Review of Step 2 Double-Sided Art and Drawing/Painting Easel for Kids

An item that every home with kids should have is a double sided easel. We have one: It’s the Step 2 double sided easel. One side is a magnetic white board with a clip for holding paper. The other side is a chalk board. This double- sided feature is great because it can accommodate one or two kids at a time, whether they be siblings or friends or whatever. Now if we could only prevent them fighting over the whiteboard… 

I like that the corners of the easel are rounded and it’s lightweight. Froot Loop can move it or turn it around by himself. The rounded, soft corners are also a big plus since we have a baby in the house and Froot Loop is on the clumsy side sometimes. No sharp corners mean no sharp-force injuries if it is fallen on or tripped over. It has a very wide base and it does not tip over (unless of course, the kiddos are doing something dumb or dangerous, but that’s another story). The colors are nice and bright and kid-friendly, but not overly obnoxious. It goes well in most decor. The easel border is red, the base is tan, and the trays are blue and yellow. 

The easel is 42” tall, which is great for toddlers up through elementary school age. The writing surface starts around 20” from the floor, so even shorter toddlers can write or play along the bottom of the easel at first. The whole surface area is 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 with rounded corners, so easel pads fit just fine on the clip side. 

Developing easel skills is important. It takes different muscles and skills to draw on a vertical surface. An easel is a perfect way to develop those skills. Vertical writing/coloring/scribbling helps build hand, finger, and wrist strength. Since they’re working at a different angle, different muscles are used. The other advantage is that working in this way encourages children to use their non dominant hand to stabilize, which can be hard to learn while only working in the horizontal plane. Strengthening these muscles are a vital pre-writing skill. 

It has 94 foam magnets included. These are letters, shapes, and numbers. There are other shapes such as a sun and a house so kiddos can create a small playscape scene. There’s a nice variety. The magnets are red, orange, blue, and green. They are small though, so keep them away from babies and small children who still put everything into their mouths. Other magnets stick on here as well, and that is one of Froot Loop’s favorite things to play with. We have lots of different magnets and he loves to create different scenes and practice spelling words on the magnetic side. He has also worked on tracing. He puts all the magnets on the whiteboard, then takes washable whiteboard markers or crayons and traces the shapes. These are great skills to have! 

The two storage bins are plastic and are easily removable for cleaning or to use the contents. There is also a non-removable storage tray directly below the easel that is a good place to keep the magnets. The removable bins are the perfect size for holding chalk, markers, crayons, and other writing supplies. They also work well for holding paint cups if you don’t want to keep the paint cups in the center yellow tray. 

It took maybe 5 or 10 minutes to put together. There were only a few screws. It was very easy. You need a hammer and a screwdriver (not included, of course), but the instructions are very easy to follow. The hardest part was hammering the top into the bottom. And no, you don’t NEED a piece of wood or a rubber mallet. I used a hammer and I was just fine. 

We do a lot of things on this easel. Some other supplies I have on hand for use with this easel are below: 

Dry erase crayons are brilliant! I love crayons, and Froot Loop does too, and now there are crayons you can use on a white board! They write smoothly and wipe off very cleanly. I am impressed.

This Chalk bundle has white and colored chalk as well as an eraser. This chalk works better than other brands on this particular easel as it erases better. 

Dry erase markers are a must have for this easel. You can use Expo too, but I like the different colors and the more kid-friendly Crayola ones. (Plus, these are washable!)

Easel paper fits into the clip on the whiteboard side. This is good for painting or fingerpainting or using regular crayons, markers, pencils, stickers, etc. We’ve used different brands of easel paper and none seem to really work better than others. 

Jumbo crayons are good for scribbling or drawing on the easel paper. The bigger crayons are helpful when first learning how to write in the vertical plane. The bigger size makes them easier to hold and control. 

Melissa and Doug have some fun magnet sets that work great on the easel. They are big and chunky and great for small hands and fingers to manipulate. I like that the different sets can work together with other sets to make very creative magnetic scenes. One of our favorites is this farm set. 

This is an animal magnet set. There are also vehicles and dinosaurs and shapes and more. Check out my recent post on magnets HERE.

One of our favorite activities to do on this easel is reusable stickers. We have bunches of the Melissa and Doug reusable stickers (see post HERE). The background scenes fit very well into the little clip, and then you can use the stickers as desired. The stickers also adhere to the whiteboard itself. So much fun! 

These Jumbo paint brushes are great for small hands to use and also help with the vertical plane useage. Once your kiddos get the hang of it, you can start decreasing the size of the paintbrush. 

Paint! This is good stuff. It’s washable and bright and a good consistency. 

These Paint cups by Melissa and Doug are spill proof, which is FANTASTIC! They fit into the trays. I recommend putting them into the side trays, since those are easily removeable and cleaned. 

Even the neatest of children still have drips and spills. (Not that I know what neat kids are like!) This Smock is big enough for young children, and it keeps paint and markers, etc. from getting onto clothes. It’s also easily cleaned. It is also easy to put on and take off.

The only real downside of this easel is that it is pretty big (but this large space footprint is so that it doesn’t fall or tip over) and doesn’t fold up. It does take up quite a bit of room, but most easels do.

We have another easel that folds up (we ended up getting TWO different easels one Christmas!), but it has sharp corners and is not nearly as stable as this one. Plus, the trays are underneath each side of the easel, and while that is nicer when using paint and paint cups, it tends to get in the way when Froot Loop wants to do other things. Also, the sides are slanted, which doesn’t exercise the vertical writing skills as well. It is not magnetic either. I think it will be more easily used when the kids get a little older. For now, we use that one for simple scribbling. I probably should just store it for a year or two. 

Anyway, I highly recommend this easel for kids ages 2 and up (probably to about age 8 or so, but we will see. We’ve had a 5 and 6 year old use it just fine). There are so many ways to play with it and the possibilities are endless. It is a fantastic way to foster artistic ability and creativity. 

What's your favorite art product?