What's your little cowboy making today? (Cowboy Things to Make and Do - Emily Bone)

Name: kingfisher111

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Product:	Cowboy Things to Make and Do - Emily Bone
Date:	06/07/08 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots to do and easy to follow

Disadvantages: none!

The Usborne activity book 'Cowboy Things to Make and Do' is a really practical and fun book to entertain small children for many hours. There are loads of different things to make including a Wild West wanted poster, a sherrif badge, a cowboy hat and a cowboy belt. All of these activities are given their own double paged spread and have very bright and colourful instructions to follow. There are also over 200 stickers but these donot seem to be related to specific activities.

The instructions are all very easy to follow. They are broken down into very small steps and each step is generally accompanied by an illustration which helps your child to know exactly what he or she should be doing. I do have one small criticism though which is that the equipment and materials needed are not listed at the beginning of the activity which means that you have to read all of the way through before you start to check you have got everything. There's nothing worse for your child than discovering half way through an activity that they are missing a vital resource!

Most of the activities require either paper or cardboard as well as glue, scissors, pencils, string, paintbrushes and paint. I guess these are the sorts of things that a lot of children might have in an art box at home already so they shouldn't be too difficult to find.

The Wild West wanted poster is a fun activity especially as it involves ageing the paper by staining it with tea! My daughters were quite amazed that we were pouring cold tea over our paper and even more amazed at the results as it really does make the paper feel old and faded. They also had to tear and crumple the paper which they also found quite surprising as usually, I encourage them not to do this. The end results were very good and now they both have proudly stuck up their own wanted posters with their own faded 'mugshots' over their beds!

A lot of the activities involve drawing and this is what I think the book does very well because it actually goes through how to draw people and animals step by step. There is a line dancing paper chain activity and this shows and talks through how to draw a head first before adding a body with bent arms. They have to add the clothes last, and as it is a paper chain they have to make sure that the elbows and the toes go right to the edges. My eldest daughter who is nearly five can really follow these steps well and she has been so pleased with what she has been able to draw.

Most of the activities in this book will probably last anywhere between twenty minutes and an hour depending on the patience of the child and the amount of care taken. The book doesn't have a suggested age on it, but when I ordered it from The Book People the recommended age was about five. I think this is about right as the activities are just within the capabilities of my eldest (almost five) daughter although she still needs some help with tricky cutting and sticking. Also, as she has only just started school and is not yet a reader, I have to help her to read the instructions and point her in the right direction, although she does work out a lot of steps from the pictures.

Overall we think this is a very good book as it is both practical and fun. The activities are varied and will keep most children occupied for a good amount of time. The RRPis £4.99 which is not bad value, but we actually bought our copy from The Book People for about £3 only which is great value.

We definitely recommend this book especially if your child is the type who likes making and doing things!

Summary: Lots of fun practical ideas to keep your child busy!