Melissa & Doug On The Go Water Wow! Reusable Water-Reveal Activity Pads, 3-pk, Colors and Shapes, Fairy Tales, Animals

The Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! books are a lifesaver for keeping kids entertained without the mess of traditional coloring. The water-filled pen "colors" the pages, revealing vibrant images that fade as they dry, so they can be reused again and again. My child loves watching the colors appear like magic!One of the best things about this set is how portable it is. It’s perfect for car rides, restaurants, or waiting rooms—no need to worry about crayons or markers making a mess. The spiral-bound design keeps everything together, and the pen fits neatly in the cover, making it easy to store.The only minor downside is that after a while, the pages can start to wear down, especially if they get overly wet or bent. But for the price, it’s a great value, and we’ve purchased multiple themes because my child enjoys them so much.

Intimidated by "regular"messy paint sets and "one time use" paper books using water to activate, I decided to purchase a set of these reusable spiral bound paint-with-water BOARD BOOKS that utilize water filled "pen brushes" for young ones to create beautiful pictures. To me the REAL beauty is that they are not too messy, they can be used over and over, and the activity is pretty much self-contained (the pen-brush has a it's own storage space within the book when not in use).To use, simply fill the pen-brush reservoir with water, glide it over the picture, and watch it transform into a colorful picture. The pictures dry pretty quickly (sometimes too quickly if your child takes too much time painting), however if your little painter is overzealous with the water, it can "puddle" a bit. To facilitate painting multiple pictures in the same book, we place a half sheet of paper towel over each completed picture. That way... 1) The child can fold the spiral edged page back and proceed onto the next page without worry of "mess" created by overzealous flow of water during painting 2) The paper towel helps absorb excess water and facilitate quicker drying of page 3) The enhanced drying provided by the towels helps protect integrity of board pages which have a tendency to warp slightly when damp (they do return to normal when completely dry, though). We find on average, each page requires a minimum of about 30-60 mins drying time, therefore it serves us well to have a couple of books on hand to allow extended "paint time" activity and to allow ample time for the pages to completely dry out.My 4 year old grandson looks forward to "painting" during his weekly visits to my house. We have four of these books which we rotate to avoid "boredom" due to repetition and to allow extended paint time activity as he moves from one book to the next. He enjoys both the "picture" books as well as the numbers and alphabet books. It occupies him, stimulates, educates (numbers/alphabet), makes him feel productive, and in general is a fun and novel activity for him. And of course as a busy grandma, I totally appreciate the "non-messy" (non-permanent) aspect of this creative craft.Aug 2023 UPDATE: My grandsons are now 8 and 12 years old (my, how time flies!). For years, I have reserved a shelf for them in my sewing/craft room. where they can access their own supply of books and/or craft goods while visiting. Although NOW into more "techy" play gadgets, I am amazed that during their visits they BOTH STILL gravitate to these nifty little WATER ONLY paint books! These neat and "TIDY" little books WERE and still remain a GREAT purchase.

My 22 month old loves these things. Initially, we gave one to him a little early (around 18 months) and he didn't really get it, but after a number of uses, he fills in the pages like a pro.Does it work? Yes, it does! And it dries fairly quickly, so within an hour or less, the sheet is ready to be used again. However, the materials used aren't flawless -- you can see the picture in the background if you look closely, but not really the colors. It's rarely an issue for my kid -- he still needs to color it in so that he can find most things on the page. Once the pages get wet, the colors are reasonably bright.Each one comes with a brush and 4 pages to color. It's a short-term activity for kids, but the fact that you can use them again and again makes them very handy. One flaw with these I've found is that the holders for the brushes become detached or broken fairly quickly when put in the hands of a young child. It hasn't affected the usability to any great extent yet, but something to be aware of in the future.This 3-pack is definitely a good deal, compared to buying them individually, and we went ahead and got it, even though we already had one of the three included ones (we figured that we could pass it along to a friend or neighbor). My kid loves these things -- it helps that his three main interests right now are vehicles, animals, and letters/numbers, so this set pretty much had my kid figured out from the start. It teaches a kid how to hold a marker or crayon before they might be ready for that, and the brushes are just bottles with water in them, so if your kid sucks on them like mine tends to, it's probably not the worst thing in the world, although you'll need to keep an eye out for any signs of the brush coming apart (ours haven't started to, but we're always watching for it).I wish they had these when I was a kid (at least, I wasn't aware of them at the time) -- I'm sure I'd have gotten a kick out of them.

No mess, reusable, and lots of fun! We bought this specific pack for a plane ride and this got more attention than the tablet!

We got these for our daughter to keep her busy on a 13-hour flight and it worked perfectly! It’s durable and the pens are easy to refill water to. She uses it now for long road trips or when just at home. She got two of them so whenever she’s done with one she got another one that she can paint which gives time for the other one to dry up. It doesn’t tale a lot of space so easy to store with her books. Very good value for money.

My daughter is 17 months and loves these! The three pack allows us to keep one in the diaper bag, one at home, and one in the car. Great way to occupy a toddler!