Spring break is around the corner, and soon enough many of you will be facing long days with cabin-fevered children. As nice as it would be get the kids outside, it’s not always possible. Raincoast Books recently sent us a couple activity books offered by Chronicle Books and Lawrence King Books to play, test, and share with you.
Be sure to scroll down all the way to the bottom for your chance to win one the featured #PlayTestShare activity books found below!
A hands-on alphabet extravaganza! The letters of the alphabet come to life in this bright, graphic, and delightfully interactive ABC novelty board book that pairs early learning with captivating play. Just punch out the oversize neon letters and assemble the simple words featured on each spread, or spell new words. It’s the perfect way to play, spell, and learn, from A to Z!
My 4 year old enjoys playing with this book but she mostly uses it like a puzzle. She is at that stage where she knows all her letters but can’t put them together as words yet. She was able to play with it “properly” with our guidance mostly enjoys pulling it out to line up the alphabet and then put the pieces back in the book.
Story Box: Create Your Own Fairy Tales
This wonderful game will allow your family to create its own fairy tales. Highly original and with a contemporary twist, this box contains 20 cards, printed on both sides, which can be interchanged, allowing for all kinds of plots. With three alternative endings!
Both my girls, 2 and 4 years old, have such wonderful imaginations. It’s incredible to watch them play together and make up stories. My 4 year old especially has become quite the story teller and I knew that Story Box would really appeal to her.
Story Box is a colourful box containing 20 double sided, sturdy and beautifully illustrated interchangeable puzzle pieces. Each piece depicts scenes including a range of fairytale characters including a wolf, a witch, dwarves, a pink rabbit, a young boy and a princess. Backdrops include a castle, the witches house, the woods and more. The pieces fit together like jigsaw pieces to be aranged and rearranged to tell a myriad of different stories. With 20 pieces included and 6 different endings to choose from the possibilities to create fun, imaginative stories is great.
All laid out together, the story can reach up to 8 ft in length!
The Story Box really encourages children to use their imaginations and to think creatively. My 4 year old especially enjoys telling us endless stories using the Story Box, and I think it may even be a great tool for speech development.
The Story Box is definitely a winner!
Flora and Friends Matching Game
From the Caldecott Honor Book Flora and the Flamingo, and the two follow-up books, Flora and the Penguin and Flora and the Peacocks, this classic memory game stars Flora and her feathered friends! Delightful storytelling and artwork from Molly Idle celebrate the joy of friendship, all while building memory, concentration, and matching skills.
12 amazing moving animals to press out, slot together and play! From flapping penguins to swimming turtles, and everything in between, create fantastic moving animal ‘parionettes’ to play with. Each parionette comes with easy-to-follow assembly instructions, and no scissors or glue required!
Climb up to the moon with this amazing fold-out colouring book, the longest in the world! Colour an amazing tower, all the way from your house down on the ground, past dragons, witches, space ports, and flying elephants, to reach the moon at the very top!
642 Things to Draw: Young Artist’s Edition
The perfect addition to the 642 series, this collection of hilarious, wacky, and imaginative drawing prompts provides endless quirky inspiration for young artists of all experience levels. Whether pondering how to sketch a zombie unicorn or filling the page with a magical field of cupcakes, budding artists will relish the chance to jump-start their artistic engines as they draw, sketch, imagine, and create!
Japan’s centuries-old national sport is the main attraction in this paper-based smackdown where creativity and competition collide. The result? Laughs guaranteed! There is an impressive assortment of 39 characters-from traditional sumo wrestlers to animals to monsters and other eye-catching creatures from Japanese lore.
This game is for two to four players and contains 28 cute and colorful dog dominoes. Have fun matching seven delightful pooches: Chihuaha, Dachshund, Dalmation, Labrador, Poodle, Pug, and Alsation. Get your last domino down first to win the game and become top dog!
A brilliant new companion book from the creator of PRESS HERE and MIX IT UP! It’s only a yellow dot… but what a dot it is! Connecting not only to the mind but also to the heart, this dot expresses an extraordinary sense of humor, fear, joy, and more as it pushes, lurches, wiggles, and slides its way through-and even off!-the pages of this glorious companion to Press Here and Mix It Up!
Hervé Tullet has reimagined his groundbreaking book in an entirely new dimension. With two levels of play to choose from-so that it’s easy enough for a toddler to grasp, but also complex enough to challenge older siblings and adults-this engaging game delivers hours of entertainment for the whole family.
Recess is the ultimate illustrated guide to the best games of the playground, for inside and outside. This fun and interactive guide includes the rules to over 150 games and variations, including over two dozen international games from schoolyards around the world, plus various tips and strategies not just to play, but also to win!
Win it:
One Canadian Frugal Mom Eh reader will win a book of their choice from the selection in this post. Giveaway is open to Canadians 18+, and ends on March 17th at 11:59 pm EST. See Giveaway Tools form for entry and T&C.
Check out more reviews and more chances to win on the Raincost Books Blog.
Disclosure: I received ABC Word Play and Storybox in order to facilitate my review. All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.
Elizabeth Lampman is a coffee-fuelled Mom of 2 girls and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. She enjoys travelling, developing easy recipes, crafting, taking on diy projects, travelling and saving money!
andrea amy
Thursday 17th of March 2016
make and move animals :)
Elva Roberts
Wednesday 16th of March 2016
I would choose 'Make and Move' as I think this book would encourage cutting and making these fun animals in the small hands of my great grandchildren.
Elva Roberts
Wednesday 16th of March 2016
I would choose the book "Recess' so my nephew could learn new games to play with his friends.
Sunshine H
Tuesday 15th of March 2016
I would pick either Recess or To The Moon....but it's such a hard choice!
Angela Mitchell
Tuesday 15th of March 2016
I'd choose the Press Here game.