Review: Dot to Dot! Philadelphia

It's been a stressful few months and recently I've enjoyed working in the Dot to Dot! Philadelphia book that Timberdoodle sent us and drinking a coffee at the same time! I enjoy puzzles and word search type activities, so I was excited to try out this Dot to Dot book. Recently my youngest and I have been enjoying some great books on some of our men in history and I thought he'd enjoy seeing some of these pictures completed.  David Kalvitis has given us a unique activity book in that we can see pictures emerge that are located in the Parkway Museums District.  There are 23 puzzles in the book that show us institutions and attractions near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  This book debuted on September 8, 2017 at the launch of a yearlong celebration for the Parkway's centennial. The Dot to Dot activities are similar and yet different all at the same time! The directions range from stopping each time you see a star and continuing at the next number to doing sets like 1-10, 1-15, 1-61 and 1-355.  My favorite was the continuous following of numbers.  The book starts out with the first activity being 1-156 and working up to numbers 1-1690. Some of the pictures are completed with one page and others two pages.  It is recommended that you use a ruler to complete the activities if you want nice, crisp lines.  Children as young as 8 can enjoy these activities as well as adults. This book currently comes in the Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit as well as can be purchased alone.  

Originally I thought my 11 year old son would join me in working through this book, but the amount of small numbers on the page was too much for him. I enjoyed the challenge of having to hunt around to find the numbers. There were a few times where I was stumped and unable to find the number I was looking for at the moment. I would just put the book away and try later or ask my daughter if she could help me (LOL) One thing I realized was that I didn't complete most of the pages in one sitting and then I would get frustrated with remembering what number I had stopped on previously. I realized that by putting a little post it on the page with the number I would start with next time it cut out the frustration that I might have starting again.  

Here are some of the other puzzles that I completed. I think often times as adults we don't think of doing activities like this as a stress reliever, but I found I really enjoyed working in this book. I'll be honest that I didn't use a ruler once because I was doing this book for fun and having to use a ruler made it somehow seem more like work (LOL) I was so pleased with how clear the pictures were.  

The last few pages have a key to the puzzles. I really liked that because I was able to explain to my youngest what each puzzle was that I had completed.  I think one of Issac's favorite's that I did was pg. 7.  It's a T. Rex for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.  The back cover is pretty cool because it shows a subway map with all the pages of the book and where they are located.  

The Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia book has really been fun to play around with these last few weeks.  I've enjoyed the various difficulties offered as well as the pictures.