Coloring-Story Books and Puzzles
| Overview | Coloring-Story Books and Puzzles Catalog |

Children love to color and do puzzles and Alaafia Kids are no exception! In fact, we at Alaafia Kids love coloring-story books and puzzles so much that we decided to create our very own! These are coloring-story books and puzzles with a purpose that will make your children smile. Now you and your children can explore some Alaafia Kids themes such as (1) being accepted; (2) celebrating diversity; and (3) getting to know Africa in innovative, interactive, and hands-on ways. These coloring-story books and puzzles feature our signature Alaafia Kids: Habiba, Mandisa, Addo, and Obi. Read more about the origin and significance of their names on our doll page. These children represent the four corners of Africa and symbolize the unity of all people of African decent. In these puzzles, see our signature Alaafia Kids doing fun things in African and American settings.

Educational Entertainment I: Eye-Hand Coordination
We believe that these forms of educational entertainment are great for children in many ways. For one, coloring-story books and puzzles develop great eye-hand coordination in young children. Even one-year-olds can hold a fat crayon and make lines on a piece of paper! They may not be able yet to color inside the lines, but they have plenty of time to master that skill. Starting early will help that process along. They can also hold a large, dinosaur- or elephant-shaped puzzle piece and try to get it to fit into another. Then before you know it, they will be ready for 1,000 piece puzzles!

Educational Entertainment II: Mental Calisthenics
Second, coloring-story books and puzzles are fun forms of mental calisthenics. From the moment we are born, we naturally seek out forms of mental stimulation. In fact, research shows that babies’ brains grow at more rapid rates when they receive such stimulation. Our coloring-story books and puzzles contribute to that never-ending process. Simple auditory exposure to the rhymes and repetition in the coloring-story books helps to develop linguistic skills. Looking at the full-color, laser quality puzzles designs contributes to the development of the brain, and possibly the aesthetic sense, too.

Educational Entertainment III: Abstract Thinking
Third, our coloring-story books and puzzles work wonders in enhancing children’s sense of spatial dimension and perspective in different ways. The coloring-story books are full of close up portraits and distant landscapes, expressive faces and proportional images of people and animals. These designs expose children’s growing brains to various ways of duplicating and interpreting reality, thereby enhancing what psychologists refer to as neural plasticity in an artistic sense.

On the other hand, the puzzles foster the mind’s eye to imagine what an unfinished picture will look like. Puzzles also develop the ability to visualize and mentally manipulate how pieces will fit together without actually touching them. Puzzles are great in developing abstract thinking skills!

Educational Entertainment IV: Life Lessons
Last but not least, the coloring-story books and puzzles allow parents to teach or reinforce some very important life lessons in wonderfully interactive ways! One of our coloring-story books, Wanna Play? tells the story of a little Alaafia Kid and her quest for friendship. She is looking for a friend who will accept her as she is. Whether your children are on the receiving or giving end of this tale, everyone has something to learn from it! Check out our Multicultural Arts and Crafts page to find multicultural crayons, pencils, and markers to use with the coloring-story books.

I Am a Rainbow Child is our signature coloring-story book. It points out the differences between a young Alaafia Kid’s parents and how these differences combine in the child to create something extraordinarily wonderful. It is a celebration of the diversity and heritage in each and every Alaafia Kid. Read (or sing!) along the rhyming and repetitive text of the coloring-story books as you and your children make the people look exactly like they do in your family, allowing you to personalize the coloring-story book yourself because you fill in the specifics about your Alaafia family while interactively working through the book. Click here to download a free page from I Am a Rainbow Child.

Our first puzzle, Jammin’ in Africa under the Baobab Tree, shows two of our signature Alaafia Kids in an African village scene. They have gone for a visit and are enjoying jamming on African musical instruments with their African friends under a majestic African baobab tree. The vivid colors and high-energy of this scene will encourage even the littlest puzzle-doers to work at it until they succeed!

Our second puzzle, Swings and Slides for You and Me, captures a playground scene where children of many different cultures play together in harmony. Two of our signature Alaafia Kids are happily integrated in the scene. This is the setting that we all hope to see at a playground, as well as later in life in all public arenas. This puzzle is a concrete expression of our quote from author Sara Paddison at the top of the page.

Third, we are so thrilled about our logo that we decided to make it into a Rainbow Logo puzzle! Young readers will be challenged to spell the words correctly as they read our subtitle “World’s children celebrating our diversity and heritage.” Maybe they will need their Alaafia parents to explain what some of the words mean. Also, all children love rainbows so this puzzle would be a great way to learn the order of the colors as a science activity!

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