Figures of Speech

Christy Blakelock, manager of the Lakeshore Learning Store in Westlake, has noticed something intriguing among the kids attending her Saturday arts and crafts events.

When using materials at the store “to make their very own puppet in the image of themselves,” she says, “they also improvise stories [about themselves].”

Lakeshore has an area where kids can use materials, supplied for free, to cut, paste and paint Saturday craft projects such as puppets. Another space, called the “dramatic area,” is equipped with a make-believe cash register, play money, plastic groceries and other materials for play-acting.

According to Blakelock, the kids like to congregate in the dramatic area after they’ve made their self-likenesses.

“I see little friends using the puppets to have a conversation they’d never have if they were just talking to one another,” she says. “That’s the area the kids love the most.”

On other days of the week, parents park their little ones there while shopping for educational toys and games.

This Saturday, kids and families can join a “make and take” event at which materials for a self-puppet will be provided. Kids may either take the puppets home or put their names on them and have Blakelock mount them on a special back-to-school mural at Lakeshore.

The free materials will include pre-cut paper-doll-like figures in various colors, felt outfits, synthetic hair, patterned fabrics, yarn and glitter.

A bonus of the project, Blakelock says, is that the children “use a wonderful dab-and-stick glue product we have. Parents love it because it doesn’t make a mess, and it’s transparent, so it doesn’t discolor.”

(At future Saturday craft events, the store will provide free materials for making back-to-school book covers, calendars and other items.)

The educational game and toy industry seems to be experiencing a nationwide boom. The Lakeshore chain, started by an Oakland homemaker and mother 30 years ago, has more than a dozen sites in the West.

Its products are popular with teachers and day-care providers, who regularly visit the Westlake store for demonstration sessions on topics such as “How to Spice Up Block Play in the Classroom,” including “How to Turn Block Cleanup Into an Exciting Learning Experience.”

Some of the items and products available focus on multiculturalism and children with special needs, including dolls in wheelchairs and books that explain disabilities.

Late summer is this industry’s biggest season.

“It’s our Christmas,” Blakelock says. “Parents want to get their kids back into basic skills before school starts [after a summer of forgetting]. But it doesn’t take them long to get back up to speed if parents have time to help them.”

She observes that at the Ventura County store, more parents shop than at other sites, where teachers predominate. Some parents even buy materials, such as make-yourself-a-puppet kits, for use at children’s parties.

BE THERE

“Make a Puppet of Yourself,” free, kids 3 and up, Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Lakeshore Learning Store, 4050 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., the Promenade at Westlake; 347-6774.