Did you know that as a pediatric occupational therapist, it’s my job to color. Seriously, one skill of my job description includes teaching children how to hold their pencil, marker or crayon the right way so they can demonstrate enough muscle strength and coordination to color between the lines. Even if you aren’t as lucky as I am to be able to color on a regular basis, I know that some of you are just like me when you feel like coloring is therapeutic. Hours ago, my family and I just left a restaurant and I could not keep my hands off my son’s brand new crayons and even though I can’t draw, I doodled on the corner of his children’s menu. You might think I’m weird, but I know deep-down some of you are just like me.
I first saw DoodleArt at Toy Fair this past February. Here I am posing with the DoodleArt bus. People were actually using markers to color in the bus at Toy Fair.
DoodleArt was kind enough to send me some samples of their new products. They sell full sized posters as well as a smaller pack that includes 4 smaller posters. Each poster tube package comes with 12, double sided markers with a thin tip on one side and a ticker tip on the other. The markers are non-toxic and washable. The full sized posters and small poster kits retail for $24.95. The posters themselves are archival quality.
Themes of these posters include butterflies, jungle, birds, ecology, fairy tales, flowers, the sea, aquarium, pirates, zombies and dinosaurs.
At the children’s hospital I worked at this summer, we hung the large jungle poster on the wall. It’s huge (24×34 inches) so it will take a long time to complete. Both children and their therapists have enjoyed searching the poster for various animals to color in. Once these posters are complete, they are decorative, bright and beautiful. I have a plan for this school year to decorate some of the bulletin boards at the elementary school highlighting the finished products. If the posters are also placed on a table, multiple children could work together at the same time. Given that the posters are archival quality, they can also serve as a decorative art piece when complete. Projects like this are fun for children and adults to work cooperatively while achieving a sense of accomplishment together.
Check out this YouTube video on DoodleArt and watch the process in step-by-step.
DoodleArt provided me with samples to facilitate this review, any opinions are my own.