How to Select Difficult Coloring Pictures

Check out the artwork of Mary Englebreit online (see Resources below). You can select difficult coloring pictures from the sample picture archive or the full illustration archive. Each one is full of small details, making them more challenging to color. (Note that each picture opens in a PDF file, which is read by Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Dare your child to stay in the lines when you give him one of the pictures of intricate mandalas and "far out" scenes to color from June Moon (see Resources below). Just click on a numbered picture to bring the picture up into full view and print.

Tell your child that it's hip to be square if she takes on coloring one of the geometric quilt patterns from the Quilt Coloring Book online (see Resources below). Just click on any quilt block sample to view and print the full-sized, blank picture. The interesting thing about these pictures is that the single square that makes up the quilt is also provided. The trick is for your child to color that first and then see if she can repeat the same pattern successfully throughout the entire quilt. (Try it yourself. It's not easy!)

Think about helping your child to make an album of the pictures he's created from these free coloring pictures. He might even wish to frame some of them and add them to the decor of his room.

Make a game out of coloring these difficult pictures by seeing who can complete the most in a series in the least amount of time while still producing a clean, neat colored picture. This could be a great rainy day boredom chasing activity with siblings or friends.