Crayola: The Best Washable Markers for Children and Kids

If you have kids, you have probably had this happen at least once during their growing up years: The moment you find out that your darling has decided to be an artist with markers, decorating either their face, their hands, a friend, or worse yet, your walls.

For me it was when my sons were very small, and my youngest son decided to decorate his face with my permanent markers. It took a long time to get the marking pen off, in fact, he wore some lingering color on his face for several days.

Nowadays, we parents (and grandparents), can fortunately buy washable markers for our budding artists, so clean up comes much easier for both them, and us.

I teach art to kids, so I have several varieties of marking pens in my arsenal. Sometimes the work I do necessitates permanent markers, so I still do have them hanging around my house.

Unfortunately, my 4 year old grandson recently found my permanent markers and proceeded to decorate his face a few days ago. It was pretty hard to be very mad at him, but getting it off was not very easy. Too bad he hadn't found Grandma's Crayola washable markers instead, which would have saved him and his dad some scrubbing.

Washable markers are made by several manufacturers, but I have found the washable markers by Crayola to work well for kids artwork plus they are very reasonable.

The Crayola colors are true and brilliant - and I have found they are pretty long lasting. You can buy sets and also kits with other fun activities to go along with the markers (like the Crayola Pipsqueaks Washable Markers 'N Sticker Set)

Besides washable markers, another great idea is available for lil' artists - truly mess free markers that only reveal their color when used on special "magic" paper. I was first introduced to these "magic markers" when I my grandson recently received these as a gift set. He especially likes these markers, and clean up is totally mess free. As he draws on the paper, the colors are revealed, and he loves seeing the "magic" drawing appear! Crayola also makes these sets - and a good one for starter artists is the Crayola My First Crayola No Mess Marker and Paper Set.

If you have toddlers, these are a great way to introduce your child to drawing without worrying about anything else in the house getting decorated.

When using any washable markers for your kids, make sure they put the caps back on as with any markers. Teaching them to put the caps back on also teaches them an early respect for the artistic process and to take good care of their art mediums (it's never too early to teach them this)

I also recommend buying them a big set with many different colors if you really want them to test their artistic wings. As far as I'm concerned, the more colors, the better. Having a bigger selection of colors helps them develop their awareness of color, and it helps them to learn additional colors as an early age.You can even incorporate the fun of drawing into a learning lesson by having kids memorize the colors as they use them.

The only drawback with washable markers is that they will fade faster than permanent markers, so if longevity and permanence is needed I recommend a Sharpie under intense supervision.

For most kids art projects though, washable markers work just fine. After all, the fun is what matters and the more creative your kids can be without worrying about the mess, the better for them - and you!