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Traveling from school to school working with children of all ages on writing and drawing, there are a few invaluable resources that have permanent homes inside my work bag. The Family Doodle Book is one of the latest.

If you have a child who struggles to write,  homework and those dreaded “open responses” that are used measure a performance on state testing can be a real source of frustration, especially when children are forced to write about topics that are meaningless to their world. Though I was always a decent writer in college, giving me a blank open page to draw made my palms sweat, and drawing with dimension is certainly not another one of my strengths.

The Family Doodle Book includes 65 writing prompts that combine writing and drawing. On one side of the paper, kids and adults can answer a writing prompt with a few sentences. On a separate piece of paper, there is a corresponding “doodle” page. The doodle page already has a few illustrations on the page that participants can add to. The best part of the drawing page is that there are included templates and lines to help spark creativity, so for those of you with white page anxiety, you’ll have a starting point.

The book has fun prompts such as, “draw a new hairstyle, draw your best friend, look into a crystal ball and draw what you’ll be doing this time next year, draw one thing that cheers you up when you’re sad, or draw your least favorite food in the trashcan.”

Even though the Family Doodle book may have been created to encourage more than one family member to draw on the same page, about the same topic, the writing and drawing prompts in this book are really a lot of fun, and a great way to engage your children in conversation.  Kids can creatively work through fears of monsters and future career plan, or use their imagination to design their favorite superhero.

If you are looking for a way to connect with your children, aside from video games or technology, I’m sure there’s topic housed inside this book that will “draw” you together. Though my son is a little young for the concept of this book, the topics have been perfect for the children at school to promote ways for students express their individual interests while working collaboratively to share the page and drawing materials.

I was provided with a copy of this book free, to facilitate this review.

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You may also want to check out another current for The Mandala Coloring Book giveaway as well, which you can enter here.a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Family Doodle Book, a winner of the 2013 Family Choice Award, can also be purchased through Adams Media Store.com.