A More Creative Coloring Book

Back in November, E's nursery school class took a fieldtrip to the Museum of Art. The museum has a fabulous education program that included having the children read a coloring book in their classroom beforehand. The book talked about the museum, what they would see, and how they would behave while they were there. They each received their own book to bring home, read together, and color. It was E's first real discovery of coloring books and she fell in love.

When the book was finished - with markers, which had been her coloring implement of choice - E wanted more. With no coloring books on hand, and my not being a big fan of the books readily available at local book and toy stores, she got creative (as she often does) and made her own coloring books.

I would love to say she took blank paper, we stapled them together, she drew her own pictures, and then colored them in, but that is not how it worked. Instead, she picked the Magic Cabin catalog out of the mail and used that as her next book - coloring over each picture, using only one or two colors through the whole book. Then she chose one of her completed chapter books and after much negotiating, began coloring in the black and white line drawings.

Then I found this:

Taro Gomi has a great line of more creative coloring books out. I chose Squiggles for starters and have been very impressed not only by the open-endedness of the coloring pages, but also by the quality of the paper. This book, a later one in his series, has paper thick enough to handle water color paints, E's new coloring implement of choice.

Ella is still a bit young for Gomi's suggestions of more detailed drawing, but has especially loved adding faces and clothing to some of the people templates. There is so much to explore (200 pages!) in this book (landscapes, dinner plates, hats, and more) that it will last her a very long time and grow with her developing drawing skills and interests.


The books are, of course, available at amazon but I found ours at our local toy store.