I’ve long been a big fan of Taro Gomi who I first discovered through the simple and very sweet book called My Friends which was Anya’s favourite book for ages when she was around two years old.  But it’s been a while since I’ve checked out anything more by Taro Gomi until last week when I had a birthday party gift to buy for a six year old.  I came across these fun doodle place mats and immediately bought it for the birthday girl.

Sitting still at the dining table is still a bit of a challenge for Anya and many of her friends too so I thought these doodle place mats are the perfect answer.  They come in a book of 50 tear-off sheets and each page has a different drawing activity.  There is already a doodle on each page and then there are some instructions like the images show.  There are three different ones – animal, story and yummy.  Not only do these fun place mats for kids make unusual gifts, they’re also handy for a kids birthday party and they would be great to take to restaurants to keep kids occupied while waiting for their food.  I know Anya gets impatient at restaurants and asks to play with our phones which I don’t like to encourage.  But I would have no objection to pulling out one of these sheets to keep her busy.