We all know kids love to color but instead of just buying them any ol' coloring book, why not go with something that's entertaining and a little more educational? As part of our new weekly goodies for kids column, we are seeking out the best bilingual and bicultural toys for children of various ages. First up? The Putomayo Kids World Culture coloring book collection!
This fun series includes three different books each based on a different continent, including Latin America, Europe and Africa. All feature pretty, folkloric artwork that depict different aspects of the featured continent, like its people, animals, and musical instruments. This allows children to fill in the drawings with any pattern or color, like they normally would, while also learning new things about a different culture! The Latin American one is especially effective because each drawing is captioned in both English and Spanish.
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Each book also includes a short introductory lesson about the continent , a map that illustrates all the different countries within the continent, and amazing, super easy to follow glossaries that help kids identify images of specific animals and musical instruments as they color and learn. Another cool feature of the books? Each also has a few blank pages that prompt kids to draw their own version of a certain item that matches the theme of the book. For instance, the Latin American edition shows a few pictures of masks or "máscaras" and then asks them to create their own in both languages– draw your own mask or dibuja tu propia máscara. So kids not only get to color in what's already there, they also get to create their own design!
As a final bonus, the books are all made from eco-friendly resources, like soy ink! Does it get any better than that?
Would you buy your child a coloring book from this collection?
Image via Putumayo
