Summer is full of adventures but kids can get tired of creating their own entertainment pretty quickly. You can keep boredom at bay when you keep a stockpile of fun and educational activity books on hand. From art-by-sticker to beautifully designed sketchbooks, we found something for every kid. Scroll through the slideshow below to see them all.

Tinker-iffic

Aligned with Common Core Standards, TinkerActive Workbooks are available for kindergarten through second graders. The fun activity books feature their own friendly characters, the MotMots and help kids to apply what they learn with hands-on tinkering, making, and engineering activities that use items you have around the house.

Available at amazon.com, $9-$11 as of May 14.

Sticky Situations

Stickyscapes at the Museum is a different take on the traditional activity book. Your kids will love the 8-page sticker booklet that is oozing with over 100 stickers and a double-sided fold-out panoramic scene. One side shows the busy museum during the day, and the other depicts a nighttime extravaganza of the museum after dark.

Available at amazon.com, $10

Family Fun

Get in on the action with your little with The Grown-Up's Guide to Making Art with Kids! This book contains more than 25 activities that include drawing, painting, and crafting skills for both adults and kids. Use for family bonding and to inspire creativity for young and old.

Available at amazon.com, $10

Join the Search for Bigfoot

Bigfoot is back in his newest activity book! With 120 pages of exciting activities, this book is great for kids age five to 12, and will keep them busy and learning anywhere! Pull out on road trips, rainy days and vacation and enjoy tons of puzzles, trivia, twisters and stickers.

Available at amazon.com starting June 10, $10.

Big Fun

Learning is fun, and none more so than when your kids are following the weekly activities in Highlights Summer Fun workbook series. Coming in three versions that include bridging from preschool through second grade, each activity is aligned with state standards. Parents and kids will love the puzzles and the bonus pull-out Hidden Pictures progress poster that comes with a set of reward stickers, award certificate and extra activities.

Available at amazon.com, $11.

Riveting Rosie

A perfect follow-up to bestseller Rosie Revere, Engineer, this activity book stars the same bold, bright heroine, and is filled with activities that require problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Kids will work with Rosie as they design and create their own bicycle, a simple catapult, and more. There are real-life inventor profiles, games, and out-of-the-box tidbits scattered throughout the workbook, all perfect for getting kids to ask the big questions and think creatively. We have a feeling there might be a few made-from-trash treasures popping up this summer!

Ages: 5 - 7 years.

Available at amazon.com, $13.

Great Gardens

Peak your little one’s interest in where food comes from with this veggie-based book. With 102 stickers, 30 activities, and one quiz, kids can go step-by-step in the “garden,” from finding the right tools to learning about root vegetables and even different types: orchards, greenhouses, medieval gardens and more. The colorful stickers are beautifully illustrated, and there’s plenty of room for scribbles and drawings.

Ages: 5 - 8 years.

Available at amazon.com, $8.

Bug Out

Little entomologists will love this new pop-out puppet activity book from paper artist Sato Hisao. There are nine bugs ready to go—ranging from jumping grasshoppers to stinging scorpions—plus three blank designs for coloring. Each model comes with easy assembly instructions, and there’s no scissors or glue required!

Ages: 6 - 9 years.

Available at amazon.com, $13.

Awesome Edutainment

Gakken is the maker of Japan’s bestselling activity books for kids. Each one puts the emphasis on fun, so much that kids won’t even know they’re building important skills while they trace lines and shapes, cut and paste objects, solve mazes and tackle other simple projects. Parents, these books even have notes for you to help your kiddo gain important life tools such as improving focus, problem-solving and social skills.

Ages: 2 and up.

Available for pre-order at amazon.com, $6.

Color-by-Sticker

This sticker book combines the mess-free appeal of stickers with the regular appeal of a coloring book. Each one (choose between pets or animals) comes with 500 stickers to use on 14 different geometric mosaics. Kids can also use coloring crayons or markers to give their designs a personal touch.

Ages: 5 - 8 years.

Available at amazon.com, $9.

Space Out

Future astrophysicists will enjoy working in this lovely activity book that’s filled with fun facts about the universe, and exercises such as drawing solar systems, navigating out of a black hole, and calculating their ages in Jupiter years.

Ages: 6 - 8 years.

Available at amazon.com, $5.

All-In-One Fun

Leave it to Crayola to make an all-in-one kit for kids. This new Color Wonder set includes 18 Baby Shark Coloring Pages, 9 Color Wonder Markers, a Storage Case, and 30 Blank Coloring Pages. The case snaps shut with ease, which is perfect for any summer travel you’ve got planned. Available in princess, Toy Story 4 and smaller kits for Paw Patrol, PJ Masks and Shimmer & Shinethemes.

Ages: 3 and up.

Available at crayola.com, $16.

Draw & Discover

A set of three adorable activity books by celebrated children’s author Yasmeen Ismail, the Draw and Discover series includes Inside, Outside, Upside Down, Push, Pull, Empty, Full and Happy, Sad, Feeling Glad. Kids will join Cat, Dog, Donkey, Bear, Duck and Rabbit as the animals discover feelings, emotions, differences, and opposites: outside and inside, up and down, left to right and back again. Then, using the prompts on each page, little artists can add their own drawings and illustrations to add to the fun!

Ages: 4 - 7.

Available at barnesandnoble.com, $9.99.

Color A Classic Book

Looking for something super sweet? Kids (and parents, too!) can relive the classic story of Big and Little Nutbrown Hare in 96 pages of beautifully illustrated images and words inspired by the bestselling book, Guess How Much I Love You. Written and illustrated by the same original team, this activity book comes with intricate scenes of nature (think: full pages of ladybugs, flowers, acorns and more) and of course, the wonderful story about a dad and his son.

Ages: All ages.

Available at amazon.com, $13.

Something for Everyone

Maybe one kid likes outer space, and the other wants to learn about dinosaurs. This new book is filled with over 100 different activities: scenes to color, maps with basic legends, spot-the-difference puzzles and more, which means there’s something for everyone.

Ages: 4 - 7 years.

Available at amazon.com, $6.

The Blockbuster Add-On

In the spirit of summer your kids will be begging for Moana! At least with this newly released 96-page color and activity book, your little wayfinders will be able to use their creativity to add to the story! Expect to see coloring pages, dot-to-dot, mazes, stickers and more.

Ages: 4 and up.

Available at amazon.com, $9.

— Gabby Cullen & Karly Wood

 

RELATED STORIES

10 Easy (& Fun) Ways to Shake Up Vocab Study Time

Surprising & Adorable Things to Do with a Kiddie Pool

Family Travel Blogs You Need to Bookmark Now

 

Advertisement
phone-icon-vector
Your daily dose of joy and connection
Get the Tinybeans app