Printable coloring books are OK...

...but let's think outside the box too

When do printable coloring books offer more than just coloring? When they come from Best Children's Books!

Okay, let's start with three ways to find good printable coloring pages online.

Option #1)

Find out what your child would like to draw. (Let's say she chose a lion.) Pick your favorite search engine.

Type printable coloring page or printable coloring book in quotes. Type lion. Search.

Along with the usual internet garbage, you should have some king of the jungle pictures to choose from. Now just print!

Time out! Have you heard about KidPix©? My daughter's kindergarten computer lab (can you believe that?) used it extensively. These kids learned computers like crazy while having a complete blast.

Think of KidPix© as being kind of like the "Paint" program on your computer, only on steroids. Software like this probably would have been worth a few hundred thousand bucks 15 years ago. Now you might be able to get it for the price of a burger.

So the kids loved it, but it was the way they took on computer skills that was so exciting for me. They were pointing and clicking like like little Picassos. They were finding and saving files and they couldn't even read yet!

The very cool thing is that you can get KidPix© even cheaper than you might think if you listen to this. As I'm writing, (07/06) the current KidPix© is Version 4. The thing is though...Version 4 stinks! (I know. I bought it.) Not at all user-friendly.

The fantastic thing about that is Version 3 is still available, and it's the version the kids love.

I know you came here looking for something free, but think about it.

Option #2)

Go to Free Coloring Pages - printable coloring online. Click Printable Coloring Pages, NOT Online Coloring. Now pick a pic! (Or there's a Print Activities option as well, for mazes, connect-the-dots, etc.)

Option #3)

Visit National Geographic's printable coloring books pages.

The pictures are nicely detailed, there's information on the animals depicted, and most of the ads and links are for National Geographic. Your giraffe-loving child could color a giraffe and then watch a one minute giraffe video!

A printable coloring books confession

I'm not a huge fan of either printable coloring books online or old-fashioned coloring books in general. My mother thought coloring books stifle creativity and I tend to agree.

After all, your child isn't drawing pictures. Your child is merely coloring inside of pictures.

Sure, coloring helps your child with hand-eye coordination. Your child can practice properly holding a writing utensil as well.

And if you print out a page for your child to color offline, you're miles ahead of the online coloring books fad, where the only thing your child learns is how to point and click.

No benefit there. I'm glad you weren't planning on turning your child into a point and click zombie.

But can we do better than free printable coloring books?

Well, I can't beat free, but I can match it. And at the same time I can lead you toward an activity more enriching for your child than just printable coloring books.

The literary alternative to online printable coloring books and coloring books in general

Instead of online free coloring pages, what about online free pictureless picture books?

Here's the angle. We all know we're supposed to be reading to our young children. A lot.

Most of what we read are picture books. Now what if the picture book text were accompanied by...blank space?

Your child could supply the illustrations that the text inspires. No lines to stay inside of, just pure imagination, coupled with reading. You could:

1. Copy the text from a favorite book onto blank pages. Let your child illustrate from memory or imagination.
2. Let your child copy - in his or her own hand - the pictures from a favorite book onto blank pages.

Or...

Illustrate one of my pictureless picture books.

Or...

The web is awash in free children's books...

...much like it's awash in printable coloring books. Same theory. Surround the good stuff with a ton of advertising.

So if you want to provide your child with a great coloring and reading experience...

If you think it'd be fun to read to your child a book that your child has actually illustrated...

Check out the free children's books I have on this site! Or (and maybe this'll sound crazy) write the text for a children's book yourself and let your child illustrate. It'll be a book you wrote and illustrated together!

And it just so happens I have a How To Write A Pictureless Picture Book page right on this site! (Warning: it's a long page.)

I promise, if you follow through, it'll be one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do with your child.

Whichever option you choose, I'm confident it will be a richer one for your child than just another printable coloring page.

Go to Coloring Books Central on this site.