Activity Kits
Chapel Hill Herald

I am constantly promoting books that will endure in families, but I have to admit that my children are most attracted to the activity kits we receive for review. I've been observing child pleasure in these activity packs for months and now have suggestions about recent greatest hits.

Early Learning

I have a special place in my heart for activity kits that stem from books. Briar Patch has a whole series of games for young children based on books. They haven't just stolen illustrations or ideas, but really captured the sense and spirit of the book as they translate it into a game. Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo's I Spy Memory Game (Briarpatch, $19.95; ages 4 to adult), like the book, is full of small detailed pictures and riddle clues, and just as children can use the book in several ways, there are many ways to play this new game.

Lucy Cousin is one of the first illustrators young children discover and Lucy Cousins' Maisy Game (Briarpatch, $20.95 ; ages 2-6) is a lovely introduction to the world of games. In keeping with Cousins' book approach, the game shows an appreciation of the developmental needs of young children as they learn to name and match objects with familiar settings.

Davis Smith's Tie A Bow, Ben Bunny (Scholastic Cartwheel Books, $9.95; ages 3-6) unites learning, story, rhyme and whimsy to relieve the pressure of learning to tie shoes. The kit comes with colorful laces and sets children on a rhyming adventure led by the small bunny who's practicing bow tying.

Learning through Play

My favorite kits give children a hands-on adventure which opens doors of discovery to history, science, or the world around them. Dorling Kindersley releases two new activity kits, Flight and Tutankahum and Ancient Egypt, ( $17.95 each; ages 8 and up) to join eight previous releases. In Tutankahum, for example, you can make Tutankahum's three caskets and a replica of his lavish gold collar, or practice up on hieroglyphics. More for budding Egyptologists!

In association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art ,Janet Coxes produced Fun with Beads: Ancient Egypt (Viking, $29.95; ages 9 and up). This kit comes with 3,500 ceramic and metal beads whose colors and shapes are reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian times. In the package you'll also find step-by-step directions and all the materials and tools you need to produce necklaces, bracelets and earrings to replicate   ancient Egyptian jewelry. There's also history running subtly throughout, each jewelry pieces discusses historical significance and symbols and the levels of difficulty are even marked in hieroglyphics!

Carol Benati's There's A Fungus Among Us: Your Complete Fungus-Growing Kit! (Grosset& Dunlop, $8.95; ages 8-12) leads children in scientific exploration where the emphasis is having good messy fun! The kit comes with material and instructions on how to grow three kinds of mold as well as other fungus and everything your child will need to get them going, from petri dishes to dry yeast.

Two new exploring books from Klutz Press promise to stimulate young minds. Jerry Slocum, the collector of 20,000 hands-on puzzles, authors The Puzzle Arcade (Klutz Press, $19.95; ages 8 and up) a whole book of brain teasers, mechanical puzzles, riddle, mazes, and mysteries. The editors of Klutz Press also give new meaning to an old toy with The Etch A Sketch Book (Klutz, $16.95; ages and up). It comes with a mini Etch A Sketch and a wealth of ideas that turn the small screen into a game board, maze track as well as a design tool.

Just for Fun

Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammer's Kids Paper Airplane Book (Workman, $14.95; ages 5 and up)includes colorful paper with pre-printed lines to fold and fly seventy-six airplanes. There's also information on how they work, how to perform stunts, and even a flight log and pilot's license.

Madame Bisque's Fortune Telling Kit: A Book and Card Set (Chronicle, $12.95; ages 8 and up) is an amazing translation of tarot for the younger set. The kit gives the mystical procedure and includes cards and a book which unlock their clues. Best of all but the format is child-easy and the fortunes make sense for them.

A master cartoonist leads children down this playful path with Fun Pictures: Cartooning with Charles M. Schulz (Harper Festival, $ 17.95; ages 7 and up). The kit shows Shulz's inner views of his own characters, features quick tips, and then proceeds to chapters on basic elements of cartooning. Each chapter is filled with clear directives, lots of hints, and space for creative doodling on art paper. The book itself is clever in design as it comes with eight markers in a plastic case and an oversized hard backing that makes it easy to draw on the go.

