Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Creative Gift for Kids

A local discount card shop had a small table of gift items for kids and I found one I really like. Yes, a lot of kids like to color pictures and there are some interesting coloring books. But, those coloring books don't require much imagination beyond choosing the colors. I found a book called Beautiful Doodles, by Nellie Ryan. The book has over 100 full-sized pages with part of a drawing on each page as a basic background. Each page has a suggested idea of how the child can complete the drawing. For example, one page shows a shopping cart in front of shelves and suggests to the child "Fill your cart and stock your shelves." The child gets to use her/his imagination.

The book is published by Running Press. They have a website at runningpress.com. If you type "Beautiful Doodles" into the search box you'll find the book on the first page shown. There are also another 5-6 books of this type on that same page, including a Hello Kitty Doodle Book and a Farm Animal Doodle book. Barnes and Noble online also has the book at less than the publisher is selling it for. I'm sure other stores also sell the doodle books.

Not only do the minimalist drawings in the books encourage a child to be creative and let the imagination soar, but they are adaptive to other types of arts and crafts. If your child has some stickers and sparkles they could also be used in completing the pictures--the sky's the limit as to what could be used to be creative.

2 comments:

Masha said...

Sounds like it would be more fun then just coloring. One question. Is this more of a girls book or could both sexes use the pictures?

ProfK said...

Masha,

There are plenty of pictures that are neuter gender--who do you see in the mirror for example--but there are a lot of pictures that I think girls might be more drawn to. I bought the book for two little girls to use. The sales person in the store told me that they do have a book that is more male-oriented--I'd check the books at the publisher's site.