My kids love to draw; especially my oldest son, Jack.  He’ll glean ideas from his favorite movies and video games and turn them into elaborate pictures and mini books.  Every now and then I like to help him branch out of his favorite Star Wars and Mario World themes by encouraging him to draw something new.  That’s where these cool doodle books come in handy.

My sister-in-law (an elementary school teacher) bought these for my kids last year and I think they’re fabulous.  The books are designed to jump start creativity by offering an incomplete doodle on each page.

Here, let me show you.  This page of my son’s doodle book simply had a sign printed on it with the word LOST.  Jack came up with this…

If you can’t read the words, it says

LOST
Hampster Ninja in a Ball
$110,000 (hampster ninjas are very rare, as you all know)

If I had handed Jack a blank piece of paper and asked him to draw me something he probably would have given me a picture of a rocket or a robot.  But when I hand him this book, he comes up with all kinds of crazy ideas.  I love to flip through it when he’s finished and laugh at all the bizarre things his creative little brain has come up with.

Here’s a page he hasn’t completed yet…hmm, I wonder what ferocious animal he’ll create next…

My daughter’s have doodle books too and they love them.  In fact, when everyone’s fighting and pestering each other I sometimes tell them to grab their doodle books from their homework boxes and mandate 10 minutes of silent drawing time.  Quiet creativity is a great chaos killer at our house!

You can find these books at Borders or Barnes & Noble for around $12 each.  I also noticed them at Sam’s Club this week for around $10.  If you’ve got a budding artist in your family you should definitely pick one up.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

*If you want to read a few more of my favorite discipline strategies and a bunch of great discipline ideas from my readers click here.