Most commonly we give wax crayons to kids when they start colouring. These are cheap and there are many designs which are large enough for babies to hold and use. Note that most crayons are marked as not to give to age below 3 years. Wax crayons come with a lot of colours – any colour you can imagine. But texture is waxy. It glides easily on paper. I was using Camel/Camlin brand wax crayons purchased online. But these days I think DOMS brand is giving them a tough competition.
Wax crayons are marked safe for young children. All are marked as non-toxic, though I am not sure if that really means there will be no problem if the child bites or even swallows. I don’t know if you can sharpen wax crayons. So, these are not for fine colouring once the kid starts going to school and wants to draw something nicer. And wax crayons break a lot. My crayons are broken into pieces like 1-2 cm each.
When I was looking for wax crayons to replace the broken ones, I found the plastic crayons. You may be knowing about these. But I did not.
Plastic crayons are more durable so I think they will not break. I ordered a Faber Castell box of plastic crayons. Line drawing are smoother, And the kid likes the more precise lines. It can be sharpened too. My kid was asking for sketch pens and even water colours etc. based on kids videos on Youtube. But these new plastic crayons did the trick. This is thicker than the old wax crayons. However, there are thick wax crayons in all brands.
Now the colour pencils: I had promised the kid for colour pencils instead of sketch pens. But the safety concerns are there. So I did not buy it though I had checked some pencils in the shop.
I think these will be very hard and difficult to fill large pictures. So, I would not suggest.
Now this is the big wax crayon give at age 3yrs; https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07Q2Q5TJJ/
And this is the plastic crayon https://www.amazon.in/Faber-Castell-Erasable-Plastic-Crayon-Set/dp/B00E9RCAXA/
There is a reason why I chose this one. I needed something with an easy to use box so that it encourages the kid to collect and put the crayons together after playing everyday.
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I forgot what crayons I used to give to my son. However, anything like a pencil can be dangerous with kids. The crayons that break easily can break when inserted in the mouth or nose.
And something like wooden pencil can be equally dangerous if they hit themselves or others with the pointed end.
Thanks this is the first time I heard about plastic crayons and bought the Faber Castell crayons. I dont know why this is called plastic crayons. that is probably due to how it feels on hand.
This is good because the colour is smooth and doesn’t feel to hand when applied to paper.
I remember in my childhood days we used to rub and remove excell wax crayon colour from paper to make it smooth.So many things improved with technology.
One more thing, the colours do not completely erase with eraser even though it is written erasable.
During my childhood days, I loved wax crayons the most. The Camlin brand crayons were hands down the best. Wax crayons glide smoothly and make the drawing experience enjoyable for kids. Never heard of plastic crayons. I guess time to explore what’s new on the block 🙂