Fun With Crayola

When Crayola asked me to be a part of their Mom Advisory Panel again this year, I couldn’t have been more pleased.  I’ve always trusted Crayola products from their crayons to their water colors to their washable markers (so important with little ones around). 

It’s exciting to be a part of discovering just how creative Crayola is.  So much more than “just coloring”, Crayola brings a whole different level of creativity to kids. 

I’ve recently been sent three products to review by Crayola.  As always I’ve vetted them through my children and add my own “mom” view to each product.

Model Magic Presto Dots Vehicle Asst
Create your own puffy vehicle with this unique Model Magic Kit. $12.49   Age 5+

This may say for five and up but since we received just one and my younger daughter had already received a different Presto-Dot for her birthday, I decided to let my four year old try this out.  While it gave my son and I a perfect opportunity to sit down and do something together, it wasn’t long before he had mastered the dots and was cruising along happily without any more assistance from me.  He thoroughly enjoyed this and while the control freak part of me would have everything look exactly like the photo (I must have been fun as a child), in the end I was amazed at what a great job he did.  Very easy to do and lots of fun.  One of the things that my son liked the most out of it was that he was able to play with his car.  It really has movable wheels.  What I like about it is after a while I can just peel of the dough and he can do it all over again if wants. 

He decided he liked the dots flat.

Glow Explosion Sand Art Scenes
Crayola Glow sand lets you create awesome sand art that glows! Just activate each colour of Glow Sand and pour into the Glow Sculpture forms.
$ 11.99  Age 6+ 

I have to admit I was a little hesitant to try this product out.  I was already envisioning a huge mess and stressful explaining and re-explaining the instructions to three kids.  Because of course, while it may say 6 +, there was no way they were going to let big sister have all the fun.

Yet, it was actually relatively simply and stress free.  Of course, I was smart and we sat outside to do it so there was no sandy mess to clean up.  It comes with 8 art scenes and two sand collection trays.  The inside tray that holds all the stuff worked for a third.

Essentially you mix the glow sand packets into a pouring tray that conveniently closes leaving a hole at one end for sprinkling.  The kids then applied glue to the areas where they wanted the sand and then sprinkled the sand.  Considering all three kids have heavy hands with the sprinkling it was easy to shake back into the trays for the next use. 

It says to dim the lights when doing this product but since we were doing the project outside on a somewhat nice day, that was impossible.  However, I think it worked better this way because the surprise was all the greater for them when we went into the darkest room in our house, the downstairs loo, and looked at their creations.  My son kept saying “Wow, Wow” and they couldn’t wait to show their dad.  Sure, if they were older the project might have been more defined and sharper like the ones in the photo on the cover but still I say the results were striking and the kids had tons of fun.

The Photos just don’t do justice to how cool it looks in the dark and we hung up the pictures in the kid’s rooms and they still glowed brightly.

Glow Chalk
Pour the mixture into a mold and within 30 minutes kids will have their very own designed piece of glowing chalk!
$10.99    Age 6+

We had a harder time with this one project. Mainly because this is a project that works best when the sun sets and since the sun isn’t setting until almost 10 at night and our kids are already long in bed by that time. 

It’s actually really easy and fun to make the chalk and there were lots of tasks for the kids to help with.  Since my last testing of make your own sidewalk chalk, Crayola has improved the process by providing a funnel so that it’s easier to pour the water and powder into the chalk bottles.  It allowed the kids to assist and once the lid was screwed on, they all had fun shaking up the colors. After that it was a simple matter of pouring the chalk into the molds.  I think the hardest part was waiting the 30 minutes for the chalk to set.

 

Be sure to check out Crayola.ca for lots of great ideas. You will even find free downloadable coloring pages.

**disclosure  I was sent sent the above product to review and was not compensated in any other way.  As always the reviews and opinions held herein are my own and truly reflect my experience. **