Klutz Books for Activity and Learning Fun!

I truly love toys that provide my children with a learning experience. Especially a toy that can grab and hold their attention along with teaching them a potential hobby or trade. This is why I am a huge fan of Klutz Books. I heard of them for the first time when I noticed this terrific selection of books that included all the tools to create various projects at my local Learning Express. Then I looked them up online and found that there were hundreds of books and activities to choose from. Whether it be learning to juggle, creating solar cars or making friendship bracelets, Klutz has a book to teach you how to do it!


Beaded bracelets are all the rage this season and my daughter was thrilled that Klutz offers a book that teaches you step by step how to create a myriad of styles called Beaded Bands By: Eva Steele-Saccio. I love that the book and tools come encased in a hardcover book. Inside you will find the instructional book, a built in ruler and all the supplies you need to make the bracelets including a loom, needles, cord, beading thread, closures and over 900+ beads! This is an extremely well thought out kit.



I really love the attention to detail as it explains how to create each bracelet style. The book begins with explaining the basics that you will need to know from tying a knot to creating the perfect bracelet length. The directions are easy to understand and are fully illustrated. I love the high resolution full color photos and that each item of the kit is identified by photo for easy reference. After learning the basics, my daughter simply flipped through and selected her favorite style to create. The colors and graphics are really vivid and pretty making it lots of fun for any girl to read. She was really excited to show off her first creation to all of you, but school work has taken first place in our home over the past weeks and she wasn't able to complete it yet. This is definitely a book that will be used for a long time to come and my daughter is excited to take her new skills and purchase other types of cords, beads and threads to use with the loom in the future.


My son is completely addicted to making paper airplanes. Whether it be with a piece of notebook paper, a napkin at a restaurant or even the church bulletin... my son is always eager to take that paper and fold it into a airplane. He also loves the art of origami and making folded animals using paper. So, I knew immediately that he was going to love Star Wars Folded Flyers by Benjamin Harper and the Scientists of Klutz Labs. This book takes folding paper airplanes to a whole new level, plus it's Star Wars! You get the best of both worlds! This book is perfect for the hardcore Star Wars fans or for the newbie. It features a Beginner's Guide to Starfighters along with a special message from Yoda with Important Advice. Then there's a Flight School which includes tips from the Galaxy's Greatest Pilots.


My son had no problem grabbing this book, following the detailed instructions and making his very first starfighter all on his own. He did have to ask me for some tape, but other than that he had no trouble and really enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing his Millenium Falcon fly! There were a few tweaks needed to make it perfect, so he utilized the Flight School guidelines and had it flying correctly in no time. Not only are the graphics throughout the book terrific, he loved that the book includes highly detailed paper to make 30 starfighters. Plus, here's something really awesome about Klutz... when you run out of supplies to make starfighters, you can simply order more of them directly from Klutz! There is no need to purchase an entire book just so you can have more paper. My son truly loved creating starfighters with Star Wars Folded Flyers and would definitely recommend it to other kids.


In addition to making paper airplanes, my son just loves to make things. Time after time I find contraptions such as popsicle sticks glued to balloons and toilet paper rolls in his room. He showed me how this one works and it was quite interesting. The contraption flies across a string when you let the air out of the balloon. I have to admit, I'm a proud mommy - but there are often times that I end up with no tape or toothpicks or some other type of household good. So, when I heard about Gotcha Gadgets by Ben Grossblatt & the Scientists of Klutz Labs and that it comes with all the necessary tools to build electronic gizmos, I was thrilled to let him give it a try.


I have to admit, I enjoyed reading this book as much as my son did. The photos of the kid scientists and pranksters are super adorable! I love the combination of photos, graphics and colors which make the book easy to flip through and pick which gadget you would like to create and then what prank you would like to pull with it. Considering how brothers and sisters love to pick on one another, you can imagine my son's excitement over constructing these gizmos so he could pull a prank on his big sister. I know nothing about circuit boards, switch pieces, etc... but, my son grabbed up this kit like a professional and began building his gadget with ease. The good news is, you don't have to know anything about circuit boards and such to use this book as it does a fabulous job teaching you step by step how to make everything. I really loved that the only thing extra we needed was a 9 volt battery and tape. My son loved the satisfaction of seeing his gadget in action once he had it constructed into a funny sounds noise machine. Now he's patiently waiting for just the right time to prank his sister. My son truly enjoys Gotcha Gadgets and it would make a great gift for any child over 8 years of age who loves to put things together and take them apart.

Klutz offers your child more than just a book to read or a toy to play with, they offer them an experience to learn in a way that is incredibly fun. It is really easy to find the perfect book at Klutz as you can search their website by category, gender and age. Currently, you can receive 25% off your purchase by signing up for their Newsletter! I am honored to include Klutz in my 2012 Christmas Gift Guide and I am so excited to announce that 3 lucky readers will win one of the above books in Day Two of our "12 Days of Christmas Giveaways" which will go live 12/2/12 at 12:01AM EST.

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