I am sure there are times when you wish that the kids would quietly do their homework or play by themselves so that you can do your own stuff too.
Toys or a tablet do work at keeping them occupied, but how about getting them busy with some wholesome activity sheets that you can print out on demand?
Instead of only the finger sliding of electronic screens, the activity sheets – with all those pens and colour pencils involved, will really get the kids working on their motor reflexes.
You have the right printer, you can easily churn out colouring pages, educational worksheets with awesome illustrations or even paper airplanes models from the comfort of your very own home!
I am sure the more resourceful parents would have already searched for such materials online and already printed them out for their kids. But what they might not realize is that by doing so, they could be, (unknowingly) infringing on the copyrights of the content owners.
Having Angry Birds’ activity sheets is a dream come true for my girl Stacci.
There is no need to fret. Your kids can still have those amazing activity sheets thanks to HP Printables, which offers a whole suit of awesome activity sheets in partnership with major brands such as Disney, Dreamworks Animation, Crayola and Leapfrog just to name a few.
With such amazing collaborations, you can be sure that the printouts will definitely capture the kids’ attention and imagination!
And what is great about it, is that fact that available content can be accessed directly from the HP printer once is connected to the internet, making reviewing, selecting and printing of the activity sheets via the LED screen on the printer easy-peasy.
Alternately, you can choose to access the full suite of printables from your web browser as well and print them wirelessly once you are connected to the printer. Better still, parents can download the HP Printable mobile app, available on both on App Store or Android for the even greater flexibility of accessing the menu and printing worksheets directly through their smartphones!
I tried out the HP Printables with my kids, and here is our review of some of the fun activity sheets we tried out together.
Angry Birds
My daughter Stacci loves coloring printouts of the famous birds and pigs from the games apps, but there are so many more Angry Bird activities available on HP Printables.
I got her to try some simple activities such as connecting the dots to form the full picture, although I did have to guide her a little on the numberings as she isn’t that proficient with her counting. I guess she found it more fun practicing counting this way, and she sure was proud of completing the full picture, which she promptly proceeded to color too!
Dreamworks Animation Printable
My son Leroy typically has a haphazard coloring style, but in one of the worksheets he had to match the numbers shown in the parts to be colored against a table below. Doing this particular activity sheet was a learning process for him: he had to figure out how to match the numbers to the color table, and read out the names of the colors in the process as well.
He went from not understanding why he had to follow the numbers, to seeing the “big” picture when the picture of the Toothless finally materialized.
There are lots more activity sheets with characters from movies such as The Croods, Penguins of Madagascar, and Turbo, to keep the kids busy on a rainy day!
Making perfect paper airplanes was never this fun…or this easy!
Awesome Airplane
I am sure as a child, all of us would have at least folded an airplane using magazine pages or whatever we could get our hands on. Now with this printable, one can actually print out a full-colored airplane model.
You just need to follow the instructions such as some folding along the dotted lines and viola, your very own great-looking aircraft will be ready to take off! You will also learn that there are more than one way to fold airplanes, but do use thicker paper if possible for better durability!
Activity sheets for kids can also include games and puzzles.
TinTin and Snowy – Activity Book
It wasn’t easy for me to explain to the two older kids about how to play the TinTin and Snowy game which I printed off in a fit of inspiration.
It takes a fair bit of common sense, logic and cunningness to win at this simple game which resembles our traditional Tic-Tac-Toe. But I guess my kids are still too young to give much thought to their every move. This is not to say that they were not trying hard to decimate each other at the game! It was interesting to watch them having a go at each other, while I provided a little assistance when required.
If you have slightly older kids, they will absolutely love playing this game.
LeapFrog Learning Club
This printable contains education worksheets suitable for kids aged 4 – 8 years that explore a wide array of subjects, including reading, writing, math, science, geography and more. You can either choose to print the latest worksheet or schedule the newest to be printed every Wednesday and Saturday.
We printed out the latest worksheet which involved matching of adjectives. I had to guide my daughter along as she tried to figure out the correct words for the blanks.
Crayola
The activity sheets from Crayola included elements of math, imagination and object association on top of the usual coloring elements too! As Steffi colored the various fruits in her sheet, she was also made to count and write down the numbers of the different fruits. Meanwhile Stacci had fun coloring the circus stands before drawing her animals! Finding and counting the number of owls in another coloring sheet was a lot of fun for both of them too.
Do make sure that you browse through many many more available activity sheets to find the best match for your kids.
Kids Only
I was a long bus trip with Leroy to one of the theme parks and he got a little restless during it. That was when I remembered I had some printed activity sheets with me.
Colouring on board the bus was too tricky and thus we choose the activity sheet from Kids Only which included a crossword puzzle for us to solve together. It wasn’t easy for Leroy to understand the meaning of some of the words, but he sure was game to pick out the letters one-by-one to form the right words and point them out to me!
P1 worksheets from SAP are excellent tools in helping your child prepare and keep up.
SAP Education
I printed out the Primary 1 Math worksheets from Singapore Asia Publishers (SAP) and got Steffi to try working out her sums. She was clearly able to do them and I could see that the problem sums were indeed based on our Singapore curriculum as they looked really similar to her schoolwork.
It came with the answer sheet for easy marking as well! I will definitely be printing out the English and Chinese worksheets for her to try during the school holidays, once she is done with her Math.
With Lunch Notes, my kids can write happy notes for their Mummy easily.
Lunch Notes
We used to get little cards from the three older kids when they came back from their kindergarten classes. Now with Lunch Notes, Steffi could request for the cards to be printed out and she can then fill in her own message for her dear mummy.
Of course she would also be able to decorate it in any way she wants as well and then cut it out before folding it to be given to mummy! There are lots of other templates as well, such as little encouragement notes for the little ones that I can actually stick onto the fridge door using magnets!
Disney
There are many activity sheets from Disney and one can either select using the cartoon characters (which the kiddos have no trouble identifying), or by the type of activities requested by the kids.
The activities are wide ranging, from your usual coloring pages to crafts, games, puzzles, greeting cards and even recipes! We opted for a maze this time round and Steffi took a while to finish it, but not without Leroy jousting in to help as well. It sure was more fun with a little bickering I guess!
The best thing about HP Printables is that I don’t have to spend my time on the internet looking for suitable worksheets for my kids. I can easily choose activity sheets from an excellent collection of apps based on the age and interest of my children.
I would highly recommend that parents try it out, just for the easy and convenience (and of course the very good quality too!)