Dear Reader;
**I wanna add a little disclaimer here that I was in no way gifted or rewarded for this post. Crayola doesn’t know I exist. **
When we were Christmas browsing last December, we passed these kits with animals to color and I wasn’t sure how I felt about them but I knew my preschooler would just love them! And getting her to color anything is a huge accomplishment (seriously! How many kids do you know of that hate coloring!? But she does). And then I just kept going back to them. So I decided to buy a set for each of my kids. I figured I just wouldn’t tell my toddlers that they could color on them (yeah, that didn’t happen. My preschooler is too smart, and she showed her too-smart little sisters). Then I figured I just wouldn’t let them know that they could wash the animals off. It just sounded like a huge wet mess.
But here I am. Writing a whole post about my kids washing these toys off. And honestly, it wasn’t so bad. They loved it. Yes, water got everywhere. It spilled more than once. But I had towels handy. And Crayola did a really good job about having these markers be very washable. So even though the water was colored after washing the toys, it didn’t stain my towels. When my toddlers got carried away with the markers, I just threw the shirts in the wash and took a washcloth to the colored stuffed animal and the colored marks came right out. I’ll make the disclaimer that the toys are rated ages 3+ and I think that’s a good benchmark. Which would mean this toddler activity is technically disqualified on that alone; but the toddlers had so much fun! And I didn’t feel crazy afterwards.
I don’t think I would trust this activity with younger toddlers, but you could easily modify this activity to involve plastic toys and little scrub brushes and bowls. The toys don’t have to be colored, or even dirty. Just have them give their toy pets a bath! The scrubbing itself is great for fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination. But it’s also good for imaginary play (especially when they’re little “pets”) and sensory (wet) play. Plus, *bonus*, you get some toys clean without having to do the work! I would still keep an eye on them, with multiple towels handy; But we will definitely do this again.
