at home, too. Many parents have told me their Stargarden child creates puppet shows at home.

More recently, Suzanne Down of Juniper Puppet School, shared with me that Rudolf Steiner had said that a young child who does puppet shows, would not have the modern adolescent issues (pessimism, sarcasm and depression). One of the reasons I believe this is because in creating their own puppet shows children learn to express not only inner visualizations, but also the outer picture of the subconscious. I believe most soul issues arise more noticeably in adolescence when unconscious manifestations of the subconscious arise. The puppet show the child creates develops the capacity to bring their subconscious out and enact it.

I also believe that inner visualization, or imagination, which is so valued in Waldorf Education, is important because when we create an image and give it our attention and focus we create a holographic, energetic picture, still or moving. This can become manifest physical reality as we mature and are able to hold our attention on it long enough and with regularity. These are the dreams and life goals that are fulfilled. I also believe that when Albert Einstein said "we will not be able to solve the world problems with the same kind of thinking that created them," a different kind of thinking is imagination which holds the potential for solutions. Inner visualization is also a skill, which forms a foundation for learning to read, processing information, taking instructions and one of the skills that is cultivated in the Waldorf classroom before they enter first grade and begin the formal academics of reading, writing and arithmetic. This article is a beginning in understanding the principles of child development which I follow and which guide my intuitions and inspirations in working with young children.
Watermaiden and Friends Slippery Fish Watermaiden
So in short, a puppet show:
  • Provides experiences for the young child to imitate.
  • Fosters inner visualization or the mind's eye.
  • Becomes an enactment of the child's subconscious when they create their own.
  • Nurtures inner visualization which begins the process of realizing dreams and goals.
  • Develops imaginative thinking which may provide insights to solve the dilemmas of the world.
  • Becomes capacities for academic and life learning.
I chose to do seasonal puppet shows for the following reasons:
  • Rhythm is key for health and wellbeing and the seasons are one of the rhythms we experience. You could enact other rhythms, weekly or day and night, for instance.
  • An enactment of the life of the Earth and its creatures, plants and animals help the human being feel connected.
  • The seasons and rhythms encourage a child to incarnate.
  • The four elements, earth, air, fire and water are integral parts of the four seasons and at the heart of what a child explores when coming to Earth.
  • The elementals, which are embodied in the elements and matter are close to children and many children are close to them.
  • The elementals are the gnomes, fairies, undines and sylphys, which have different names in other cultures. They are earth, air, water and fire Beings and take part in the progression of the seasons.
  • The four elements are part of the human being and children are deeply interested in them.
  • Children can relate to themselves in the characters.
  • The angelic realm, which children are naturally close to, also participate in the four seasons.
  • The festivals which play a major role in Waldorf Education are an important part of the ritual of celebrating the passage of the seasons and can be incorporated in the puppet shows.
  • Aspects of the puppet show are often incorporated in the circles since repetition is helpful to the young.
  • The puppet show embodies speech, alliteration and music which form foundation skills for learning academics. It also strengthens the child's memory.
  • At times I do not present the puppet show. Instead we recite and sing it from memory.
  • I include finger play and gestures for the children as part of the puppet show. This is developmentally strengthening.
  • When the children know the puppet show well, I invite them to assist me in the presentation.
  • The imaginative presentation of the physical reality is how a child natively experiences the world, rather than literally.
  • Imagination strengthens a child's life force and they experience a sense of well being as a result.
The Water Maiden Puppet Show is presented at the beginning of the school year and embodies the creatures that children may experience that time of year. It is soothing and calming to the children just as water is and introduces aspects of social skills in play. It is my hope that I will be able to put other puppet shows online to give you ideas on how they progress through the seasons.