If you have small children, you are probably familiar with the idea of a Sunday bag. Like most parents, we carry a canvas bag to church with appropriate quiet activities for our kids. One of my kids’ favorite activities is the coloring book I “make” by printing out pictures from the Friend.
I blogged on this idea back in December, so I won’t repeat myself. However, while I was looking for something online a few weeks back, I found a great website I would love to share with you. I have found it to be very helpful, and I think that you might, too.
In all honesty, there is nothing unique on the webpage. It is simply an index that links directly to the Friend magazine. However, it is a wonderful index, so don’t think I’m putting it down. The creator, a mom from Marietta, Georgia, has spent a great deal of time listing coloring pictures from 2004 until today. Most of the items in the index actually link to the picture in the Friend, but some require you to find the page yourself. However, the page number is listed in each case, making it a very quick search. Also a plus – each link opens a new window, so you don’t have to go backwards to try to find the webpage again.
One thing that I really enjoy about the site is the description of the pictures. Our internet connection is currently a little slower than dial-up, and it can take forever to load a picture. To keep me from opening a duplicate picture, or a picture I might not want, each image is well described. If it requires any activity work at all, or can be used as a puppet, that is cited. This makes this a very quick and easy tool when it comes to assembling coloring books.
Each year is listed in order, and the months are also listed, so you can find any themed years. For instance, I’ve noticed that in 2007, the coloring pages all relate to the monthly Primary theme. (I don’t know if they have always done that, since this is the first time I have really paid attention.) She also provides a link for each year to the PDF pages of the Friend, back on the church website.
Each page is something to color, with a few mazes added in. There are no links to the activity portions that you can also find on the LDS site in either the Sharing Time section or the Funstuf section. While it would be wonderful to eventually see those included, the site definitely fills its stated purpose in providing coloring pages, rather than activity pages.
Overall, this is a wonderful site. The author states that its creation is a Sabbath-day activity, so the work is coming slowly, but I think she is doing a wonderful job and look forward to new pages being added. I have noticed that she is very prompt about posting the current month’s coloring page, which is wonderful and keeps my kids from fighting over their new magazine. I look forward to using this site over and over again.
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