Timberdoodle gave us the opportunity to review the
Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia book. It is a book with extreme dot-to-dots with hundreds of dots to connect to form the picture. I figured that my almost 8 year old would like to have a go at it, but I found that I love them too.
I like that the numerical dots are separated in the picture and you have to search around to find the next number. Most of the pictures have instructions to connect the dots until you reach a star, then you find the next number and pick up where you left off. So, instead of drawing one continuous line you are doing sections at a time until you reach the last number. Trying to color it at the end is a bit confusing, to me at least. But, it was fun nonetheless.
In the back of the book is a page with small descriptions of the dot-to-dots that you can complete. This book is dedicated to Philadelphia and the Parkway Museums Districts.
Some of the pages are described to be completed like the picture below. I have had a great time doing these extreme dot-to-dots. They have been a good way for me to take a break when I get overwhelmed with stuff at home. What a great destresser this book has been. I've always liked those adult coloring books, but this worked my brain a little bit differently. I loved discovering what the picture was as I completed more numbers. It was satisfying to say, "Oh, that's a face and here's the hat."
I do think that this is a great addition to any curriculum, age appropriate, that is learning about The United States. It's a fun way to 'connect' with the theme and a different way to remember the academic aspect. This dot-to-dot is included in the
11th Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle.
Mr A, my almost 8 year old, worked on the first page which only has 156 dots. He did well, but was stumped sometimes when it took him a little while to find the next number.
Several of the pictures have over 1000 dots and one has over 1600.
Mr Z, the little brother, was interested in the book as well and liked to watch and tried to help a number from time to time.
After reading the description in the back of the book, we learned that his picture is the Love scultpure in the Love park in Philadelphia. Its a great fit for the location since Philadelphia means, brotherly love.
Mr A said he liked this dot-to-dot page. I could tell he was getting irritated when it took too long to find a number, but he wanted to finish. He did enjoy this but we'll have to see how a page with more dots works out. I know I like extreme dot-to-dots to use a destresser. We do recommend this book,
Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia for anyone that wants to mentally check-out or is learning about the United States.
Thank you Timberdoodle for letting us discover this book.
UPDATE:
Since posting this review, Mr A has been asking to do more of these dot-2-dots. He has really started to like them and will sit in bed at night and work on them for quite awhile before he goes to sleep. Mr A has even asked for more of these types of books.
