Product Review: Melissa & Doug Easel

Art is an important part of a preschoolers' life. I thought a standing easel would foster that so I splurged and bought the Melissa & Doug Easel for my 3 year old son. It's been great in many ways but a year and a half later, we're packing it away in the closet.

The Melissa & Doug Easel has been a permanent fixture in our kitchen space. It's an adjustable wooden easel with colorful trays and knobs that's very fun looking for kids. On one side of the easel is a chalkboard and the other side is a dry erase board that you also use to pull down paper from the paper roll in the center. It also comes with colorful plastic clips to hold the paper in place.

When I first saw the easel, I was sure we would use it all the time for our home school lessons. It seemed to have a lot of features and possible uses. You can pull down paper for painting, drawing, writing letters and numbers or on the other side, you can write and erase to your heart's content on the chalkboard. As my son's mommy teacher, the chalkboard was the biggest reason I purchased the Melissa & Doug Easel. What kind of teacher doesn't love her chalkboard!

The chalkboard is my biggest complaint about the Melissa & Doug Easel. It is beyond unsatisfactory. I primed it just like the directions said, yet to this day, you can barely write on it. The chalk just scraps across the cheap board barely leaving a legible impression. It is not conducive at all for teaching lessons like I so wanted it to be. I am almost tempted to purchase some chalkboard paint at the hardware store and re-paint over the Melissa & Doug chalkboard to see if I can improve it at least to the point where I can use it.

Writing with chalk should be smooth so unless they've changed chalkboards on the Melissa & Doug Easel, I wouldn't suggest this one as it's not functional at all. My son, who's a lot less picky then me, isn't even drawn to it.

Everyone loves to write on a chalkboard - right?

Credit: growingtreetoys.com

Copyright: growingtreetoys.com