Do you buy coloring books or do you print coloring pages from web?

[BikeBookBread]

In the great scheme of things, this seems like a dumb question, but what do you do mostly? I've found some great websites for printing off coloring pages.

 

My dh thinks it's more cost effective to buy coloring books (cheap ones) rather than put the wear and tear on the printer. When I make them "coloring books" out of printed pages, I usually print about 30 pages off for each book.

 

I don't need a scientific cost-benefit analysis, but what conclusions have you come to, if indeed, you have ever dwelled upon this lofty question...? :tongue_smilie:

[Chris in VA]

We don't color a lot around here--dd did enjoy some of the pages in the SOTW AG, but that's about it.

I have printed a few, when I wanted something historic that would be harder to find in an average coloring book, for her history notebook. The history-based coloring books we have are really better for elementary kids, using colored pencils instead of crayons, because they are quite detailed and based on real art work.

 

Dd likes lots of blank paper because she prefers to work on art that comes from inside her, instead of someone else's idea. I want to support that. I personally find coloring someone else's art kinda soothing, tho! lol

 

Does that even attempt to answer you? lol

[Tabrett]

We do both. I would prefer to buy coloring books, but I'm not really crazy about the subjects offered in most stores. I like printing a page at a time on what they are interested in at the moment.

[AnnetteB]

We have purchased Dover coloring books and printed off coloring sheets. We have a large clip art book cd-rom that has great coloring pages, too. My kids love to draw, cut, paste, tape, write notes, and doodle on everything and anything....Gotta remind them not to write on the walls!

[abbeyej]

For a single page here or there, the printer is fine. For multiple pages at a time, you're probably better off buying coloring books.

 

The "Color & Learn" series, for instance, is only about $3 per book, and they have lots of great history and science topics. Dover has a lot of great coloring books in the $4+ range (less for the miniature books)... And, of course, for regular cartoon characters, princesses, etc, any local dollar-type store should have a number for $1-2 each.

[Tap]

We have bought coloring books when they were younger. We found cheap coloring books at dollar stores, Walmart or such. Most other stores wanted $4 for a 20 page coloring book. Unless I had a child who was really, really into coloring, that doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

 

Dd10 liked animal designs so I googled and found some great sites. Then she would pick the page she wanted and we would only print that page. At one point we were studying animal habitats so I printed off a lot of animal pictures and most of those are still upstairs...uncolored years later.

 

The few expensive books I did buy were mandalas or other geometric coloring books. I would then make multiple photocopies for dd and her friends as they wanted to color them, and the have used those books more than anything.

 

When the kids were little, I liked having books because they would go back and color the same pages later, even if they had scribbled on them previously. If they were given individual sheets, they just wanted new sheets over and over. Once they no longer wanted to color over old pictures, is when I started printing the pictures.

[Pretty in Pink]

I print them off of the web. My children don't really use the coloring books that I have picked up at the dollar store and Walmart. They usually draw free-hand but when they want a specific coloring page I just google it and print one off.

[Nicole M]

When my boys were little they filled blank books with drawings. I found them to be better than blank pages, because their work did not get lost or clutter up the house. I liked these:

 

http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/psstone/store/agora.cgi?product=Lesson_Books_and_Paper&xm=on

 

We also collected some of the Dover coloring books, too, that Abbeyej mentioned.

[wildflower]

we have bought books formt he target dollar section, pre-k and k workbooks from borders and used this website for beginning handwriting (before WTM, I guess I should refer to this period in our home schooling as- BWTM).

 

they also have great print-outs that I bring for coloring pages for the kids during Pastors sermon....

 

http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/alphabetp8.htm

 

Robyn

[gardening momma]

My girls really don't like coloring books much. Maybe that will change some as they get older. What dd5 does like is when she's interested in a particular topic, if I find some pictures online to print out for her to color. A couple of weeks ago it was ants. So between black & white clip art, and online coloring pages, I was able to put together a page or two of ants. I like to put the pictures in a Word document, then crop and resize to fit, so I can get several images on a page. I might include a corresponding letter to trace too.