"Now I Don't Have to Draw on Mummy's Walls" (Crayola Gigantic Colouring Book)

Member Name: Autarkis

Product:	Crayola Gigantic Colouring Book
Date:	28/10/09 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun activity that has many educational benefits.

Disadvantages: The pages are not perforated so they are not easily removeable from the book.

Children love to be creative and love messy play; colouring is a popular and very common activity for little ones. It is good to introduce colouring at a young age and children as young as 12 months of age can have fun learning how to use crayons. Promoting colouring and drawing will improve a child's social, physical, emotional and cognitive development as well as build confidence.

Drawing with a crayon involves fine motor skills as your child will learn how to grasp and hold a crayon. Colouring and drawing with bright colours also boosts a child's visual senses and allows them to use their imagination. Along with developing motor skills and self expression so many skills can be learnt from colouring and it is great fun too!

Crayons are the first writing instrument a child will learn how to grip and grasp and they will learn how to control them, this is an important skill as it will aid in teaching them how to use other writing instruments later in life.

Once my son reached 12 months of age I wasted no time in buying him some chunky wax crayons and I couldn't wait to play and make wonderful art. My son like all other children loved to draw and scribble on a blank canvas and I would often draw large bold outlines of an animal or a face for him to colour over, a few months later I decided to look for a colouring book as these offer a range of pictures for a little one to colour and many hours of fun to be had. I performed a search on Amazon and I came across the Gigantic Crayola colouring book, Crayola are a recognisable and respected brand name so I knew it would be of good quality.

Crayola produce high quality products that are nontoxic safe and reliable, they are also great value for money too. I paid the meagre sum of £2.44 for this A4 colouring book that contains 160 pages which represents excellent value for money. For some reason this book is recommended for children 3 and over, on the reverse cover is a symbol showing that it is not suitable for children between 0-3 stating that this is due to small parts. I cannot understand why as there are no small parts as the pages are glued to the bind of the book. There are many different crayons that are suitable for children that are 12 months of age, of course if you are going to allow your toddler to colour then it is advisable to supervise them at all times. I bought this book for my son when he was 14 months of age and he happily coloured in every picture and has completed the book and being so pleased with the amount of time it has lasted and the quality of it I have ordered the same book again for him to start all over again.

There is a variety of different pictures inside for your little one to colour, ranging from animals, people, transport and scenery images. The pages are thick and course and an off white colour, the thick pages are perfect for little hands to turn the page and for toddlers who tend to apply more pressure when they 'scribble' which means you won't get any holes or torn pictures. Unfortunately the pages are not perforated which means it is difficult to take a page out without losing some of the picture. Each of the pictures covers the entire A4 sheet and they are nice bold simple pictures which make it easier for toddlers to learn to colour within the lines, there are smaller details but nothing to intricate or complicated.

Colouring and drawing is an activity that takes place every day in our house so this book gets lots of attention. My son will happily sit flicking through the pages looking at all the pictures as there are lots of animals that he is familiar with so he likes to tell me all the animal names and point to the pictures, and the pictures which he is unsure about he will point at for me to tell him what they are. Once he has selected the picture he would like to colour we then decide which colours we are going to use, my son will colour in the main parts of the picture while I like to colour in all the smaller details of the picture - I don't want to miss out on the fun! This is a fun activity as not only is my son learning how to use a crayons and control it, it also promotes conversation as I will talk about the pictures we are colouring, as well as discuss the colours we are using. The wax crayons colour over the page nicely, I would imagine that coloured pencils would be just as effective as these are the next stage colouring instruments a toddler will be using, the pages are thick enough to be painted upon for the more adventurous toddlers and parents out there. My son really enjoys colouring in this book as not only does he feel a sense of achievement from this, it also an activity which builds on his confidence and self esteem too due to the high amount of praise he gets during colouring.

As well as being a fun activity colouring in pictures and learning to grasp a crayon promotes many educational benefits such as; fine motor skills as your child learns how to control the crayon which helps strengthen hand muscles. Also a greater level of hand eye coordination which in turn improves the concentration and focus of your little one. Once your child learns to colour within the lines this teaches them about boundaries which will help your child when the time comes for them to learn to write.

This is a great book that will provide plenty of play on those rainy days and it is good to take out on trips and holidays as colouring can be enjoyed anywhere.

Do remember that crayons pose a choking hazard, so never leave toddlers unattended with crayons.

To see what other products Crayola stock you can visit their website:

www.crayola.co.uk/

Summary: Hours of colouring fun!