DIY-whiteboard/ dry erase board for kids

Lately I was thinking of buying a chalkboard for my daughter. She loves drawing and writing and she seems to like it even more, when she can erase things again. She has a small chalkboard already - but it is really tiny. So I was thinking of getting a bigger one to hang at the wall in her room. I was however not too keen on all the dust chalk would bring into the room .... so I was thinking about an alternative. I figured maybe a whiteboard would be a nice way - no dust. Still can erase stuff. So I was already checking for offers and prices ... when I happened to stumble across this post about a picture frame dry erase board at the blog Make it and love it. I thought what a great idea. And it would probably turn out MUCH cheaper than buying a dry erase board. Only thing was - I did not really want to hang a big glass frame into my kid's room ....
But I knew that I could buy large picture frames that have no glass but some kind of plastic instead. I was not sure whether it would work - but I was eager to try.

So I bought a large wooden frame with plastic instead of glass. I made a mark on the plastic with a dry erase marker - and even after one day it was easily erased with a bit of felt.
(I am not sure though whether it depends on the kind of plastic used or whether it works on all plastic material. I know that on some page protectors - which I have used with dry erase markers - the erase marker actually cannot be erased anymore after staying on for too long.)
So there was nothing in my way to make my daugher her own dry erase board!

It's really easy - if you want to make one too all you need is:
-one picture frame with plastic instead of glass in desired size

optional:
-paint
-fabric
-anything else to embellish
-print outs

I painted the frame yellow. But you could either buy a frame at your desired colour or embellish it any other way you can think of.

Inside the frame I just put a white paper and some printouts, that I plan to change once in a while. (At the moment there are several names in there and a traceable alphabet.) But you could put in there some kind of fabric or some paper in another colour. You could use printouts of numbers, mazes, pictures, letters .... well, anything that your child might like to trace or to complete (like "connect the dots" pictures) ... The possibilities are really endless!


As you can see my daughter likes the board. She loves playing "school" at the moment so I think it will be a big hit ...