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Kamea enjoying the dry erase whiteboard side of her easel.
My daughter likes to color and do artsy things in general. What 4 year old doesn’t?
So we did what a lot parents do and we bought her an easel to facilitate and encourage those artsy inklings. We bought the Melissa and Doug one featured above. (Turns out there’s a less expensive, and probably just as good, option at IKEA – if I remember correctly. Truth be told when I saw it at IKEA I tried to forget I ever saw one for that price knowing what I spent on mine. So, don’t quote me.)
Having an easel has been terrific. She doesn’t use the chalkboard side much, perhaps because it’s shoved up against that side by the wall. But, then again, who really likes chalk (unless it’s on a sidewalk)? She uses the dry erase whiteboard a lot though. A lot.
She uses the dry erase whiteboard so much, off on her own in a wonderland of drawing, that sometimes I don’t even hear much from her. Translation: I can do something myself like sip on coffee and ponder world peace or wash dishes or close my eyes or waste time on Facebook.
One day the lightbulb went off in my head. I must have more dry erase whiteboards around the house to give me more time to myself support her talent as a budding artist. Hmmm. This whiteboard thing is like a babysitter. A cheap one!
Must buy more. Hello(!), buy more I did. My husband went to Home Depot where they have squares of them for cheap and came home with many of them (he thinks they were 2-bucks each).
We put four on one wall downstairs…
Big drawing area makes for epic ocean scenes.
We have a single square up in the bedroom (and another single one in the family room).
Drawing in the bedroom by my sleep induction mat.
I also found some small ones for the car at a local teacher school supply store.
Drawing in the car on a dry erase whiteboard. Yes, she’s still rear facing. #SafetyFirst
These are also great in restaurants for drawing, tic tac toe, and hangman.
A little one for restaurants. Cute.
And, if you have a lot of windows like at my mom’s house, you can use window drawing markers in the same way (regular dry erase markers work, too, but Nana had bought these “window” markers).
*Note: Greg uses dry erase markers on his mirrors in the bathroom to leave himself notes.
Drawing on windows is fun, too.
It’s occupying her for extended lengths of time with an activity that I can happy about – for many reasons. :)Similar Posts: