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Color can have a huge impact on the world around us.
It can affect our mood (feeling blue), emotions (seeing red), productivity (red is said to encourage physical stimulation, blue is said to encourage intellectual concentration, and yellow is said to encourage emotional energy), and even our actions (bright, warm colors stimulate energy and exuberance, while subdued, cool colors inspire soothing and calming).
Not only do colors help people express themselves through fashion choices or the works of art they create, you may be tickled pink to learn that colors also help toddlers to develop their coordination and cognition skills.
Coloring stimulates development
Creating art by coloring is a low-cost way to encourage sensory play that supports physical, emotional, and cognitive development in your little ones.
The act of coloring can be both stimulating and therapeutic. It invites a deep-seated concentration that helps your toddlers train their brains to focus.
Coloring also improves hand-eye coordination (practicing staying in the lines) and helps develop their fine motor skills (closing marker lids or placing drawing paper on the easel).
In addition, coloring encourages the development of cognition skills, as your kids can a) learn about the different colors they are using and b) recognize different colors by looking for and locating a specific-colored marker they want to use next.
Colors also enliven toddlers, allowing them to express themselves and their feelings through art. Being able to embrace their creative and artistic side inspires joy and relaxation.
Encourage their exploration of art
It's our job as parents and caregivers to encourage our toddlers' exploration of color and art.
Whether they're at home or on-the-go, we've pulled together some of our kid-friendly art supplies that allow your little ones to color, while keeping the mess to a minimum.
That's a major win for parents of twins, who have to monitor double the quick-draw hands (pun overtly intended) that might want to investigate how their art could be turned into memorable wallpaper or decor for your floor.
With these coloring supplies on-hand, your little artists are free to embrace color wherever they go.
For the artist on-the-go
When you're on-the-go, it can be hard to keep your toddlers entertained. A road trip that feels long to an adult can feel like eons to a kid.
To help pass the time, the Crayola Color & Erase Reusable Travel Board or the Crayola Washable Dry Erase Travel Pack are fabulous, compact options that can keep your kids busy and focused on their artwork.
Both items include four washable markers and a foldable whiteboard that allow your children to color and fill the white space, and when they run out of room, they can wipe things down with the included wipe cloth to begin anew on a fresh canvas.
And, bonus, the markers from these travel packs also work on the whiteboard surface of the Art-to-Go Easel we'll be talking about in the next section.
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Crayola Washable Dry Erase Travel Pack
Portable Pack
This portable travel pack includes four washable markers and a reusable whiteboard surface that can be wiped clean with an E-Z Erase Cloth. It easily folds up so your toddlers can take it wherever their artistic inclincations call them.
For the art station at home or abroad
When you're a toddler who just wants to take your art station with you, nothing will get in your way. When this happens, the Crayola Art-to-Go Table Easel puts the ease in easel.
This baby folds up like a dream for easy transportation from your house to grandma and grandpa's, daycare, or wherever you may be headed.
It's so lightweight, your little ones can carry it without any struggles, and they'll lug it around proudly to show off their artwork when they arrive at their destination.
The easel sets up in seconds and has little locks that snap into place to keep the drawing surfaces secure, which means that no little fingers are in danger of getting pinched.
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Crayola Art-to-Go Table Easel
Portable Easel
This easel folds up, so your toddlers can take their artwork on the road or even just around the house to wherever they feel the most inspired. It has two drawing surfaces (a whiteboard and a plastic chalkboard), and it has two storage drawers for housing art supplies.
There are two drawing surfaces; a whiteboard and a plastic chalkboard. The chalkboard surface includes two clips at the top, so your little ones can add in a paper for any work that's commissioned while they're out and about.
The handy tray drawers that make up the base of the easel can store markers, chalk, and the included eraser.
Our twins absolutely love this easel and it gets steady use day in and day out.
All the fun, none of the mess
As fun as coloring is, there is a certain level of anxiety that comes with the territory...for your walls, your furniture, your floors...pretty much any surface that could be inadvertently drawn on in the 2.5 seconds you might turn your back away from one of your twins and their drawing station.
