Getting started

First faces: getting a small kid started

How the wand actually behaves, why the first session goes better flat on the floor, and the three mistakes every new Willy owner makes in the first ten minutes.

Set up flat, always flat

The powder obeys gravity until the magnet says otherwise. Start with the board flat on a table or the floor, powder resting at the bottom edge. On a lap at an angle the shavings drift mid-drawing, and a three-year-old will conclude the toy is broken. It is not; it is just tilted.

The wand is a shovel, not a pen

The instinct is to draw with the wand tip like a pencil. That works for thin lines, but the faster way to teach it is as a shovel: dip the tip into the pile at the bottom, watch the shavings grab on, then carry them up to the chin and let go by pulling the wand away from the bubble quickly.

Slow drags leave a trail, which makes lines. Short taps drop little heaps, which make stubble and eyebrows. Give a kid those two verbs, drag and tap, and the rest is discovered within minutes.

Erasing is half the toy

Tip the frame upright and the hair slides off. Kids find this funnier than the drawing. Expect a stretch where faces get built for the sole purpose of destroying them, which is fine; it is also how they learn the powder always comes back, so nothing can be ruined.

The three usual mistakes

First: shaking the board to erase. It works but scatters powder across the whole card, and the next face starts on a dirty canvas. Tilting is cleaner.

Second: pressing the wand hard against the bubble. The plastic flexes and the magnet cannot pull more powder by force. Light contact moves more shavings than pressure does.

Third: expecting a portrait from a three-year-old. At three the game is moving powder around and giggling. Deliberate mustaches arrive around five. Both are the toy working as intended.