Dry Erase Board: Markers or Crayons?

The week is chugging along.  It's chug, chug, chugging along.  Plodding along.  Tess has been sick (she's improving) and the thought of the tasks ahead of me over the next few months alternately exhilarate and tire me out.  And none of it is earth shattering but this is how it's been and I blame it on winter.  You know, winter, ageing, mortality.  It's really one of those days to talk about...dry erase markers!

Since I pulled our easel inside it's really inspired more creativity than just about any one thing I think I could have done.  It makes setting up drawing and painting so easy and accessible for the girls and for me (which is as important, really, because when I've made the set up too arduous for me if often doesn't get done).  It is a bit of an eyesore, but we'll move it back to the sunporch when the President comes over for his visit.

Today I picked up some dry erase markers at the store, and as a comparison I also bought a set of dry erase crayons, something I didn't know existed!  But it does, and as it turns out, they are pretty cool.  Now usually I try to get art supplies at A.C. Moore or from Discount School Supply or the like, but today we purchased them from the grocery store.  For this reason I bought Expo dry erase markers, although something like Melissa and Doug might be nice since they are specifically labelled "non-toxic."  However I won't keep the markers out all the time because Tess has a taste for the markers, and I don't want the girls to forget and use them on paper and the wall.  The crayons are Crayola.  We bought this.

Now, the markers are just what you'd expect.  Jo liked using them, they are really easy to make a mark on the board, and they are easy to erase.  Other than the fact that they smell weird (and of course the health implications of breathing in that chemical cocktail aroma) they are pretty fun to write with on the board.  But!  Jo didn't like coloring in the lines of her drawing with them, because the white shows through and for this the crayons were perfect.  The crayons do flake some, but they make an interesting contrast to the markers.  The color is more saturated and goes on more evenly and thickly.  They are harder to erase, but Jo could do it.  Tess could not, but she drew using the little board that came with the crayons and it was really easy for her to make fun marks with the crayons.  The little set is portable too, which is nice.  

Tess was really too exhausted to fully appreciate this, but Josephine worked on a drawing for a long time and I really liked it!  She said it was baby Tommy at his soccer practice.  Don't know who Tommy is, have no idea why she chose soccer since that sport basically doesn't exist to Jo, but I loved the drawing.  The picture really shows you how the marker is nice for the lines, but the crayons are nice for, er, coloring.  

While doing this activity we listened to the Beatles!