Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school am I really asking this?

Long story short: DS did an "activity book" on a busride. SHORTEST. BUSSRIDE. EVER. The child was enthralled. It was stickers and matching (basically a puzzle, but with stickers), some colouring, and some circling.

Despite myself, I now intend to get him some more such booklets, because, well, he liked it. Even if I was a bit embarrased. I could just get the rest of that series, but I thought I'd ask for recomendations on what to look for in activity booklets for the itsy bitsy set? He can't DO much yet (1.5 yrs) -- but I didn't think he'd be able to do any of the stuff in this thing, either. So I'm feeling like I'm missing the boat here.

-Mich

I found at that age the magnetic sketchers were excellent and I just made up the activities myself (what letter is this? what number is this? colour in the circle, cross out the animal, give the cat some whiskers, what's missing? how many? draw one more)

He might like Highlights' Puzzle Buzz. http://shop.highlights.com/webapp/w...amp;catalogId=17603&productId=692725

If you manage to get on their mailing list (easy enough), they're likely to send you a teaser with some sample pages to try.

Wipe off books to trace shapes and pictures are good.

Well, we went looking yesterday, and came home with a dissapointing haul. We got the others in the series matching the one I got at the science center... which is "EArly Learning" with a little pink face. We saw some great stuff for when he's older, like an atlas colouring book, and these "Sticker encyclpoedia" things. Some of the Early learning stuff will be useful once his hands are strong enough to hold a book that big ! We got a patterns colouring book for ME, it was so cool

But there were two problems: 1) most of the books seemed designed to drill compliance rather than the skills they were purportedly teaching (IE: difficulty level of following the instructions was WELL above the difficulty of the "math" or "drawing") and 2) The ones that were't exceptionally un-fun were mostly very limited, only stickers or only colouring, rather than a selection of different things.

The store I was really looking forward to for when DS was school--age has COMPLETELY dissapinted me. It was ALL compliance-stuff.

Sooooooo...
What stores are good?
What publishers are good?

Maybe we can do this online if we have a good idea of what's good... I don't like buying books online, though.

Thanks! Sorry for being picky & demanding yet more advice!
-Mich

I also recommend the 'wipe clean' activity books like onthegomom suggests, specifically - 'Activity Work Book' by Priddy Books, I think the series is called 'Wipe Clean'. There are letters, numbers, etc., the one dd4 has been loving for about 1.5 years now is this 40 page one with a mix of animals, including dinosaurs, and a range of activities from circling this or that, letter/number practice pages, a maze or two and counting. The markers don't seem to have been a big issue in making a mess (they write well in the book and have lasted, but don't seem to be easy to use on other surfaces so that is nice). It was about $15 bucks, but definitely lasts!

The other one she has really like is 'PreSchool Scholar' for ages 3-5, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it had everything from very very easy, to some fairly subtle puzzles in analogies and sequencing of events towards the back. She did the first part of this book over a year ago and then I am not sure, maybe wasn't ready for the rest until recently she picked it back up and finished it in a night or two. She really enjoyed the whole thing. (not a wipe-clean) We probably got it at borders for around $3.

Have fun hunting!

just thought to check amazon for links:
Wipe Clean Activity book
Preschool Scholar book