Friday, January 8, 2016

DIY Book Based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)

Honestly , we don't use colouring pages. I've *always* encouraged open-ended art since my kid was 2.5 and he's used to that! Colouring pages are a bit like putting your creativity in a little box and honestly a bit boring too. He is so used to open-ended that he just tosses over a colouring page when given to him. Restaurants & birthday parties where they dole these out with cute little crayons - are completely ignored. So when I say 'he loves painting' I look like a crazy person!

Anyways, he just turned 4 and I'm a bit focused now on his pencil grasp and fine motor strength. So for once, I *want* him to some extensive amount of using crayons/pencils/paints for more than a few minutes at a time. So I started drawing pictures from his favourite books (read: those that were quick & easy to draw!) and started asking him about the story while he picked up his crayons or paints to add some magic into the paper.  

So this is not only a story telling + fine motor practise activity, it is also a great exercise for "parallel play", he can do his thing while I do mine, on the same table. 

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)




The Terrible Tidybot 


It's one amongst many fascinating stories from Usborne's Illustrated Stories for Boys. This book has 17 stories with lovely illustrations for kids aged 2-6. The Terrible Tidybot is about a lazy boy Luke, who has been given an ultimatum to clean up his very messy room within a week. He's so lazy that he orders a cleaning robot named tidybot for a free trial, but things go a bit haywire! I've read this one way too many times to get feddup and put my foot down- No! not this one. There are 16 more stories!

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


A Germs Journey, Thom Rooke MD


Setails the journey of germs from a uncovered sneeze, to numerous objects, and how depending on precautions taken or not, the germs are washed off or spread common cold. The germs from a sneeze that land on a candy don't make Brenda sick, cuz she throws the wrapper in the bin. But the germs that land on the computer keyboard are touched by Jared, who then digs his nose, so the germs travel to his lungs making him sick. 

This way there were many scenarios of the journey illustrating what habits prevent us from falling sick. The illustrations are straightforward too! I'd got this book cuz my kid was not consistent with his habit of washing hands every time we got back home. Now he does! He understood perfectly well why it is absolutely necessary! 

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


Mister Seahorse, Eric Carle


My son loves this one cuz it has transparent plastic sheets to show how fish hide behind camouflage. 


I loved it cuz one day while having Tilapia at a Peruvian restaurant, I could say "Do you know, this fish carries its baby eggs in its mouth till they hatch?". haha. total show off. 


The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)



How to Catch a Star, Oliver Jeffers



We love all his books. They  didn't make sense to me at first , but it is so whimsical and mad that you end up loving the plots! & they have *beautiful* illustrations so are perfect for drawing & colouring. The latest one I've got is the Paper Caper, yet to open it.


The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


Halloween Hustle, by Charlotte Gunnufson


Is about a skeleton who is invited to a ghost's Halloween party, and as he joins in with the other party goers- Frankenstein, Mummies & other monsters, they do the Halloween Hustle! But every few pages he trips and his bones scatter to the ground. He fixes himself with rubber bands or twines till he can get up and continue with the hustle. 


We had a big glow in the dark skeleton which he traced on a large construction paper. Who says a skeleton can't be pink brown or yellow!

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)

Usborne's The Solar System 


We did a whole Solar System Project with Pumpkin as the sun and balls of dough as planet (you can read all about it here). He's pretty kicked about it these days and usually draws his own set of circles for various planets.



The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


Let's Go Green Series


I've written a whole blog post about it, which I probably publish by the time it's Earth Day (gosh! hope not!). But here's a quick synopsis: The Let’s Go Green series is depicted by conversations between family members, Candy, her little brother Bon Bon & their parents, to increase children’s awareness about the environment. The 6 Titles are: Let’s Save the Earth, Let’s Conserve Water, Let’s conserve Energy, Let’s stop Global Warming, Let’s Go Organic and Let’s Recycle. As the back cover says, children are receptive to any logical explanation of facts, so it’s never too early to explain the enormity of danger our planet is facing and what we can do to protect it. 



The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


The Lighthouse Keeper's Christmas, Ronda & David Armitage


Is one of the books in the Lighthouse Keeper Series. I'd ordered it from school via Scholastic and although it is a bit expensive, it's light hearted and fun and I ordered 3 more! My kid loves books that are in a series (so does his mummy). If you're so invested in the characters, you want to read more and more, don't you.


The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)
After I handed this over, he says "You didn't draw the cat". Uh. 

Peppa Pig Activity Books


He's watching a *lot* of peppa pig these days, since that's the only way he doesn't disturb us during our Spanish Classes (which is once or twice a week). While it's debatable whether the series is "for girls", the merchandise is *def* doused in multiple shades of pink. I def don't think the plots are girly or boyish..like at all. They're cute, teach good manners, instil family values & are non-voilent. He has some relates activity books, so I drew some mama & grandpa pig for him to color. 

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)

The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)


The Snail & the Whale, Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler


Is about the adventures of a snail that travels with a big whale. How does the snail help the enormous whale when it gets stuck on the beach?



The Practical Mom: DIY Book based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)



Until later! Stay in touch!



 Sign Up  |  Twitter  |  Pinterest | Facebook 

13 comments:

  1. This is wonderful! My husband does something like this for my 8 year old and the books he reads. He enjoys it very much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this!

    Both Oliver Jeffers and Julia Donaldson are favorite authors at our house.

    Mo Willems is a natural fit for this category, as well, given his deliberately simplistic illustrations.

    Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I Introduced Don't let the Pigeon Drive way past the toddler stage, so it didn't stick ! That's that only Mo Willems book we have!

      Delete
  3. Good idea! It's lucky that most children's books have pictures that are simple enough to draw (or, if all else fails, to trace!) Thanks for sharing at the Thoughtful Spot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love this! Thanks so much for linking up at Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such creative ideas here. This is so helpful in keeping children busy and happy and learning too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What fabulous photos. I love the creative ideas and its always great to get kids engaged with story books. You have a few of our favourites there too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my goodness you actually drew them, how fab! That's rather a bit more special than a colouring book and a lovely idea #kltr

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks every one for the lovely comments, I always look forward to them :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. There are a great deal of sites offering free There are a great deal of sites offering free shading pages that you can print on the wecoloring pages that you can print on the we

    ReplyDelete