Magic Stix Markers ~ Review

I am always on the lookout for great art products for my children to use on their projects. My kids love to draw, color, and make different creations with items from around the house. Over the past several weeks, our family has been enjoying Magic Stix Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc.

The Pencil Grip, Inc is a company that sells many products. We have reviewed their Kwik Stix in the past and we love using those since they dry so fast. We have also reviewed and used the pencil grips they have designed.

When I first saw that they had markers now, I was hoping to be able to review them or buy them for my children to use. One thing that I noticed was that these markers won’t dry out if the cover gets left off accidentally or doesn’t get put on tight.

Magic Stix 24 pack comes in a nice plastic case that also has handles for easier carrying. They are odorless, washable, and non-toxic. They guarantee that they will not dry out for seven days and I don’t know of any other company that has that same guarantee for their markers.

I started to do the 7 day test but would forget to test the marker, so I just left the cap off for 7 days and at the 7 days mark the marker was still working just the same as it had on the first day. These markers color in such vibrant colors and are so bright and bold. We love all of the colors that come in the 24 pack. There are several different variations of greens, purples, blues, yellows, and reds. There is also black, brown, and gray.

We have enjoyed using the markers on coloring pages. One thing we noticed is that they do bleed through, so we just put a sheet of paper underneath the coloring page. Also, if we colored too much in one spot the page would start to rip.  I tried using them on cardstock paper and they did not bleed through. I think if we were to do more coloring pages, I would print on cardstock so we wouldn’t have to worry about it bleeding through or the page ripping.

We have all enjoyed using the markers, even my 14 year old son colored with us girls.

Our favorite thing about the 24 pack is the variety of colors. There are so many to choose from for us to get our pages just the way we wanted them to look. We also liked that the colors are so bright and vibrant. We also like that these markers won’t dry out if left uncovered. My 6 year old sometimes has difficulty getting the cover on tight and we won’t notice until we use them again. With other brands, we were left with a marker that didn’t work if the cover was left off or not on tight. With the Magic Stix, we never had to worry about it. The markers worked every time!

We give Magic Stix Washable Markers 5 stars!

F is for Favorites

It’s time for the annual Blue Ribbon awards from the Homeschool Review Crew. You can find the post here of all of he favorites from the crew. Last year, I mentioned our top five favorites. This year we have so many favorites, I am going to post our favorites in the different categories.

ART ~
We have a couple favorites that we used this year in the art category. The first one is the Thin Stix from The Pencil Grip, Inc. We were actually lucky enough to review this product twice this year. This product is one of my girl's favorite art supplies.

Another art product we enjoyed this year was the  ACTÍVA rigid wrap that we used to create a butterfly. We plan to make some Christmas items with the product that we have left.

HISTORY ~
This year, we have reviewed many history curriculum and supplements it was difficult to choose our favorites because there are so many great ones. We narrowed it down to the following products.
Drive Thru History ~ This was a favorite of my high school boys. We all learned so much from the videos and look forward to watching more.

Another favorite history curriculum is from Home School in the Woods. We reviewed Make A State and The Middle Ages. Even though there is a lot that needs to be printed, this curriculum is packed full of information and hands-on activities.

Our favorite history supplements are from Heirloom Audio Productions. We reviewed two of them this year, In the Reign of Terror and Captain Bayley’s Heir.

BOOKS ~
We reviewed so many great books this year and we are looking forward to the next books in both of these series, Imagine…The Great Flood and The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls.

Here is a link to all of the products we reviewed this year and past years. You can read through to see how we used and how it fit or did not fit for us to learn more about these different companies.

Be sure to stop by the Homeschool Review Crew blog to see the rest of the crew’s favorites from this year.

I am linking up with:
Hopkins Homeschool

The Pencil Grip ~ Review

We were sent The Ultra Safe Safety Scissors and The 3 Step Pencil Grip Training System from The Pencil Grip, Inc.

The ultra safe safety scissors are geared for young children that are just learning how to cut. The scissors have a protective plastic shield that prevents children from cutting anything other than paper.  While the edges of the scissors are rounded, the blades are sharp inside of the protective area. The scissors do come with a lever that acts as a spring load to open on their own which helps young children learn how to control the scissors.


The scissors seem to be good for cutting straight lines and do not work well if you need to cut something more detailed out. It is difficult to maneuver the scissors when not going in a straight line. My youngest daughter and I tried them out and we both could use them easily.

The 3 step pencil grip training system involves the use of three of their grips.

The first grip is a crossover grip which helps the child to put their fingers in the correct position and keeps fingers from crossing over.



The second grip is the pinch grip. This grip  is used as a guide for proper positioning.



The third grip is the original grip. This grip helps to prevent bad habits from forming during writing.



My teen son tried out the different kinds of grips and liked the original one the best. All of these grips can be used by either right or left handed children or adults.

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