I know you’ll all be really shocked to learn this:). But, I love activity books.

In fact, it is one of my major missions in the parenting universe to try out every activity book I can get my hands on. If there is a childhood project to be test-driven, I’d like to at least know about it. I admit though, that 95% of all of the books I check out in this arena get returned to the library pretty much unread. While I label myself mildly obsessed with finding cool things to create, it takes A LOT to sell me on an activity book that’s worth checking out from cover to cover.

A good activity book has to have four parts to make it a keeper around here:

1. Good directions. If I can’t figure out quickly and easily how to make something, I will make it a point to return it to the library within the hour.

2. Well thought out themes. A book that just gives me a big whack of projects with no point just reinforces the scatter brain I’m trying to escape from on a minute-by-minute basis. I need a focus.

3. Great illustrations. Can’t see it…why bother?

4. Stories.

Point four is my focus today.

When you have an activity book that weaves an excellent series of tales – whether they be historic or personal vignettes – projects take on a more tactile feel. Engaging the senses – all of them – is something that I think is often overlooked when it comes to getting together around the table to create something together.

So, when you find books that help us as parents get into the creative groove while also connecting kids to different aspects of life, I suspect that we’ll all discover that we find ourselves more in tune with the collective, feeling a bit less separate.

I’ve got two gems today that are destined to become perennial favourites for all kinds of families. They’ve got it all, including totally fun projects that are great for kiddos from toddler to teen.

I discovered Kitchen Playdates by Lauren Bank Deen when a pal who lives two continents away sent it my direction thinking I needed to boost my kiddo food repertoire. I totally admit that we find one or two kitchen projects the tiny person and I can do together – lately it’s muffin and coconut date ball making – and stick with them as the kitchen is soooooo not my forte.

I worry about her getting hurt on kitchen tools, eating something that will make her sick.

I need to get over it.

Kitchen Playdates is the cure.

This gorgeous book that has a very Martha look and feel takes getting the kiddos involved in the kitchen to a new level.

Deen is ALL ABOUT getting kiddos involved in the making of great food.

This is no hot dog and jelly bean cook book. It plugs kids into the richness and fun of adult food, exposing them in fun, kid-friendly ways to spices, veggies, gourmet meals and great treats like chocolate play dough.

We’ve proven in our house, over and over again, that our daughter is about 300x more likely to at least try a food that she has had a hand in preparing.

I’ve introduced cabbage, different fish dishes, soups and hummus this way – all things that she now requests on a regular basis.

Through having food playdates with mom, the tiny person will now eat just about any vegetable raw and L-O-V-E-S making her own salad dressings.

It has also been a perfect way to help her get used to the reality that food filled with wheat and dairy are not going show up on our dinner table. But, that doesn’t mean that food can’t rock. Ice cream remains our only hurdle in the allergy universe.

Deen has great directions, excellent tips, fun stories and beautiful illustrations which means I am going to have to fork out the cash and buy this book as I don’t think the library will let me keep renewing – and even if they did that makes me a book hog.

I also may have to buy this book for my pal Karen as I can totally see that beautiful pile of girls she has totally digging an afternoon creating amazing things in the kitchen together.

The second, A Pioneer Story by Barbara Greenwood, illustrated by Heather Collins, came my way thanks to the classic, vintage vibe of one of my favourite Nanaimo mamas, Krista.

Homeschooling four kiddos has led her down the path toward some amazing creative projects that I simply have to love. When I spotted her sons making old-skool tools that looked like they came straight off of a very cool farm, she plugged me into Barbara Greenwood.

The whole series of pioneer books – based on the daily life of a Canadian pioneer family from 1840 – is all about a simpler life when everything was made by hand.

Each series of activities that include making butter, maple sugaring, making simple wooden toys, stenciling (a current tiny person fave), drying apples and making a pioneer water carrier comes with a great history lesson in how daily pioneer life required ingenuity and hard work.

These projects are so cool and have an incredible feel of vintage, homemade goodness that cannot be replicated any other way.

Besides the fact that learning how to make basic tools is super fun, teaching kiddos those skills is a great way to help instill independence and self-confidence. The history lesson and peek into how different life was 170 years ago is fascinating and, for kids of this technology age, nearly unbelievable.

There are four books in the Pioneer series – all wonderful and engaging.

I found both of these beauties at the Vancouver Island Regional Library branch in Courtenay.

Book covers courtesy of Kids Can Press and Chronicle Books