With the advent of gadgets, parents nowadays are faced with the dilemma of limiting screen time. Activity books are a great old-school solution! Activity books have improved over the years, and they are now more interactive, educational, and engaging. Their fun activities and colorful pages will grab the attention of the little ones!
Take Paint by Sticker, for example. Kids can create up to ten masterpieces by placing stickers according to the designated number, which reveals a collage-type animal picture. Watch them steadily add each piece and be amazed by the finished product! If you want to continue your search for other activity books, we've got you covered. There's also a buying guide included that will help you pick out the most age-appropriate and exciting book.
Upon completing a successful pediatric career that spanned 30 years, Dr. Lulu embraced her childhood dream of becoming an author. She now has 4 bestsellers and is an acclaimed motivational speaker, talk show host, and certified life coach.
Since she has so much experience with kids, we knew she'd be the perfect person to ask about how to choose the best kids activity book. Read onto our buying guide to see her insight! You can also follow her on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter; or you can visit her website to learn more.
This list highlights some of Amazon's bestselling activity books for kids of all ages. There's an activity for those who love to draw, color, or work on paper, and there are activities for those who prefer inventing or exploring the outdoors.
*Please note that these books were chosen after extensive research by mybest writers. The choices are not necessarily affiliated with or recommended by Dr. Lulu.
$5.90
Age group | 5-12 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 34 |
Activities | Sticker by number |
Content | Hones number recognition, matching skills |
Supplies needed | - |
$5.01
Age group | 6-9 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 256 |
Activities | Hidden picture puzzles, coloring |
Content | Promotes attention to detail, expands vocabulary, boosts concentration, persistence and determination |
Supplies needed | Coloring materials (optional) |
$4.97
Age group | 3-6 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 288 |
Activities | Coloring, stickers |
Content | Boosts creativity |
Supplies needed | Coloring materials |
$5.01
Age group | 3-5 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 320 |
Activities | Coloring, tracing, writing |
Content | Pre-writing skills, early math, teaches alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers and following directions |
Supplies needed | Writing and coloring materials |
$6.13
Age group | 5-12 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 134 |
Activities | Drawing plants, identifying nature elements, tracking animal prints |
Content | Earth study |
Supplies needed | Depends on the activity |
$6.95
Age group | 5-6 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 110 |
Activities | Coloring, counting, solving puzzles |
Content | Teaches writing or tracing skills, coloring, solving challenges |
Supplies needed | Writing and coloring materials |
$10.79
Age group | 5-10 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 198 |
Activities | Experiments that teach engineering |
Content | STEM |
Supplies needed | Depends on the experiment |
$5.39
Age group | 4-8 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 68 |
Activities | Crosswords, drawing, try-at-home experiments |
Content | Concepts about the human body |
Supplies needed | Writing and other house materials for the experiments |
$8.95
Age group | 6-10 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 82 |
Activities | Mazes, crosswords, tracing, spot the difference, word search |
Content | Teaches problem-solving |
Supplies needed | Writing and coloring materials |
$5.79
Age group | 8-12 years old |
---|---|
Pages | 144 |
Activities | Crosswords, matching, riddles and games |
Content | Enhances problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking skills |
Supplies needed | Writing and coloring material |
Image | 1 ![]() Workman Publishing | 2 ![]() Highlights | 3 ![]() Crayola | 4 ![]() School Zone | 5 ![]() Kim Andrews | 6 ![]() Busy Hands Books | 7 ![]() Christina Schul | 8 ![]() Ph.D., Katie Stokes, M.Ed., | 9 ![]() Gameplay Publishing | 10 ![]() Jennifer A. Ericsson and Beth L. Blair |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Paint by Sticker Kids | Jumbo Book of Hidden Pictures | Epic Book of Awesome | Big Preschool Workbook | Exploring Nature Activity Book for Kids | Jumbo Activity Book for Kids | Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids | Human Body Activity Book for Kids | Amazing Activity Book For Minecrafters | The Everything Kids Puzzle Book |
Features | Sticker-Filled Zoo Animals Activity Book | The Ultimate Search-and-Find Puzzle Book | A Giant Coloring Book by the OG Coloring Brand | The Activity Book That Hones Pre-Writing Skills | An Activity Book That Makes Exploring Nature Interesting | An Activity Book in a Jumbo Size for More Fun | The Activity Book for Aspiring Engineers | Fun Ways for Kids to Learn About Human Anatomy | A Minecraft-Themed Activity Book | The Activity Book for Elementary School Students With Every Kind of Puzzle |
Price | $5.90 | $5.01 | $4.97 | $5.01 | $6.13 | $6.95 | $10.79 | $5.39 | $8.95 | $5.79 |
Age group | 5-12 years old | 6-9 years old | 3-6 years old | 3-5 years old | 5-12 years old | 5-6 years old | 5-10 years old | 4-8 years old | 6-10 years old | 8-12 years old |
Pages | 34 | 256 | 288 | 320 | 134 | 110 | 198 | 68 | 82 | 144 |
Activities | Sticker by number | Hidden picture puzzles, coloring | Coloring, stickers | Coloring, tracing, writing | Drawing plants, identifying nature elements, tracking animal prints | Coloring, counting, solving puzzles | Experiments that teach engineering | Crosswords, drawing, try-at-home experiments | Mazes, crosswords, tracing, spot the difference, word search | Crosswords, matching, riddles and games |
Content | Hones number recognition, matching skills | Promotes attention to detail, expands vocabulary, boosts concentration, persistence and determination | Boosts creativity | Pre-writing skills, early math, teaches alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers and following directions | Earth study | Teaches writing or tracing skills, coloring, solving challenges | STEM | Concepts about the human body | Teaches problem-solving | Enhances problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking skills |
Supplies needed | - | Coloring materials (optional) | Coloring materials | Writing and coloring materials | Depends on the activity | Writing and coloring materials | Depends on the experiment | Writing and other house materials for the experiments | Writing and coloring materials | Writing and coloring material |
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Choosing an activity book for kids is never an easy task. As parents or teachers, we want to ensure that the quality is top-notch. Plus, the content should age-appropriate, entertaining, and educational too. There are a few approaches to selecting an activity book that we've highlighted in the buying guide below.
