I have never been very good at art and as a teacher I used to hate doing it as the classroom and the children would get into such a mess.
David, my soon to be husband, has an equation that he does when considering an activity. He works out if the time and effort setting up and clearing away are equal to or less than the amount of fun you can have or the amount you can achieve with the activity. For art and me the equation never works out. It is just too hard.
As a twin Mummy I really want my children to enjoy art and explore a range of mediums and materials. I want them to be ableto create and paint and draw, print, cut and stick. I am going to make the effort needed to make it an exciting and enjoyable experience for them. But, some days I am not going to want the stress or the mess of paints, crayons or collage. Some days I am going to reach for the Tomy Aquadoodle Animal Magic Sounds for a clean, safe, no hassle, no stress, no cleaning up(!) art activity the whole family can enjoy.
This is drawing without the need for pad or pencil instead it has a reusable plastic page and a simple water pen. In the words of Tomy it is
A magical Aquadoodle mat combining no mess, drawing with water and fun farm animal sounds.
Toys R Us sent us two of these to review and so I got Esther, my 11 month old daughter, to have a go while her brother was asleep. I thought that it might need a bit of one to one support. I showed Esther how to write her name and we watched as the letters disappeared as the water dried on the mat. She was not very impressed to be honest. She did like the animal sounds a bit but most of all she liked sucking the water out of the pen!!!
I decided to abort the 11 month old testers’ try outs there and then, instead I recruited Rohan and Maia, a two and three year old toyologist team. Their try out was much more of a success. In fact they both loved the Aquadoodles so much that I let them take them home with them. In exchange of course for their reviews!
You can draw anything you like on the doodle mat but there are also some lines to follow if you want to try and draw pictures related to the animals on display around the edge of the mat. You can trace hoof prints by the horse for example and the noise is the clip clop of the hooves. You can also colour over these magic lines to make the pictures appear.
The Aquadoodle is very simple to use:
Simply fill your Aquadoodle pen with water, choose your favourite farmyard friend from the images on the mat and doodle away to the sounds! Use the Aquadoodle pen to draw your masterpieces and magically reveal the hidden images on the mat. As the picture fades you can start drawing all over again!
It really is that easy!
If you buy this toy make sure that you buy some batteries as they are not included in the box and you will also need a screwdriver to fit the batteries into the pen. These are needed to make the animal sounds otherwise you can still draw on the mat fine just not with the accompanying farmyard symphony!
We found the sounds to be a little temperamental and once or twice had a mooing tractor and a brrmmming cow! This did not detract from the toddlers’ enjoyment of the toy but is something I feel should be reported in an honest review.
This is a great toddler toy for developing drawing skills. The pen is chunky and easy to hold for little hands; even Esther had a good grip on the pen!
It is also good for experimental mark making with babies though the sounds are not needed for this. It can also be used to teach younger toddlers animal sounds and we found it to be a great accompaniment to singing Old Macdonald Has a Farm. It is also good for asking and answering questions and playing noughts and crosses!
It is a shame that there can only be one colour for drawing with as I think it would be great to recreate the bright and colourful pictures of animal that adorn the edges of the mat.
A great toy, a fuss free art activity that may save a few walls and tables from unplanned decoration in homes throughout the UK.
Do you have a toddler doodler? Don’t dawdle! It’s a doddle!
Buy them a Tomy Aquadoodle Magic Animal Sounds.
£24.99 at Toys R Us online and in stores
We gave away a Tomy Aquadoodle Animal Magic Sounds last month to the lovely Would Like To Be A Yummy Mummy you will be able to read her guest review of this product here Edspire and in the Toys R Us Toy Box very soon.
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