How have I not stumbled upon these workbooks earlier?  I have felt like the slacker mom on many occasions when I hear of mom-friends doing lots of arts and crafts with their kids – even using scissors!  I will admit it publicly – I avoided crafts because it sounded like a lot of time and effort on my part.  Lucky for me, these Kumon workbooks were recommended to me (by a very studious and attentive mom-friend of a very intelligent little boy).  I was instantly drawn to them!  The colors, layout, and simplicity of the workbooks make me want to sit down with my almost 3 year old, and PLAY!  Of course, this gave me my excuse to go out and buy her some kid-friendly scissors (aka: don’t cut very well) and some glue sticks – and here we go, some quality mom and daughter time, AND she’s practicing necessary skills she needs for kindergarten (2 yrs away) – and no, I am not obsessing about what she needs to know before going into kindergarten…
My daughter’s favorite workbook is “Let’s Cut Paper” where she practices cutting in a straight line, a curvy line, through a maze, etc.  My recommendation: start the scissor practice sooner rather than later… it’s not as easy as we adults make it look.  Other books we are having fun with are “Let’s Color“, which helps with color recognition and staying in the lines, “Let’s Sticker and Paste“, and “Let’s Fold“.

OH, did I forget to mention that these are THE BEST distractions to bring to a restaurant or on a long plane flight?   Hours of entertainment – trust me!