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My First Book of Crafts Review by Dena Wood

Kumon Publishing
Kumon Publishing North America, Inc.
300 Frank W Burr Blvd.
Teaneck, MJ 07666
201-836-2105
http://www.kumonbooks.com/

My First Book of Crafts is geared for ages 4, 5 and 6 and is intended for children that are already familiar with using scissors and glue. The book offers the opportunity to advance fine motor skills by cutting, folding and pasting.

The inside cover offers notes to parents including the aims and purposes for the book and notes on using the workbook. The book uses different dotted lines to denote when pieces should fold forward or back, pieces are numbered in order of use and pieces have "glue marks" to indicate where glue should be placed. Projects are brightly colored and printed on strong, heavy duty stock making them easy to work with.

This workbook is designed for children who will make three dimensional projects for the first time. The projects are generally intended to be worn or used as toys after they are created. The first project is to create a couple of wristwatches. From there you move to rings, finger puppets, "surfers", and snakes. As complexity increases your child will begin making balancing birds, leaping frogs and flying pigs. The most difficult levels have your child making paper models of elephants, giraffes, dogs and alligators.

While the book says it is geared to 4, 5 and 6 year olds, my 9 year old enjoyed it, also. There is a wide skill range in the projects available allowing me to use the one book for all three of my younger children. While we had some difficulty removing the pages from the book to work with, everything else is A+! Instructions are easy-to-follow and the projects are fun and challenging.

This workbook is a simple and easy way to add in some craft activities while increasing fine motor skills and practice in following directions. My children enjoyed all the activities so much that this was considered a "reward" book. You can't do much better than that!


-Product Review by Dena Wood, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June, 2006

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