Activity Kits, Winter 96 *
I must admit that I was skeptical about the marriage of Duplo blocks and books, but Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the Three Bears (each $11.95 from Little Brown; recommended for two and up)were a surprising delight. Both books unfold to tell the stories and toddlers literally build a story, replicating story elements with simple Duplo construction. When Jack comes to a bridge, for example, it is the toddler who builds the simple block bridge illustrated in the book. Books give both a sense of accomplishment and being a genuine part of the story.

*Bake children learning with Debora Pearson's Alphabake: A Cookbook and Cookie Cutter Set (Dutton, $15.99; ages 4-8). Children who are learning letters or beginning to read will be supported with yummy recipes for fun and cookies and alphabet cookie cutters that will definitely warm up cold days. There are wonderful suggestions for letter-based games like "Rolled-Oat Riddle Cookies" where you bake Q's and A's, pass friends a Q, ask a riddle and if they can deliver the answer, they get an A. If they don't you get to enjoy it.

*Warm up science exploration and body in the bath with Wonder Boat (Random House, $20.00; ages 4-10). The kit comes with a boat to build and plastic coated activity cards that suggest twenty-two experiments for investigating water science. Each card gives careful steps and then "kid talk" which explains the scientific in a way children can understand, a more compete and complicated description in "parent talk" and suggestions for further activities. The authors think of everything from a Wonder Bag for storing materials to clear writing that will guarantee success and fun.

*The editors of Klutz Press have put together entertainment for those short, dark winter nights in Shadow Games: A Book of Hand & Puppet Shadows (Klutz, $10.95; ages 5 and up). Attached to the wire spine is a flashlight that can transform the human hand into an eagle, wolf, elephant, moose and numerous other characters that might be the beginnings of involving dramatic play. Brave parents can provide lots of kid-loved fun with another new Klutz Press Book, The Rubber Chicken Book: A Fine Collection of Bad Skits, Goofball Stunts, Front Yard Acrobatics and Really Dumb Jokes ($9.95; ages 8 and up). It comes with one rubber squeaker and three rubber eggs which are trick prompts.

*Two books link art and history. Fifi Weinert's Fun With Patterns (Viking, $22.50; ages 8 and up) takes patterns from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of art from around the world and transforms them into twenty-four rubber stamps that can be combined in infinite ways becoming cards, stationery, frames, game boards or more. Janet Coles' Fun With Beads: Ancient Egypt (Viking, $29.50; ages 9 and up) contains 3,500 ceramic beads, and seventeen designs to bring the artistry of Ancient Egypt into your home. The kit comes with enough supplies for children to produce four necklaces, three bracelets and ten pairs of earrings.

*Dorling Kindersley has three "action packs that will set children to exploring Rome, Human Body, or Light and Illusion. Each kit comes with a guidebook and lots of subject related activities. Rome includes 3-D press out models for dioramas of a Roman home. The Human Body includes a press-out 3-D skeletal model and a growth chart. Light and Illusion includes a lab box for experiments and 3-D images and glasses. (each from Dorling Kindersley, $16.95; ages 8 and up).

Planet Dexter, a new kid-pleasing company, has several new kits including The Toobers & Zots (Planet Dexter, $14.99; ages 5-9) which comes with brightly-colored foam pieces and creative guidelines that are sure to stretch children's imaginations. The book becomes a departure for adventure that may help your child construct something weird, useful or mad; investigate measurement with a toober; write a story or even explore them as a social phenomena.

Activity Kits, Summer 1996
Klutz Press, the box of books my children fight over, triumphs again in terms of involving books that will make your children happy this summer. For those who love to make things with their hands, there's Laura Torres' BEADS: A Book of Ideas and Instructions (Klutz, $21.95; ages 9 and up), The package comes with four different sizes of beads, hardware, and clear instructions for nineteen projects . Your children can make earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.

*Anne Johnson gives directions for seven String Games From Around the World (Klutz, $; ages 9 and up). The book, which comes with a colorful string, entertained my daughter and her friend for an entire day this spring. Periodically, they would appear to show me string creations like, "the Mosquito" from Paraguay, "the Palm Tree" from Thursday Island, or "the Siberian Hut" from Alaska. The book not only has every step pictured so well that even a Mom can figure it out, but small write-ups of children who come from the site of the string creation. Your children can learn about different places, different children, and the way they live.

