Review: Crayola for Kids

Both of my kids are very interested in art, projects and coloring.  When I was asked to review a few Crayola products made for kids this holiday season, I knew that my kids would love them.

The first product that we took out of the box was the Crayola Glow Domefor my 6 year old son.  The toy is made up of a clear dome and a clear insert panel that rotate on a base with different light and speed settings.  Kids use special markers (included) to draw different pictures on the dome and the insert that “come to life” when the dome is turned on.   Also included are two scenes that they can trace onto the dome – an underwater scene and an outer space scene.  The tracing part was a little difficult for my 6 year old to coordinate because he needed to hold the paper inside the dome and trace it on the outside.  Obviously with a dome that is curvy, the paper doesn’t lay flat, so he needed some help with that.  The end result was pretty cool as all of the drawings glowed and spun, but my son was much happier drawing his own illustrations and seeing what he could create on his own.  One great thing about this toy is that it is super easy to clean up – just wipe off the markers with a wet paper towel and start again.  Plus, the dome has a compartment to store the markers which makes it easy not to lose the special markers.  The box says recommended by ages 6 and up and suggested retail price is $29.99, although for some reason, Amazon is selling it for almost double that here.

We then gave my 3 year old the Crayola Beginnings Color Me A Song, which had her immediately coloring along and dancing around to the music.  When she colored faster, the music sped up and when she colored slower, the music slowed down.  She was also able to select the buttons that she wanted to get different sounds and definitely enjoyed experimenting to see how she could color differently to illicit different sounds from the toy.  I initially thought that this would be way to babyish for her because the box says 24 months and up, but she was really interested in it.  We loved the triangular shaped crayons, great for tiny hands.  The suggested retail price for this is $24.99.

We had the two kids share the third toy, the Crayola Glow Station which came with a bunch of stencils, glowing canvas, a light wand and texture sheets that let the kids draw animals and more, while the pen had different tips to make different impressions.  It was pretty cool because they were basically able to draw with light.  It reminded me of the old time etch-a-sketch because the drawings disappeared over time and you can use the canvas over and over again.  Both of my kids thought it was really cool and spent the most time playing with this toy.  The suggested retail price is $29.99 but Amazon has it marked down now to $14.98.

Being that these toys are not too expensive, they make great holiday gifts as well as  birthday gifts!

All opinions expressed above are mine and I haven’t been compensated outside of receiving one of each of these products, thanks to Crayola and MyBlogSpark.  Amazon.com might also send me a few cents if you click through the links above and make a purchase.