Disclosure - we were given this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions are honest and our own.
My middle daughter absolutely loves drawing. She lives and breathes it and I'm always finding bits of paper here there and everywhere with her masterpieces on. So when I was offered the chance to review the SmART Sketcher Projector from Character Online I jumped at the chance because I knew she would really love it, and it turns out that my other two (4 and 11) really love it too so it's been a great addition to our crafts and toys supplies.
The SmART Sketcher is the invention of a dad who wanted to integrate the digital and physical worlds of learning through play. We all know how much our children love and thrive using technology and this clever device assists that process, enabling them to use technology to have fun in the physical world too.
The device is essentially a projector which projects and image onto a piece of paper that your child can trace. It takes batteries or you can plug it in, which was what we did. The only restriction to this I found was that the SmART Sketcher was best used when not in direct sunlight so you could see the projections better. We plugged it into a shady corner of the dining room and this worked really well. It has pull out feet which you can use to hold your paper in place which is a great idea. The whole thing is really easy to put back in the box afterwards too.
It comes with a pre-loaded SD card which has some simple drawings and is suited to younger children. We found this brilliant for Little Boy as it has some easy drawings and letters and numbers that they can trace too which has been great with helping him to learn to write his letters. It's certainly a lot more fun than learning to write his letters in more traditional ways! There are also pictures that you can trace and you can change the settings so that they feature in colour too which is great.
For those who want more of a challenge there is an associated app which is free to download and using this you can use any image from your phone or tablet with the projector. The projector cleverly converts it into a traceable picture (with variable levels of detail). Miss J absolutely loved this and set straight out using a picture of our dog Lexi with the app. She was able to trace the design relatively easily and she was so pleased with the end result, which she then coloured in.
I was really impressed with the SmART Sketcher. It was really easy to set up and use and really is great for a whole range of ages which is perfect for a larger family as it really gets some use! I love the combination of technology with good old fashioned drawing skills and I think it makes a really brilliant education and fun tool for children to use.
It's great for a rainy day activity and kept mine all entertained for ages which is a definite bonus! Here is Miss J's finished drawing of Lexi using the SmART Sketcher Projector.
The SmART Sketcher retails for £69.99 and is suitable for ages 5-105, although I also thought that it was great for my 4 year old. It can be purchased from most toy retailers including Character Online and Amazon (affiliate link). It would make a fantastic Christmas or birthday gift and I know that we will get lots of use out of it.
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