Boogie Board Play & Trace LCD eWriter, Red (PL0310001)

My kids love it. they make it as scratch as well (like a paper).

This "toy" for 3 to 10 year olds is too good to be true, for someone like me who is trying to learn to draw. When I read reviews about it before buying, I couldn't understand why no adult art students were trying it out. But I took the chance and bought it anyway. And it works even better than I had hoped! While learning to draw things in proper proportions, imagine the help it can be to lay down the Play N Trace over a photograph or sketch, and map out locations of a few key points... where the nose is located, eye locations, heigth of head, etc. You can map out just a few, or as many as you want, depending on your skill level. Then pull the Play N Trace away from the model drawing, and draw the rest in by eye. It has a surface easy to sketch on. Don't like your drawing? Press button and it erases, and you can start over. It works best to use the board with a black or dark background while drawing, to make the lines more visible. I use a brown office clipboard. Then, if it turns out good enough you want to keep the sketch, photograph it with your cell phone, using black construction paper underneath the board, to make the lines stand out and create a sharp background. Import it into any very basic Photo or Art editing computer program -- even cell phones have ones that can work. Choose "Greyscale" or "Black and White" to turn the green lines to white lines in the photo. Next, choose "Negative" or "Invert Image", and the white lines turn to black, and the black background turns to white. Now you're looking at the photo of a sketch that looks like it was drawn with pencil on slightly grey background paper. Think of it people! With this thing, you can mark perspective points on a sheet of typing paper, and any grid guidelines you want to use, or any other guidelines you want to use. Put it behind the Play N Trace, and draw your image on the Play N Trace, using the guidelines and markings showing through, and you have a very nice drawing, without having to clean up all your guidelines. Yes, it's a child's toy, and built like one But, for LEARNING how to draw, learning proportions, and learning perspective, I see nothing better on the market at a reasonable price. Plus, you can hold it up and view a real-life scene. The greenish background of the board hides a lot of the darker colors -- anything darker than a medium blue -- but it still gives a person a very good feel for where the proportions of the real life scene land on the board. You can again quickly mark key points, if you can keep a steady hand, and keep your eye steady in relation to the board. Then, you're ready to try drawing the scene. Plus, I've been a fan of the boogie boards in general, for art learning and sketching for a few years now. Started with the old 10.5" board (no longer made by the company). So I've always used this way of photographing Boogie Board images to save them. But having a TRANSPARENT Board just makes the good GREAT! To tell the truth, I've already ordered a second Play N Trace. I'm hoping that I can actually make my guide markings on one Play N Trace (holding it up to a real-life scene, and calculating where the vanishing point is located, and sketching out some quick perspective guidelines), and then put the second Play N Trace on top of it to draw the "final" drawing on. I don't know if it'll work or not -- whether the lines will be visible enough from one board, through another, but it's worth a try, and at the price of a "toy" is well worth the financial risk. Another thing to note about Boogie Boards for art is that they can almost become a charcoal-LIKE media with the use of a few tools to take place of the regular stylus. Rubber tipped paint erasers work marvelously for shading Boogie Board drawings. Pull them along the surface slowly for darker shading and faster for lighter. It's not EVEN shading -- there are green dots and lighter areas mixed in. But, for learning, and practicing tonal sketching, they're marvelous. There are also some rubber-tipped tools known as Style Stix (and other companies "Stix"), which I bought last week and am having great fun with. They're apparently used by people to make marks in clay models, but work well on the Boogie Boards that I own, including the Play N Trace. (Note, the SMALL Jot 4.5 does not do very well with the shading tools just mentioned for some reason. It's great for SMALL line sketches, but the surface doesn't register much with rubber-tipped tools. I haven't tried the larger Jot, or the original Boogie yet with the tools -- just Play N Trace, the 10.5", the old Rip model, and Jot 4.5.) Personally, I wouldn't bother gathering the styluses that go with the Play N Trace and all its add-on kits for shading or special effects. The one that came with the Play N Trace is OK for normal lines, but dismal for any sort of shading or paint type effects. The rubber tools work VERY well on Play N Trace. Take note, that there is no way to erase mistakes you make as you draw, and then continue the drawing. It's all or nothing. When you press a button on the side, the WHOLE drawing erases, and you have a blank screen for your next drawing. Remember, I'm saying this is an effective LEARNING tool for art. I'm not saying you're going to be selling your Play N Trace photographed sketches. There are a couple of people on the Net that DO VERY impressive art on Boogie Boards. But they're already professional artists, and usually process the photographed drawings in a high quality photo editing program like Photoshop. But I AM saying that Boogie Boards, and especially the Play N Trace, for me, are a marvelous way to learn art. If treated well, the other boards I've owned do last a long time, although I haven't tested Play N Trace longterm. Just got that today, and was so excited I had to post an instant review after joyfully drawing on it for hours and testing out all its possibilities. If it DOES break and turn out to be low quality, I'll try to get back here to update the review. But it looks as sturdy as any of the Boogie Boards, and the drawing surface, except for the transparency, is just as responsive. And it photographs great and edits well. I'm overjoyed. Just count me among the happy kids, even though I'm not 3 years old, nor even 10 years old, but am headed for 60 years old soon. ;-)

Durable, quiet and educational that can be used in a variety of ways and keep your kids occupied.

This is one of those hard to find toys where your toddler is actually more excited about the toy than the box! It's been two months now and my 4 year old is still excited to draw on this thing. The screen is semi transparent so you can draw or right something on standard paper and they can practice tracing.We are using this to help our son write his letters and numbers and it also travels well in the car.You can write on it easily with anything like a finger nail or blunt toy and the button erases everything clear in one press.the only drawback is the erase, clears the screen every time there is no way to just erase a small mistake. But other than that, this thing is awesome!

Updating previous review: Originally i received the product without the battery cover, but amazon shipped me a new one within a day.I have to say this is the ONE toy I'm ok buying for BOTH kids. This is such a cool toy they both use daily. I have a 6 and 3 year old. We got our first when my oldest was 3ish and she played with it here and there (and mommy loved doodling on it as well). After our son was born, he started as well and eventually he took it over. Over the past few months they share/fight over it so we finally bought another one. These things go everywhere with us. Recently we did a road trip of 9+ hours and these were extremely helpful! Both kids played with it for hours helping us get through a good amount of the trip! I have to say it's helping my son write his letters and numbers and is wowing anyone who sees what he can do. My ONLY wish is that the pens were somehow attached. However it's nothing a piece of string can't fix. And, we have had these for years and proud to say we still have the original pens! I only recently did the string trick since it was getting tossed around the car. Again, this is a GREAT gift for kids (and adults)!Love this product but unfortunately mine came missing the battery cover. Waiting for a replacement but unfortunately it's hard for my 3 yr to place since batteries keep popping out!!!