Winning at Christmas presents

The WendyBird picked up this great Christmas presents for her nephew yesterday, and I thought I would share it as a great example of stealth history education.

I think that we sometimes forget the joy of collecting ‘things’ as children. Many kids derive joy from knowing everything about dinosaurs, or cars, or Disney Princess. As we grow older, we are encouraged to put these emotions and interests behind us. I think sometimes, that is the difference for the non-geek community - they put away their passions and closed the lid on that box of joy. Those passions and crazy addictions to knowing everything about some random thing, is the start of discovering that learning and researching is actually amazing fun.

Anyhow, this colouring book I thought was a wonderful idea. Rather then just having a car that kids can colour in, the little snippet of information is great! For a budding car enthusiast, it tells them three important things:
- Where and when is interesting
- Description is important
- Things can have a social history as well

With this kind of early learning in history, you never know, Harvey might grow up to be a currator of all things cars as an adult!

To check out the designers of this great little book, check out artomobile.com.au. Fiona Kain and Tim Kain have done a great job of making something educational and fun all wrapped up into one package.