Finally crayons a little person can use!

Hidden behind these adorable little egg shaped animals lines your toddlers first works of art! At first I have to admit the little TaDoodles animals are so cute, Connor and I were both at a loss as to if we should play with them or draw with them. I set Connor up in his high chair with a set of the Tadoodles Crayon Buddies and he spent the first few minutes giggling and pushing them around watching them wobble back and forth on their little egg shaped rear ends. After a few test runs with the help of mommy he started to get the hang of turning the Tadoodles Crayon Buddies upside down to use them on the paper. We wont be coloring whole pages anytime soon, but we are starting to get the idea that crayons make lines on the paper! (and the table.. but don't worry they do wash right off)

Along with crayons the new toddler friend TaDoodles line from Crayola offers makers, easy stampers, crayons, and coloring books designed just for toddlers. We received a package of each to try out and wow are they cool. All of the TaDoodles are shaped the same regardless if they are markers or crayons they all are shaped in the form of egg shaped animals. The animals alone are tons of fun to play with and if you purchase the Tadoodles BUV you can not only store your TaDoodles in style but it gives you yet another way to play with them, as everyone knows TaDoodles need their own transportation!

The Tadoodles Crayon Buddies were our first attempt at toddler art, basically the Tadoodle body holds the triangle shaped crayons which you can buy separately in the Crayola Beginnings line. It discourages them from eating the crayons as most of the crayon is covered by the TaDoodles and makes it much easier for them to hold. I love the fact that they are refillable as well as adorable and Connor actually did a lot better with his first attempt than I suspected he would. He drew several lines all by himself and together we colored a small coloring page (by coloring I mean we scribbled all over it..). The only real small flaw I saw with the markers is when Connor gets super excited and shakes them sometimes the crayons will come out of the TaDoodlesbut I'm not sure you could do it otherwise and still make the TaDoodles refillable so thats a small inconvenience that I am more than happy to live with.

TaDoodles Easy Stampers are by far my favorite of the TaDoodles line we tested especially for younger toddlers. You can't exactly color with them but if you flip them over and push them on their heads they leave a little stamp in the same shape as themselves (the cow stamps a cow.. ect). Connor and I found these the easiest to use for a beginner and there is very little to any cleanup as its harder to color off the paper. You may not be able to draw a picture so much, but it defently introduces the toddler to the idea of (cause and effect) when you push this into the paper a little mark appears.

Last but not least the TaDoodles First Marks are the marker version of TaDoodles. With that said they do not function exactly how a marker would which at first confused me a bit. There are no tops on TaDoodles so for the marker to function you have to put a bit of pressure on the top of the TaDoodles to get them started. I found its easier if you get the marker started then hand them to the child. They work fabulously well and are even easier than the crayons for an especially young toddler to make their first drawings, however with that said they almost work too well. I highly recommend you use thicker paper with them (the type you would use for paintings or finger paints) as the markers work more like paints than actual markers and are a bit watery. Don't let that scare you they do clean up very well but it was a bit of a surprise to me and seeing as we were using notebook paper it did soak through the paper itself. If I had known in advance and used the right paper the whole experience would have been much more fun. The TaDoodles First Marks certainly make the prettiest of pictures of the line.

Crayola TaDoodles are available directly from their web site or you can use the store finder to find a store near you that sells them! While your over there take a look at the entire line of products designed for toddlers, Crayola Beginnings! We'd love to get our hands on Creativity Center ourselves!

Crayola sent us over a huge gift pack of TaDoodles to give away to one lucky reader!

To enter :

• Leave a comment on this post. Check out Crayola's online store and tell us which product you are most excited about other than the TaDoodles I mentioned!
  
• Make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if your email address is not on your profile or you are not a blogger you may leave it in your comment or email it to me directly (angelaandconnor at gmail dot com) We have had to disqualify a lot of potential winners as of late as many people do not have emails available in their profiles or leave anonymous posts without any way to contact you.
• Please US entries only.
• To get extra credit :
• For an extra entry :
• Bloggers - Blog about this contest and leave me the link on your comment, or add me to your sidebar and let me know its there.
• Non Bloggers (or bloggers) subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed and earn another entry!
• One extra credit per person. Please post your extra credit in a separate post.
• This contest will end June 17th at midnight!