Activity books are created to suit specific age groups and offer varying levels of difficulty. We don't want to get one that's too challenging, which only pushes kids away, nor do we want something too easy that quickly becomes boring. Here are a few tips for choosing age-appropriate activity books.
Toddlers and early learners have shorter attention spans and are just starting to develop fine motor skills. Therefore, go for colorful, eye-catching, and bold activity books. If it’s a coloring book, then get one with distinct drawings and thick borders so they can begin practicing filling in something within the lines.
Activity books for this age group often incorporate learning key concepts such as the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors. They’re also thicker and more durable than other books, which makes them able to withstand a beating.
For preschoolers, you can begin to mix more interactive and educational material. Continue with big and bold designs, but consider added concepts, like connecting the dots, tracing, solving easy mazes, matching, and so on.
You can also incorporate favorite topics, such as dinosaurs, unicorns, princesses, cars, and trucks, as themes in the book to make it more familiar and exciting to the child.
Those in grade school might find coloring books to be lacking in stimulation. Try choosing more complex and logic-based books for older kids. It can incorporate a mix of specific school subjects, such as biology, physics, or math, but with activity books often add a fun, non-classroom approach.
It could also feature their favorite video games, movies, or cartoons and require the child to solve the mystery, find the missing item, and more. Activity books for this age group should elicit more effort and interaction from the child.
There are three main types of activity books: arts and crafts, puzzles and trivia, and hands-on learning.
Quite a number of activity books for kids incorporate arts and crafts. These books contain coloring, drawing, painting, cutting, pasting, folding, and sticking.
Arts and crafts-themed activity books are great for boosting a child's creativity. They can harness their inner artist as well as hone their fine motor skills.
You can also get a lot of activity books that contain brain exercises. The mind is a muscle must also be trained! Puzzles, mazes, crosswords, trivia, and quizzes are a few popular examples of the activities in these books. The popular I-Spy or hidden picture books are also very entertaining and a worthwhile activity for kids.
Then we have activity books that feature experiments. These can come in all sorts of subjects! Popular topics include biology, where the child explores the wonders of nature, and engineering, where they get to build inventions and learn about physics.
Through activity books that offer experiments, your child can get hands-on, real-life applications of what they're learning at school, which is a great way to solidify that knowledge.
You can also get an activity book for educational purposes. More often than not, publishers boast of all the learning benefits their exercises offer.
There are activity books that introduce the alphabet, counting, and numbers to toddlers, while activity books for elementary kids focus on a particular subject such as math, penmanship, or science. These make learning fun and are excellent add-ons for learning outside school.
Activity books can make an intimidating and challenging concept more approachable. You can even get those that teach a specific skill, such as drawing and painting for aspiring artists, much like how-to books.
Since activity books are interactive, you will need supplies to complete them. Some may only need a marker, pen, or pencil, but others might require a whole array of materials. These are especially true for drawing and coloring books.
Some activity books may include the supplies already, but you'll likely have to provide some of your own items. Look at the book's package label or online listing to see if you need any extra supplies. For example, experimental activity books will need additional items, although these are often easy to find around the house or readily available at stores.
The beauty with online shops, like Amazon, is that they come with a treasure trove of reviews. Here you can get critical information on the actual activity books, including photos. You can discover how interactive, age-appropriate, challenging, or worthwhile an activity book truly is.
Through the reviews, you can also get tips on which age group best enjoyed the book and confirm if it lives up to its product description.
In closing, Dr. Lulu says, "Children learn through play. They should be allowed to play. They should be allowed to learn. They should be allowed to learn and play. Adults and children around the world must have the same dreams and vision, and that is to push exploration and discovery beyond limits.
Fun is the key when it comes to activities for children. Even teens and young adults should be allowed to experience the fun aspects of the activity books. And that means that once it is no longer fun, it should be discontinued."
There is always something engaging and educational for kids to do! You might be interested in the best kid's musical instruments, science kits, or educational games to start.
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