Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pads

Lois was lucky enough to receive a Star Wars Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad for her birthday in September and today we finally got round to trying it out. Now I have to confess I used to love art and crafts with the kids but after 10 years of it I now hate it. I can’t be doing with getting everything out only to be left  tidying the lot up just 5 minutes later when they are already bored. This set didn’t look messy though so I thought we’d give it a go and if I was really lucky it might even keep them busy long enough for me to prep the veggies for our roast dinner.

The box includes a plastic light-up tracing pad which needs 3 AA batteries to light it up, 3 transparency colouring in sheets, 10 tracing design sheets, plain paper, pack of colouring pencils, pack of 6 washable gel fx pens, 1 pencil and an instruction leaflet.

Lois chose to start on one of the clear colour in sheets. Cody then decided he wanted to join in and I realised we actually have another one of these sets so I got the tracing pad out of that one for him to use (it’s a fashion designer version if anyone is interested-see below).

The tracing pads light up really well and make it very easy for kids to trace the drawing underneath their paper. They can combine pictures from different sheets to make their own designs which Lois really enjoyed.  The colouring pencils which come in the set mean they can really bring their drawings to life. In the picture below Lois is colouring in one of the clear sheets with the pens that come in the pack. It now has pride of place on her bedroom wall.

So how long did this keep the kids entertained then? 10 minutes? Half an hour? An hour?! I’m not kidding you when I say they spent 4 hours playing with this today. 4 WHOLE HOURS!!! That has to be a record! Cody wandered off to play with other things a few times but then returned to do another picture while his sister turned into some modern day Picasso and just kept drawing. I am so amazed! I really think these kits are fab. The kids can really use their imaginations to create their own designs using all the traceable images and it had such mesmerizing effect on them they didn’t want to stop. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of these sets!

Update 2021: Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the Star Wars set is available anymore but you can still get a Crayola Light-up Tracing Pad from Amazon here (*affiliate link): Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad

Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Crayola. All words, pictures and opinions are that of my own.