Easy DIY sock puppet

We live in a day and age where kids would rather spend hours gaming on their smartphone than build a Lego cabin or create elaborate narratives for Barbie. What happened to the good old days when kids played with toys that sparked their imagination? If you’d like to recreate those days for your child, we’ve got a project to help you get started: making a sock puppet!

What you’ll need:

• Adult size sock
• Cheap ping pong ball – two total; white works best
• Washable marker
• Black permanent marker
• Glue gun
• Black felt
• Scissors

What to do:

1. Pull the sock over your hand and use your thumb and fingers to form a mouth.
2. Have your child use the washable marker to mark two spots where the puppet’s eyes will be and draw an oval where the inside of the mouth will be.
3. Remove the sock.  Use the glue gun to apply glue to the spots where the eyes will be placed.
4. Ask your child to use the permanent marker to draw eyeballs onto the ping pong balls and then press the eyes into the glue.
5. Have your child cut an oval from the black felt that is the same size as the one he drew to mark the inside of the puppet’s mouth.
6. Use the glue gun to attach the oval to the sock.

Let your child come up with creative ways to make clothes or a hairdo for the puppet. After all that effort, he’ll want to keep the puppet handy in a safe place, so make sure to designate a wood toy box where it belongs when it’s not in use!