Crayola's Color Wonder Markers and corresponding Color Wonder Coloring Pages completely put those worries to rest.
Their mess-free solution really takes the mess out of coloring. Their specially-designed markers only draw on Color Wonder paper, which means they cannot color on your walls, furniture, flooring, nor your toddlers' skin nor clothing.
The Color Wonder Markers are non-toxic and come with a 10-pack of standard colors, and you can also find a pack of cute, pastel Color Wonder Markers, here.
If you REALLY want to build up your toddlers' art station arsenal, you can find a 10-pack of Color Wonder standard-colored markers AND a 10-pack of Color Wonder pastel-colored markers, here.
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Crayola Color Wonder Markers
Mess-Free Fun
This 10-pack of Color Wonder Markers makes mess-free coloring a reality when used with Crayola's specially formulated Color Wonder coloring pages. The ink from the markers won't show up on skin, walls, furniture, nor clothing. When used on the right paper, the drawing your toddler has applied transforms from clear to whatever color of marker they used for their artwork.
And there are so many fun Color Wonder drawing pads to choose from, depending on your twins' interests.
Alternatively, you can opt for blank pages, for those who want to create whatever their heart desires from scratch.
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Crayola Color Wonder Mess-Free Coloring Pages
Mess-Free Fun
This 50-page pack of Color Wonder paper can be used as-is for creative drawing or it can be used to print coloring pages from Crayola.com, so your toddlers can practice coloring within the lines of the designs.
If you prefer to have ready-made designs for your little ones to practice coloring in the lines, there are SO many fun Color Wonder coloring booklet options for you to choose from.
- Blippi For those who love Blippi, they've got an 18-page Blippi booklet that comes with drawings that incorporate silly line art synonymous with this zaney character. This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
- Bluey For those who love Bingo and Bluey, they've got an 18-page Bluey booklet that comes with drawings of Disney's endearing Bluey characters. This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
- Paw Patrol For those who love Chase, Marshall, and the gang, they've got an 18-page Paw Patrol booklet that comes with drawings of all the super pups...no drawing's too big, no marker's too small! This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
- Peppa Pig For those who love Peppa and George, they've got an 18-page Peppa Pig booklet that comes with drawings of Peppa, her litlte brother, and Mummy and Daddy Pig (SNORT). This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
- Prehistoric Pals For those who love dine-saurs (that was said à la George from Peppa Pig, but I'm hoping most of you got that reference), they've got an 18-page Prehistoric Pals booklet with drawings of fun and goofy-looking dinosaurs that will make your little ones smile. This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
- Spidey & His Amazing Friends For those who love superheros, they've got an 18-page Spiderman booklet that comes with stellar drawings from Marvel's Spiderverse. This set also comes with five Color Wonder markers.
For those moments when markers miss the mark
If you aren't feeling the idea of markers in your toddlers' hands for whatever reason (but honestly, the Color Wonder markers are seriously amazing), you can always try out Crayola's Color Wonder Fingerprint Activity Book.
Instead of Color Wonder markers, this set works with specially designed fingerprint ink that only colors on the special Color Wonder paper, so, like the markers, it won't transfer color to your walls, furniture, skin, nor clothing.
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Crayola Color Wonder Fingerprint Activity Book
Mess-Free Ink
This mess-free activity set comes with an ink pad tray that has five colors (red, orange, yellow, green, and blue), and a 27-page fingerprint ink painting activity booklet. The Color Wonder inks are engingeered to prevent drying out, so your toddlers' creativity doesn't have to dry up either.
Color me impressed
When we had our first full rainy day this fall, I wanted to have something on-hand to keep our busy toddlers entertained and absorbed in their activity.
I came home with the Art-to-Go Table Easel, the reusable travel whiteboard, and the Color Wonder markers and drawing paper. All three have quickly become staples in our home, and each of them have helped our twins to continue growing their love of coloring and drawing.
And I love that they're learning in the process of creating their works of art. Now, that's priceless.
How does color inspire you or your toddlers? Let us know in the Comments section below.
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