Crayola Crayola(R) Washable Dry Erase Crayons (8 pack) - 985200

No matter how I try to stick to my shopping list when in a store, if I go with my husband or daughter, things that we did not set out to purchase inevitably end up in our cart.  On a recent trip to get a jump start on basic school supplies, we purchased backpacks, pens, pencils, assorted notebooks and a few extras, like the Crayola Washable Dry Erase Crayons.

As we were walking up and down the aisles, my daughter said she needed to look at the Crayola items for a new product that a friend had told her about.  She will be entering the 8th grade so crayons are usually not on our supply list anymore, but she wanted these particular crayons for home use.  We found the dry erase crayons right where you would expect them to be, with all of the other small boxes of Crayola products.

These special crayons come in typical crayon box a little bit larger than the 24-count box, with a sharpener built into the back.   Inside, there are eight washable crayons that are intended to be used on white write on/wipe off dry erase boards.  They will work on paper, but can smear since they are waxier than standard Crayola crayons, but not as waxy as some cheaper brands that we have used.

The sharpened crayons start out at about four inches tall and are thicker than standard crayons, but not as thick as the fatter, preschool versions.  Unlike most Crayola crayons, these do not have their color names printed on the paper coverings and all of the papers are identical black with gray writing indicating that they are indeed dry-erase crayons.  The eight colors are:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown and black.  When used, the colors are bold and bright, and even the yellow can be clearly seen on the board.

In addition to the crayons, an "eraser mitt" is included.  This is a navy blue cloth bag that an adult's entire hand can fit into and that can be used both to store the crayons (although there is no closure on it) and to erase what has been written.  The mitt usually works very well to remove whatever my daughter was written on drawn on the dry erase board that she has hanging on her bedroom door, but on occasion we have had to use a little bit of water and a paper towel to get off particularly darkly drawn marks.  The mitt is hand or machine washable.

These crayons are non-toxic and are safer to use than dry-erase markers.  Those markers usually have a very strong smell, and the ink can get on hands, clothing, and in my daughter's case, the carpet when she dropped a pen before the cap was replaced.  Crayons do not require caps, will not dry out and can be sharpened with the enclosed sharpener.
 
Recommended for children over the age of three, any child who can hold a crayon can use these.  They do not break too easily, but of course, if enough pressure is put on them, they will break.

Until my daughter asked for these in the store, I had never heard of them, but I think they are a great product.  When she was in grammar school, some teachers gave each child a white dry-erase board to work on at their own desk and since my daughter is left-handed, the side of her hand, arm, and often, her clothing came home covered in ink as she smeared what she wrote while moving across the board.  Dry-erase crayon writing does not smudge as easily, although it can  if you press hard enough, but it most certainly would not have made as much of a mess on her body or clothes as the pens did.  Another plus is that these crayons are washable so that any marks that end up where they do not belong can be removed with water and a little mild soap.

This eight-count box of Crayola Washable Dry Erase Crayons are under five dollars, which is about half the cost of that many dry-erase markers, and they will not dry out.  For young children with a write on/wipe off board to learn the alphabet, a teacher wanting to use different colors to explain a lesson to her class, or a teenager who just wants to use a rainbow to express herself on her bedroom door, I would recommend these crayons.