no mess painting for little ones (Tomy Thomas & Friends Aqua Draw)

Member Name: georgiesue

Product:	Tomy Thomas & Friends Aqua Draw
Date:	12/01/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: uses only water and no need for reams of paper

Disadvantages: quite expensive if you pay full price

I must confess that I didnt buy this toy brand new but rather second hand through a childs toy fair. The reason for this was that it was a bit of an experiment as my little girl is only 13 months old and I think the aqua draw is marketed at 2/3 year olds. Brand new I believe this toy cost in the region of £25/30. I paid a fiver for it so a lovely bargain and like I said a bit of a gamble as my baby is really a bit young for it.

The reason I bought it was that my daughter absolutley loves painting and has done from a really early age. I love painting with her but it is a bit of a messy activity and I just wanted something that achieved a similar creative effect but that you could pop out and put away easily when full blown painting was not practical. I was also attracted by the "no mess" it offers.

The concept is easy. The box contains a large flat plasticky mat which has Thomas pictures around the edge and is white in the middle. You have a large quite chunky pen which you unscrew and fill with water. The nib is white. You also have a roller that is also filled with water. The idea is the child pushes the roller over the mat and uses the pen in a usual way on the mat and the water reacts with the mat producing a coloured line....like painting. There is no mess becasue its only water and it doesnt even get really damp. In fact whatever your child has drawn disappears after a few minutes so they can draw over the area again and again. The box also contained a little thomas train that requires batteries but that moves along following the track that has been drawn, very cute.

Now I really want to make a plea for babies here. My daughter loved this and I mean loved it. She is able to hold the pen and roller easily and makes squiggles and all sorts over and again crawling over the mat to her hearts content. The great thing is if she happens to catch the pen on the sofa etc there is no mark as its only water. My daughter will play happily with aqua draw for about 15 minutes which in a 13months attentionspan is pretty long and its one of her staple toys that she drags out. So I think this toy should not be limited just to 2/3 year olds although they can obviously have more advanced use of it. It gets baby creating and develops fine motor skills. Best £5 ive spent in a while.

Summary: good for little ones and also babies