Don't Dare TaDoodle

My daughter just recieved some Crayola TaDoodles First Marks for her birthday which is coming up in a week. These are special markers made for toddlers that have a big round shape that is supposedly easier to hold. They are little animals - black marker is a penguin, pink is a pig, etc, and they are advertised as made with washable ink. The big tagline on the packaging is "no more worries - no caps to lose." Well, let me tell you this is all a crock! First of all, losing caps is probably the least of my worries when it comes to giving my kids markers of any kind. A bigger concern is where they are going to put the writing end of the markers (or pens, or crayons or whatever). And in this case, these TaDoodles are a nightmare. We turned them over to see how they worked, and the ink literally poured out - there was a puddle of pink and orange ink dripping all over the packaging. And it was not washable - my mom's hands were stained orange all day. It was really disappointing that A) these would be made so poorly and so definitely not for small children, and B) that we had to immediately take away my daughter's gift so she wouldn't ruin the carpet. We pried out the ink part and maybe she can play with them just as little plastic toys, but there is no way thye would have been useable as markers - I wouldn't even have given them to her if she could play with them outside. If you want markers for your toddler - get the Crayola Wonders that only color on the special paper. Little hands can hold regular shaped markers just fine, and the ink won't make marks on clothes, skin, walls, carpets or anything else that sits still long enough for your kids to draw on it.