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Activity Books for Kids

May 12, 2010 by Carrie

It’s getting close to the time when mothers and fathers everywhere are trying to locate resources and activities to have on hand for summer doldrums or as distractions during road trips. To that end, I’d like to point out a couple of things as a suggestion, both offered by Peter Pauper Press.

Brainiac’s Road Trip Activity Book is a great thing to toss in the backseat of the car right before you take off on your adventure. It’s recommended for ages 4-8 but I don’t think my son, at 3 1/2 is remotely close to being ready to tackle some of the world puzzles in this book all by himself. If you are looking for things that the kids can do by themselves, I would say that this is probably more in the range of 6-10ish (11? 12?) This book contains ideas for memory games you can play in the car, word scrambles, vehicle identification games, and geography games.

It also includes pages to accommodate a good old fashioned game of connect the dots and tic-tac-toe squares. There is a page spread to keep track of license plates that you’ve seen from the various states. There are pages for drawing with creative suggestions, several pages for a good game of Hangman (a personal favorite) and even a “reward page” for the child (or the adult?) to reward themselves for making it through the road trip in one piece! It comes with an erasable pen and is an easy carry-along size, so that it won’t take up very much of that valuable car space! Brainiac’s Road Trip Activity Book is a cute way to keep the kids entertained.

My son’s eyes bugged out of his head when he saw Ready, Set, Draw Under the Sea! (So, for the record, did mommy’s!) This is one seriously nice drawing book. First of all, it’s in a hardbound spiral format for easy reference and durability. (I LOVE hardbound spiral books! Love ’em! Love ’em!) There are 18 page spreads giving you instructions on how to draw your favorite sea animals, from walruses, to octopuses (!!), to crabs and – be still your little heart – even NEMO! (Or a clown fish that happens to look like Nemo at any rate!)

This book also comes equipped with four two-sided colored pencils (8 colors total) and a 48 page drawing pad. The pencils are secure in their holder that sticks to the book so you don’t have to worry about losing them anywhere. This book is square shaped and a bit more awkward to cart around, but it also contains everything a little artist could want or need! WE. LOVE. IT! While Bookworm1 knows of this book’s existence, (and has studied it carefully already), I’m keeping it back until later in the summer when I really, really need a special activity to pull out and distract him with. In the meantime, every scrap of paper you find around our house has jellyfish and octopuses drawn all over them. It’s a fun world!

Now, one of you have an opportunity to WIN both of these books, thanks to Peter Pauper Press. They have offered a copy of each to one of our readers here. To win? Simply leave a comment below! This contest is open to U.S. Residents only.

We’ll announce the winner on May 26.

Happy Early Summer to you!

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

The winners of last week’s contests are as follows:
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: #54 – Angela Winesburg

Finally!: #11 Upstatemomof3, #16 Michele Anne

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library.

Filed Under: Carrie, Fun and Games

« My Quotable Kid
Good to a Fault »

Comments

  1. Marla Taviano says

    May 12, 2010 at 12:15 am

    We looooove road trips!!

  2. Stephanie says

    May 12, 2010 at 6:33 am

    Man, we could have used these on our 13-hour-each-way road trip earlier this spring! But we’ve got another long drive coming up in August- these look like they’d be great for my older son.

  3. Annette W says

    May 12, 2010 at 8:19 am

    I bet by the time we travel to Vermont in late summer my daughter would be ready to enjoy these a bit! I love the idea of teaching children to draw simple sea animals…and word games are fun for the whole family!

  4. Lauren says

    May 12, 2010 at 8:39 am

    I am not commenting to win, of course, but my son would LOVE the Brainiacs book. Thanks for the review!

  5. stephanie says

    May 12, 2010 at 9:03 am

    Enter me please!

  6. Dena says

    May 12, 2010 at 9:58 am

    Both of these books would be GREAT boredom busters for my kids, whether in the car or not. My crew includes an aspiring artist and a Braniac so what a perfect fit. Thanks for the opportunity!

  7. Rita says

    May 12, 2010 at 10:42 am

    My DIL needs something like this for her three boys!

  8. Dianna says

    May 12, 2010 at 10:59 am

    How cool is that. Awesome.

  9. Some Lucky Dog says

    May 12, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    This would be so fun for my grandson to have in the car when we travel between his home and ours (2-day trip each way!)

  10. Marj McClendon says

    May 12, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    What great books for my youngest grandson who travels to his other grandma’s house 2 or 3 times a year. Good and wholesome entertainment.

  11. Anne says

    May 12, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    Great recommendations – I think I’ll pick these up to have some activities around for when our nephew visits! (unless I win them first!)

  12. Page Turner (Heather) says

    May 12, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    Those look like lots of fun! We’d love to have a chance to win!

  13. Stephanie's Mommy Brain says

    May 12, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    I’m currently planning a road trip to DC this summer and hoping for a road trip to TX this fall. These books would be great for keeping little minds and hands occupied!

  14. Steph says

    May 13, 2010 at 8:09 am

    My daughter would love the Ready, Set, Draw Under the Sea book. She is quite the budding little artist already.

  15. katklaw777 says

    May 13, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    Books look like fun, thanks.

  16. Michele Anne says

    May 13, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    sound great. I would give them to my nieces and nephews.

  17. Inette Hunter says

    May 13, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    My son has really gotten into drawing and creating his own books. he really loves learn to draw books. he gets so excited about them

  18. Carolyn says

    May 13, 2010 at 9:51 pm

    Very cute… My son would love these books

  19. Toni Trainor says

    May 16, 2010 at 7:53 am

    This looks like a lot of fun. My son loves to color and draw.

  20. Jeri says

    May 16, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    These books look awesome I am going to check out how to get them, of course I would love to win them!! All 3 of my kids have been avid listeners and now readers of books!

  21. Beth C says

    May 16, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    Look like great books! I’d love to be entered.

  22. Kirsten T. says

    May 21, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    I used to love these type of books when I would vacation with my family! Time to pass the love on… Thanks!

  23. Thea says

    May 23, 2010 at 9:22 am

    These both look like great books for the summer!

  24. Upstatemomof3 says

    May 24, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    Oh my son would LOVE these!!! What a great asset for the summer – or anytime I guess but since it is summer… ya know 🙂

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