Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Not-So-Wonderful Color
On Saturday Ellie and I were at Target, and I decided to stop and look for a little something for her. Lately she's shown more interest in visual art--that is to say, crayons. She scribbles lightly on the page and thinks it's really fun. But the nature of crayons is that they don't make much of a mark on the paper unless you apply substantial force, and Ellie hasn't developed that skill yet.
So I thought I'd look for some Crayola markers. Specifically, since she isn't very coordinated, the special new Color Wonder markers that only color on special paper. This eliminates the risk that Ellie will draw on herself, the walls, the carpet, etc.
I easily found the Color Wonder markers, a pack of 8 or 10 for something like $2.50. Not bad. But you have to have the special paper as well, or else they're useless. I looked around and learned this sad fact: the only Color Wonder paper in existence (at least at my local Target) is coloring-book style paper with pictures of Dora the Explorer* and the like all over it.
Now, this is where my complaint comes in (blogs are meant as a way for a person to complain about the way the world works, right?). It seems to me that any child old enough to 1) care about something like Dora the Explorer and 2) at least make an attempt to "color inside the lines" of a coloring book would be old enough and smart enough to not color on the walls. The kind of kids who need the Color Wonder technology are kids like Ellie who aren't trying to draw a representational piece of art, but who just enjoy scribbling randomly and seeing the pretty colors, and the randomness of said scribbling could accidentally lead them off the paper. That kind of kid just needs a plain, blank sheet of paper. Dora would actually get in her way. But no such paper exists.
So I left Target, resigned to the fact that Ellie will continue to use only her crayons until she wakes up to the wonders of Backpack and the Swiper.
* It makes me giggle to think that Dora the Explorer lives in Boston. Some people might think she's Mexican or at least from some other part of the country with a bigger Hispanic population than Boston. But I say she has to be from New England. There's no other way the words "Dora" and "Explorer" could rhyme!
So I thought I'd look for some Crayola markers. Specifically, since she isn't very coordinated, the special new Color Wonder markers that only color on special paper. This eliminates the risk that Ellie will draw on herself, the walls, the carpet, etc.
I easily found the Color Wonder markers, a pack of 8 or 10 for something like $2.50. Not bad. But you have to have the special paper as well, or else they're useless. I looked around and learned this sad fact: the only Color Wonder paper in existence (at least at my local Target) is coloring-book style paper with pictures of Dora the Explorer* and the like all over it.
Now, this is where my complaint comes in (blogs are meant as a way for a person to complain about the way the world works, right?). It seems to me that any child old enough to 1) care about something like Dora the Explorer and 2) at least make an attempt to "color inside the lines" of a coloring book would be old enough and smart enough to not color on the walls. The kind of kids who need the Color Wonder technology are kids like Ellie who aren't trying to draw a representational piece of art, but who just enjoy scribbling randomly and seeing the pretty colors, and the randomness of said scribbling could accidentally lead them off the paper. That kind of kid just needs a plain, blank sheet of paper. Dora would actually get in her way. But no such paper exists.
So I left Target, resigned to the fact that Ellie will continue to use only her crayons until she wakes up to the wonders of Backpack and the Swiper.
* It makes me giggle to think that Dora the Explorer lives in Boston. Some people might think she's Mexican or at least from some other part of the country with a bigger Hispanic population than Boston. But I say she has to be from New England. There's no other way the words "Dora" and "Explorer" could rhyme!
Comments:
Just FYI, they do make the product you were searching for. Don't know how important it is to you to continue the search. My kids had it (the plain CW paper). Not that it helps you b/c you already checked, but we got it at Target. Our local WalMart carries a lot of that line of products too. I think it's available online at Amazon if all else fails.
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