I would have liked to know how this toy works before I bought it. As the ads suggest, there is something magical about the way the water reacts with the mat as the kids make their drawings, but the magic ends when we realized the drawings couldn't be erased. Nope, we had to wait on Mother Nature's timetable for the kids' artwork to evaporate. My son was dawdling around before bed last night, then confessed he was waiting for the mat to dry so he could play with it again. Nope. Bedtime, sorry. This morning the first thing he did was pour water all over it to see the whole rainbow appear in it's full-vivid glory. That's all the fun anyone will be getting out of it until it dries again.

Also from Spinmaster this large mat (32" x 32") is a good toy to take with you when you are visiting someone. It will not only occupy your child's time (ages 36 months to 7 years) but folds up into a flat, compact shape. The pen only needs to be filled with water and you are ready to go and create water drawn masterpieces. Even at the age of two my child loved this toy. She puts it on tables or the floor and just draws to her hearts content. The images stay up for about 60 seconds and then disappear to make room for others. The sides of the mat have games and illustrations on how to draw shapes and simple objects like a house or cat. She loved this aspect of the mat as well. I love that there is no mess involved at all. When she is finished we simply empty out the pen and fold up the mat. That is all.

I think this a great buy because it spans many ages, is creative and has the no mess factor. (MPR gives it- Four Stars.)

My 2 year old loves to color on this but what I got was not what is shown in the pictures. It is a different mat that doesn't have the abc's and 123 patterns on the edge of the white part which is one of the reasons I wanted this mat but my daughter still loves it

Great product and also wel priced. My Godson loves it and so does my aunt and uncle haha. No more worrying about the kid painting the wall.

I bought this toy two years ago, when my child was 2 years old. She liked it, but the problem is that the mat is too light so it's difficult for the children to hold it down without sliding. So it's an okay toy, especially because is mess-free, but I'm not sure if it's worth 19 bucks.