It’s vital for young children to express themselves, but their art can be difficult to love when it’s on your clean walls or all over their clothing. Drawing boards, which typically involve a stylus and a responsive surface, are a great addition to any toy box. Endlessly reusable, they are eco-friendly, mess free, and safe—your toddlers won’t be eating crayons or sticking paint in their mouths. Our picks below will provide your child with hours of fun while encouraging imagination and learning.
1. Jasonwell Kids Drawing Pad
This battery-powered LCD board offers a smooth drawing experience and lets kids create a multicolor design on a black background. The flexible, pressure-sensitive screen can record thin or thick lines, and the sturdy plastic frame absorbs shock to prevent damage. It also offers an expansive drawing area that measures 10.6 inches along the diagonal. If your child creates a design and wants to keep it for a while, the screen can be locked to prevent new marks and guard against erasure.
2. Fisher-Price DoodlePro
This magnetic drawing board has four included stamps in highly usable shapes: a triangle, a square, a circle, and a star. Little hands can easily slide the eraser across the screen, and the magnetic pen is attached to the board with a cord to prevent loss. Lines show up clearly and erase without ghosting. Note that the stamps are a possible choking hazard for very young children. The simple, rectangular design features a handle so kids can carry it like a briefcase.
3. Wellchild Magnetic Drawing Board
Designed with round corners, this small but hard-wearing magnetic board is perfect for toddlers. It’s flashy and easy for little hands to grip, and the stylus is short and tapered to help with beginner pencil grasps. Each quadrant of the board showcases a different color (bright red, yellow, blue, and green) to make the doodling experience fun and surprising. Wellchild’s product comes with three magnetic stamps in playful shapes—a rabbit, a heart, and a star—that can be attached next to the drawing area. While these have a tendency to come loose, you can always keep them safe in the included drawstring backpack.
4. Boogie Board eWriter Tablet
A drawing board is a great choice for older kids as well, but the juvenile designs of our other options could make an 8-year-old cringe. This all-black LCD board looks mature and works well. The screen responds to varying pressures just like a traditional pencil and paper. Also included are a stainless steel stylus housed in a handy slot on the back of the board, and a neoprene sleeve to keep the board safe during travel. While the watch battery that powers this board is encased in the body, it can be replaced with the help of a mini screwdriver.
5. Crayola Ultimate Light Board
Kids can take their designs to the next level with this drawing tablet that doubles as its own display case. It comes with six gel markers that are vivid in daylight but can glow in the dark under the right lighting. This is built-in: The frame features LED lights that can be turned on to create three lighting effects. The frame also has storage for the markers and flip-out kickstands so you can place it on a table when the art is exhibit-ready. Simply wipe the marker ink off when you want to start new. The black background is also removable, revealing a clear plastic surface that can be used for tracing. Note that the table is battery-powered and its surface is best used with Crayola’s gel markers.
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