Lily also uses this as an ordinary drawing case. It holds several small sheets of paper and writing utensils beautifully, and I love that it keeps everything neat and tidy in my bag.
Have you ever tried tracing a reflected image? When I was a high school student, we used an overhead projector to project an image onto piece of set, and then we had to trace the image to create a tropical forest backdrop. It was a very similar process – your own shadow would block part of the image, so you were really seeing what you about to trace, rather than what you were actually tracing. I found it challenging, but fun – and that seems to be my kids’ reaction to this toy! I love that the challenge also encourages them to start tracing, but then move on in their own creative direction – so Johnny will copy part of a monster, but then finish it based off of his own imagination, instead of the original image.
Do your kids have a toy that they use in a different way from how it was intended but that is a lot of fun – like how Johnny and Lily parallel draw with this toy?
I was given this toy as a blogger for ALEX Toys. All opinions are my own, and I only write about products that I think would interest my readers.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
That’s really cool! I’ve never seen something with the plastic in the middle to trace a mirror image. So cute how Lily wants to draw parallel to Johnny. :)
It’s a very cool toy!
I love that tracer! So cool that they can both use it at the same time!
They can’t actually both trace at the same time – it has to have a slight incline for the reflection to work – but they love using it side by side anyhow :)
We haven’t tried tracing! This sounds great!
I think your kids would like it!
Looks like lots of fun! I’ve never seen one of those before!
I hadn’t seen one before, either. It’s a very cool toy.
What a great challenge for your art-loving kiddos, and I LOVE the results! Most of our toys are open-ended, so I don’t think they can be used in an unintended way. I hadn’t thought about it!
It looks fun! Some kids would really love the challenge of drawing a reflected image and I like how you can deviate from that task as well if you rather do a different kind of drawing. And I love how Lily is so clear and helpful with her brother on how to connect the lines! What a nice sister!
That looks like a lot of fun! My kids use most of their toys for purposes they weren’t intended for. Toy pliers to “cut” my hair, pattern blocks to make soup and cylinder blocks have recently become binoculars. It cracks me up when she holds the blocks over her eyes completely obscuring her view and says “look Mama, I’ve spotted a leopard” – while bumping into a chair.
I had to laugh at your description of cylinder block binoculars. So funny!!!
We haven’t really done much tracing here, but I see how it could be fun to trace a reflected image. It looks like Johnny is really enjoying this toy.
Yes, it’s definitely Johnny’s “type” of toy :)
I used to have one of these as a kid and used it for the longest time.
I’m sure I have oodles of toys that my kids don’t use for their intended purposes. Oodles and oodles of toys.