*This year my daughter had a teacher who taught children to playfully "increase their neocortexes" (the problem solving part of your brain) with challenging mind activities. She would approve of Peg Solitaire (Klutz, $17.95; ages 8 and up) which has twenty-three games to challenge children. The packaging is as brilliant as the concept; the wire binding holds both a plastic pack for carrying pegs and two sturdy peg boards.

* Children who love to collect will be pleased with two new notebooks from Dorling Kindersley. Fun Fax Magic Organizer and Fun Fax Spy File Organizer are small notebooks (each for $8.95; for ages 7-10) that come filled with some projects. Children can add to the original kit with FunFax Inserts ($1.95) that will lead them into further explorations of magic and spying. Fun Fax Magic Organizer has tricks and props, while Fun Fax Spy File Organizer has everything from mystery stories they can decipher to disguises they can wear. The notebooks are great for traveling and the packs are great for trading.

*Dorling Kindersley has involvement for older children too. They add to their popular Action Packs series with Castle and Puz?le (both $17.95; for children 8 and up). Castle transports children back in time with construction of a castle and activities to make the medieval world more real to them. They can design their own coat of arms or help knights joust in a diorama. Puz?le challenges them with logic and mathematical learning with activities that range from complex mazes to number games. Both come with guides and plenty of instructions.

* For ten years, thousands of girls been intrigued by the stories of five American Girl characters, each of whom represents a different time period in American history. Now, there's the American Girls Club and Historical Society (Pleasant Company, $19.95; ages 7-11). which inspires children to journey into the past with involving activities that can earn them the title of "American Girls Historian". Time travel begins with a kit that includes a charm bracelet and one charm, a passport that briefly introduces the characters, reading journals that have activities which correlate with the much loved books, and a handbook filled with projects that range from playing Colonial charades to learning how to pay a proper turn-of-the-century call. Completion of all reading journals and the handbook earns a child her Historian's Certificate and Charm. There are lots of places for parent involvement, collaboration with friends, goal accomplishments, fun and the kind of communication through mail that always pleases children.

*It's amazing to me how early children appreciate mail! They will find great satisfaction in the audiomagazine, Shoofly, produced in Carrboro, and winning awards nationally, including the Parents Choice Seal of Approval. Now beginning their third year, the tapes have gone through wonderful transformations. A recent tape features award-winning storyteller Jim Weiss and holds the talents of musician David Di Giuseppe and Piedmont blues guitarist Lightnin' Wells. There is incredible range in performers (both musically and dramatically), fiction (stories are new and classic and poetry is informational and sound stimulating), and the areas represented (From the sea shanty "Haul Away Joe" to the Arabian Night's story Djuha and the Cooking Pot). A years subscription (4 issues) can be ordered by calling 968-7846/ outside the area, or 800-919-9989, toll free for friends you might want to contact outside the Triangle.

Summer with Klutz, WUNC Radio, 1994
Klutz has a new book specifically for travel. Kids Travel: A Backseat Survival Kit. is for ages 5 and up. The book begins with fifty durable pages that include geography quizzes, word games, a decoder, game boards, car rituals (remember Punchbuggie?), and even directions for palm reading. There's a plastic pouch of supplies with markers, a cat's cradle string and a gel-like goo that's been made into playing pieces which stick easily on the game boards. There's also a Kids Pad with a hundred activity pages that slips neatly into the back cover (which also happens to be a clipboard). The book promises hours of fun for traveling kids and hours of relief for traveling parents!

Meanwhile back at home, Klutz Press has entertainment too! You can reminesce about summer camps of long ago when you introduce kids seven and up to  Boondoggle, A Book of Lanyard and Lacing. The book has sixteen braiding projects, everything from simple bike streamers, to more complicated spiral boondoggle bolo ties and square boondoggle zipper pulls. An attached plastic pouch holds six bright colors of lanyard, and materials to make a woven bracelet, key chain, and more.

For those cooler days when you can stand to turn on your oven, you can share Haab and Torres' The Incredible Clay Book with kids five and up. The book has over a hundred ideas for creating animals or beads, decorating keys or picture frames. It comes with eight brilliant colors of clay to inspire your Michelangelo.