My kids have had some really great colouring and activity books, some of which they've used more than others, and some of which I wish they'd use more instead of staring into their iPads.
Meanwhile, they keep growing up, and growing out of the Cat in the Hat and times tables for ages 5-7.
But I did manage to get them all round the table to go through the colouring books together, which was actually quite a nice companionable time for us all, talking and bringing back memories.
My oldest son picked out a few old treasures he wanted to keep: mostly origami, but also Steampunk devices and a cute Japanese colouring book from the years from age 6 when we first moved to America and he decided he loved everything Japanese. A couple of summer camps in a Japanese garden were wonderful for this.
Middle son also went through his, which were mostly activities about maps, and the older boys' favourites went up to their room.
Youngest son weeded out the books that were too young for him, and they all found a few that they just didn't like: the book from a Christmas activity pack whose pages were too shiny, the intricate repeating patterns that were actually hard to look at, the books based on shows and characters they weren't that keen on, and so on.
Those that were unused went into the bag for the charity shop.
A few suitable favourites went into a bag for car trips.
A bigger pile were put aside while I ask around for somewhere to re-home them, and if that's not possible they'll be recycled.
A few seasonal activity books were put out on a table as Halloween and Christmas activities.
That left a much reduced pile of mostly my youngest son's favourites to go back on the shelf. Hopefully now he's been reminded of what's there he might do more of them.
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