Send Your Children To School With The Best From Dixon Ticonderoga

Send Your Children To School With The Best From Dixon Ticonderoga

Disclosure: I was provided a promotional sample package for review.  Any and all opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced.

As parents we only want the best for our children and that includes clothing, food, and even school supplies.  As many of use prepare to send our kids back to school – (and some of use already has sent ours off), we have or are shopping for all those supplies on your kids list.  My kids are still young so they are pretty much using the same items, meaning we have to double up on purchases.  One of those is the Ticonderoga “My First” pencil.  My daughter used it in Pre-K and Kindergarten and my son is using them again this year in Kindergarten.

I love these pencils.  The best thing is they are perfect to help younger kids with fine motor skills.  They come pre-sharpened and the four pack comes with a pencil sharpner.  They also have big erasers so if your kids chew on the erasers it should still hold up for a bit.  So when Dixon Ticonderoga contacted me about trying their water colors from the Prang line I jumped on board.   When my package arrived I was so trilled to try out all the amazing products.

When I opened the box my kids couldn’t wait to jump in and start playing with all the products.  As soon and I opened the box I could tell that these were great products, much better than other products we have used in the past.  Interestingly enough they didn’t just send me their products, they also send me some of their competitor’s products to test along with theirs so we could really say which we thought was the best.  That’s the sign of a confident company to me and the kids and I were ready for the challenge.

Here’s How the Products Match Up

So the first match up was between the Prang markers and Crayola.  I am very familiar with Crayola because it’s what we have used for our kids so far for school.  As you can see from the picture the Prang box was bigger and it also came with two bonus markers.  The Prang markers were also longer than the Crayola markers.  They were both about the same size but the Prang markers had a much bigger tip than the Crayola markers so they didn’t start to dry out as fast as the Crayola.  The brightness of the colors were about the same and they both were broad tips.  Overall they were about the same except for a few areas.  I would give a slight edge to the Prang markers.

The water colors were next.  We got to try the Prang Watercolors along with the Crayola water colors.  As you can clearly see from the cases the Prang water colors are in a much more durable case.  Within thirty minutes of playing and two drops the Crayola case was cracked.  After a few days it was broken up in pieces.  We had this problem last year with my daughter’s water colors set for class.  The case broke in her bag pack and the paint cracked and dried after she used it a few times.  The Prang case was much stronger and much more durable.  It’s actually what we choose for the kids this year.  It was just a much better product just based on packaging alone.  Now we don’t have to buy replacements during the school year.  The Prang watercolors is the definite winner and I felt it was much better than any others we have tried in the hard plastic cases.  The brush was also very strong and durable in the set.  Dixon Ticonderoga is also offering a coupon to use so you can save on your watercolors purchase.

Next we tested the pencils.  I am so used the “My First” pencils, this was our first time using the regular pencils.  These were perfect for my daughter for first grade.  They also come sharpened and the erasers are latex free.  They were a little longer than the competitor’s pencil that I got to test.  The Ticonderoga pencils also had a much strong writing lead.  It held up to my daughters pressing down with it and didn’t break once.  The other pencils needed to be sharpened constantly and it broke easily.  My daughter also bit on her pencils constantly and the competitor’s pencils didn’t do well with her biting on them.  The Ticonderoga’s pencils were stronger and the wood held up better to her biting on it as well as the erasers.  Ticonderoga was the clear winner and best choice.  It’s what in her pencil case at school and home and we will continue to use them always.

The last product we tested were colored pencils.  Another must have for school supplies list for us since our kids have started school so I have lots of experience with using the buying colored pencils.  I hadn’t tried the Prang brand pencils before so I was very excited to give them a try.  These were the large triangular pencils.  They were much fatter than the CraZArt pencils.  The Prang pencils also came with a bonus sharpener in the box as well.  Prang does offer the slimmer pencils as well.  The CrazArt pencils are what we are used to using so I already know the points break easily, they sometimes doesn’t color or write well, and they constantly need sharpening.  Our biggest problem with the slimmer pencils is when the tips don’t color well and just have odd streaks.  The Prang tips were very strong and durable.  They were broad tips so colors was a breeze.  My daughter like that she could color more in less time since the tips were broader.  The Prang colored pencils were definitely better than the other ones.

Overall the Prang/Ticonderoga products were better, more durable and held up much better and longer.  We’ll be sending our kids to school with the best from Dixon Ticonderoga this year and other years in the future.  If you want to pick them up and give them a try you can purchase their products from Wal-Mart, Target, OfficeMax, Staples, Office Depot, Hobby Lobby, Kmart and more.  You can connect with them on their website, Facebook and Twitter.

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