22 Best Activity Books for Kids (According to Parents)

Kelly R:  These creative activity books for kids are a cool take on the color-by-numbers concept. Each book contains a series of pictures that start out as a simple numbered grid. Fill in the squares with the right colors to reveal the picture!

This colorful, fill-in guided journal is cool for kids to enjoy a little quiet time and self-reflection in a fun and creative way. Kids can answer questions (with words and/or drawings!) about what their favorite and least favorite dinners are, what they would name a shop if they owned one, and how many teeth they have at this moment in time.

Shila:  Fickle, cavort, mischievous, jealous... widen your vocab and learn a brand new word every single day, with a simple brainstormer to match. We have the Grade 1 book, and today's word of the day was: permit. "You are not permitted to touch the oven." The whole activity really takes only a couple minutes, and it's actually somewhat of a suspenseful moment.

Tim Ponisciak:  Beginner activity books are great for kids who are just getting started with drawing or writing letters. Our 5 year old loved his first Kumon tracing book! The pages are easy to understand and this is something your child will be able to do on their own for the most part.

Erynn:  For Minecraft-obsessed elementary schoolers like my son, this Minecraft-centered math activity book is ideal. It's not math disguised as fun, but the activities are engaging and involve puzzle solving, decoding clues and secret messages, and word problem practice with Minecraft themes and concepts. Plus, it spans a few grade levels so there are both familiar and challenging problems.

Vanessa M.:  The bright colors and cute characters invite preschoolers to interact with the fun activity pages of the Big Preschool Workbook. Simple directions like "trace the path" or "circle the pictures that begin with a P" are easy to follow, and cover school readiness basics like numbers, colors, shapes, alphabet, basic phonics, early math and more.

Kelly R:  This isn't an activity book that will get tossed away the minute it's completed. Fans of Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series can create a personalized masterpiece with this cool DIY book. Record fun facts and memories, answer probing questions, complete comic strips, and much more. Your kid (or you, if he lets you peek!) will enjoy flipping through it years later to see his custom haunted house design and the list of dressing room requirements for when he's a famous musician.

Vanessa M.:  This is Not a Maths Book by Anna Weltman expands the general concept of mathematics into the creative arts. Make parabolic curves into beautiful works of art, make your own 3D art, learn about Pascal's Patterns, create a squaretangle and more in this extraordinary activity book!

Kelly R:  My son loved this book that is more creativity book than coloring book. Armed with their imaginations, kids complete half-drawn pictures with prompts like "how will you escape from a crocodile" and "what's under the bed?" These books are great gifts for 6-year-old boys, and check out The Girls' Doodle Book if you're shopping for a girl.

This time capsule allows children to write 12 keepsake letters to their future selves with fun and interesting writing prompts. Letters are sealed and dated with the included stickers, then bound into the paper time capsule to be read many years later when the child is all grown up!

Vanessa M.:  Keep summer learning fun with Scholastic's Summer Express workbooks. Kids will practice vocabulary, grammar, writing, reading, and math skills arranged in a 10-week format that is perfect for summer break. Sticker charts to track progress and award certificates for finished work will keep kids invested in their summer learning.

Vanessa M.:  Brain Quest is known for educational, fun workbooks and products that kids truly enjoy. The Summer Brain Quest version of the Brain Quest Workbooks series is no exception! Kids' summer learning will be on point with science, social studies, English language arts, and math, plus the foldout summer progress map (with stickers!) encourages kids to meet their learning goals.

Kelly R:  If your kids enjoy the hidden picture challenges in the Highlights magazines for kids, this activity book is filled with over 175 of the fun puzzles to keep them busy.

Kelly R:  This activity book is fabulous, and of such high quality that it makes an excellent gift! It's also an incredible bang for the buck when I consider the hours and hours that my daughter spent working on it.

Katie G.:  The Summer Bridge activity books for kids are a great way to keep your child's skills sharp during the long summer months. As the name suggests, the books help to "bridge" the gap from one grade to the next. Kids will be able to refresh material they learned in their current grade and get a jump on material for the next grade. These books are designed to be completed for about 15 minutes a day in subjects such as reading, writing, math, science and even fitness. There are 12 weeks of lesson plans in each book, making this the only learning book you'll need this summer.