The Etch-A-Sketch was introduced long before I was a child, but because of my parents’ love for the toy, I adopted it as well. The toy allows children to draw a picture on the screen using knobs, but then they can shake the device to make the diagram disappear.
The toy works by coating the underside of the screen with aluminum powder, and then using the styles underneath the screen to scrap power away as it moves. The black line that children are “drawing” with is just moving power to expose the black within the device. The current models of the Etch-A-Sketch are limited in the directions which they can move, thus limiting the creativity of the child.
My variation involves adding an extra stylus and a more complex motion path, allowing children to explore further creative options. The goal would be to allow children to practice drawing formative things such as animals or foods, even allowing them to draw specific letters or characters. A further modification could be to introduce thin film that parents could place over the screen as a stencil for children to practice with.
The device is easy to manufacture and is very cheap comparatively. The knobs if broken off may become a choking hazard, and the aluminum power inside the toy is unsafe to ingest.