On a trip to Ikea last year i spotted the Mala Easel stood up in the entrance, and upon having a closer look i noticed the price was only £14.99 which seemed like a bargain as other easels i had seen were much more expensive. After a few minutes of umming and ahhing as my daughter was only to be turning two, i decided to buy one and put it away for her birthday, i also bought my friends little boy one for his 4th birthday.

The easel is light coloured, and though i don't know what type of wood it is, it feels a little flimsy but it is in fact quite sturdy (if that makes sense). On one side of the easel is a blackboard surface and on the other is a whiteboard. The support bar for making the easel stand upright and steady doubles up as a tray which holds chalks if using the blackboard and can be turned round to store paint when using the whiteboard, and also the cloth for wiping out the chalk. The easel folds down for easy storage and is completely flat so this is great if you haven't much space.

The whiteboard can be used with wipeable markers or paint, this is great for finger painting, and it wipes off so easily.

The downside i have with this easel is there is that there is no fixings at the top to attach paper to it for painting. While i understand that the whiteboard is for this purpose, quite often my daughter wants to paint on paper. So, to attach paper i either have to use blue-tack or sellotape, however a couple of large bulldog clips may be ideal also.

The recommended age for this is 3 years+ but i think if your child is tall enough when younger then definately go for it, as my daughter has had so many hours of fun with this, she loves chalking and painting so it has been a really good buy, and although she was just turned two when she received it i don't think she was too young for it and has such a long time to grow and develop with it.

This would come with a high recommendation from me, as at £14.99 it is cheap but very good quality and it the pack of coloured chalksare just £1 so again not expensive and i think there was about 24 chalks in the box. It is great fun as well as educational for children, so all in all its a really good item to have!