Jake and the Neverland Pirates Coloring & Activity Pad product reviews

My daughter loves to draw, colour, paint, create, and write and recently has began watching Jake and the neverland pirates on TV. When I saw KIWIreviews had some Jake and the neverland pirates goodies up for review I put in my request. When this pack arrived I knew she would be happy. I mean what child is jnhappy with a colouring book? Especially one that comes with colouring pens or pencils.

I was right. When I gave her the colouring book she was over the moon. I personally was also impressed with it, but what impressed me the most was the amount of colouring pens it came with. Normally colouring books or activity sets come with say 3 or 4 colouring pencils or crayons. But these fantastic sets come with seven xrayola colouring pens in nice bright colours. My girl was a little annoyed that there was no black pen though. She has a thing about colouring things in the exact colours the characters should be. Theres no room for colouring things in in different colours for her and if she can not colour it in how it should be (Jakes hair = black) then she will just leave it uncoloured instead (never mind the fact she has black felts in her bedroom).

Black pens aside, you know you are onto a good thing when an hour after being sent to bed, you go to check on your child and they are under their covers colouring in. Or they rise half an hour earlier than normal to continue colouring and then refuse to leave for school because they 'just have to finish this one bit'. So with that in mind this colouring book set gets two thumbs up and full tens from me :)

I was lucky enough to be selected to review this item with my kids. When I showed this to my eldest daughter she was more in the mood to draw something from scratch and I could not convince her to try her hand at colouring a Jake picture. Her younger sister on the other hand was very interested in this book.

She sat down with this book, and happily poured over the pages one by one. She went back and forth to pictures she liked and pointed and laughed at the characters she knows and loves. She did have a go at opening the markers and she was very rough with it. However, she is not yet 2 and this product is not suggested for under 3. I do think that a child of 7 - 9 years old would have no issue working the marker opening and keeping the pouch in good order.

Like the mini book pack, this book comes with a great selection of colurs. The colours are a great match for the character colours, so here is greater opportunity for success for the kid who has to get it just right. There are also other activities included in this pack which are great. It means that if your kid doesn't want to do colouring, they can do something else instead. Plus, it makes them do something a bit educational without them knowing.

I liked the carry handle and I do think this would be a great little kit to put in your suitcase for a rainy holiday day. It would make a great gift and at this price, fantastic value. You could easily get this for your child's school friend and not feel too guilty about the amount you have spent. When you consider it has come with the markers included as well, it is worth it. Overall it was easy to use by my eldest when she finally got interested. I think most kids in her age group would love this, she just likes to be creative and finds lines a bit restrictive.

I was given 3 sets of the Jake and the Neverland Pirates colouring pages: the giant the mini and the colouring and activity pad. The colouring and activity pad was the one that Miss 5.5 was drawn to (pardon the pun). I left the three items sitting on the table and returned to find she had coloured in the first page beautifully using the markers that came with it and even packed it away nicely.

The colouring in book comes with seven washable mini markers. My three year olds found them a bit too small to work with easily. The four year olds were fine with them. All the kids managed to remove and replace the lids without a problem but it was a bit fiddly for them to but the lids on the ends which we usually do to keep them handy while drawing. It is interesting to note that the colours were pink, red, dark blue, light blue, yellow, green and brown, I would have thought it would have been one blue and an orange instead.

The cover promotes that this set is great for travel with built-in marker storage. The idea is great but there are a couple of problems with this. I opened the storage pouch as instructed although it was hard to see the perforated line. When Miss 5.5 came along to get the markers out she ripped the flap cleanly off. It was easily enough fixed with sticky tape but needed to be repaired in order for the markers to stay in there. The other issue is that the storage pouch is on the front cover and means that the book doesn't sit flat which makes it awkward to colour in the pages that lie on top of it. The publishers have obviously thought of this as the activity pages are all to that side with the colouring pages on the facing side,

There is quite a range of activity pages from find-a-words to spot the difference and treasure maps. The variety maintained the children's interest for longer than a straight colouring in book would have. These were at a good level for Miss 5.5 if I read the instructions to her. The answers to these are all inside the back cover.

This set is at a great price for a gift for a young child or a stocking filler at Christmas. It is nice and compact to throw in the bag for when you are staying in a motel or similar where there are no activities for the children. The cover is a bit thin for using the set on your lap but if you pop a piece of thick cardboard inside the cover it would be great for waiting rooms and long car trips.