Melissa & Doug Color-A-Mat Fire Engine

I bought the Fire Truck placemat for my son, and my sister bought 3 for her children. The Mats are wonderful...the M&D crayons they recommend to use with them, not so much. While I would agree with some of the other reviews that they are nice because they don't break and they are very easy to wash off the mats, I have found these crayons are unnecessary.

My son is 19 mos old and these frustrate him. When the tip runs out, he needs my help to advance them. The vibrancy of the colors are horrible (we have the M & D triangle crayons and those are fabulous, but DON'T use them on these mats...it doesn't wash off). My niece got the Alphabet mat and these crayons were so hard for her to use on that mat because they were fat and chubby and so light (low vibrancy) she could barely see. Pencil works great, but she wanted to use "color" (don't use colored pencils...they don't wash off either) and quickly got frustrated/bored with her mat.

I have found that Crayola Washable Crayons work wonderful on these mats and are just as easy to clean off. The color vibrancy is better and my toddler needs no help from me. And there are more color choices (which at his age isn't necessary, but for older kids is a nice option). My Nephew (4yr) covered the ENTIRE mat in Red Crayola, very heavy handed, I think the thickness of the crayon on the mat was thicker than the mat itself, and it still washed right off with a baby wipe.

We have bought several of these color a mats for my 3 year old son and he loves them.We take them with us everywhere. We have some in the car and lots at home.We like using them when we go out to eat at restaurants and to other places where he needs to be occupied.These keep his attention very well, and have also helped to improve his coloring skills.

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