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chalkboard debate ...Help!


mom2agang
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My dh can't stand the sound of chalk on a chalkboard. I think he would move out if I put one in. :lol: We use a white board and I think it is much better anyway. The kids love it, it cleans up better - less mess and is more fun to write/draw on with a good pack of multicolored dry-erase markers. :D

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We have an easel that has a chalk side and a whiteboard side. The white board dry erase side gets used by the kids more often.

 

For me, I picked up an oil drip pan awhile back to use for my All About Spelling tiles. Turns out wet erase markers work on it and we use it for our lessons now too. It was a great cheap alternative to a large magnetic white board.

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I had a chalkboard and it was great, but I needed something magnetic, so I bought a nice magnetic porcelain white board for about $165 and that included free shipping from USmarkerboard.com. Right now the one I bought (3'x4') is on sale for $128 with free shipping. It was the best money I've ever spent for our classroom. My kids love it. I use it all the time for science lessons and to write copywork on. The kids love that the colors show up better than colored chalk.

 

I tried the tile board that many use and it was ok but again, not magnetic and I could never find the shiny stuff and the more matte finish ones don't clean up as well and ghost really badly.

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Love my chalkboard! Haven't had a dust problem as we use dustless chalk, and clap out our erasers every other day. An extra benefit for me is that my dd can read white on black better than anything written on white, so I was lucky this is what I chose. :)

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We have a large chalkboard and a large whiteboard. We decided to use the whiteboard for school. The chalkboard is now in another room and used for play.

 

There are pro and cons to each. We use the whiteboard daily. If we only had the chalkboard, we would use it instead. Having a large surface to write on is helpful in many subjects.

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We use a whiteboard and rarely, if ever, use the chalkboard. I have 2 separate white boards, and we also have an easel with one side whiteboard and the other side chalk, and DS and I both use the whiteboard before we use the chalkboard. I can't stand the sound of chalk on a chalkboard, so I am sure that plays a big part in it too :P

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We have a chalkboard, as well as a dry erase bd. We got them before our kids were school age, for fun. My kids do gravitate to the dry erase more often and it is so much easier to tidy up. Our chalkboard does leave a mess of chalk dust on the floor. :glare:

(For chalk play, we prefer just playing on our sidewalk or on the fence, where mommy doesn't have to clean up afterwards.) I def. prefer dry erase for school work.

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White board here too.

 

If you check out IEWFamilies@yahoo.com they have information from Andrew Pudewa about making a dry erase board from shower board INEXPENSIVELY.

 

We actually lucked out, we have a 4' x 6' one from a school, it has a nick in it, but it still works great. It sits against the wall with the 4 ft on the ground and going up 6 ft. This allows my children and I to both work on it. We use it A LOT.

 

Could I do school without it, sure. Would I now that I have it... NO WAY.

 

We like it so much we even bought a smaller 36"x24" for working outside our classroom.

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For those of you that like dry erase boards, do the markers not bother you? I hate the smell and that my dc get markers all over their hands. I hated white boards when I was teaching because the kids always left the lids off the markers.

 

I much prefer chalkboards.

 

But then again, I won't let my dc color with regular markers because it ends up on their hands.:glare:

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Nope, the low odor markers don't bother any of us, in fact I don't even notice they have a smell. My kids have used markers on paper and whiteboards and haven't had trouble with getting marker on their hands since pre-school age. The exception is dd who likes to draw on herself, but she prefers sharpies for that not dry erase. :glare:

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I have no desire for a whiteboard and smelly markers.

 

If I get a blackboard I want a nice one. What holds me off, is whether I want to just put up something makeshift, or invest in what I really want.

 

If you have the funds, I would get what you really want. Makeshift for something you will use every day doesn't make sense to me if you can afford otherwise.

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If you have the funds, I would get what you really want. Makeshift for something you will use every day doesn't make sense to me if you can afford otherwise.

 

That's why I keep waiting. I think you are right.

 

If it is meant to be, things will fall into place. I don't want the board enough, to create a huge hassle acquiring it and setting it up.

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We use white boards daily here too. I have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, DH even jokes that I should go work for the TSA. The smell of the markers does not bother me, but it has to be certain ones. I like the skinny ones with the eraser on top. The fatter washable ones are horrid and banned from my house.

 

I've considered painting a small wall with chalkboard paint, but that would be mostly for the 4 y/o to color on.

 

LOVE the drip pan idea, I have got to scope out wall space for that tomorrow!

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I have little ones so we may not use the boards we have as much as others but . . . we have a white board and a two-sided chalkboard/white board easel and also the small individual chalkboards (for using HWT pre-K).

 

I have to say, I thought I'd hate the chalk and the board but I actually like writing on it. The kids use it along with the whiteboard equally. We seem to keep up with chalk easier than board markers right now anyway. They like the variety I think of using different things to write. My DD4 also likes using the HWT technique of using small sponge pieces to trace/write letters or shapes and they like to clean the chalkboard.

 

Actually, we've put away the whiteboard we had up for now. We'll probably pull it out later when we officially start KG.

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We use a small whiteboard and low odor markers.

 

I personally can not stand the sound made by chalk on a chalkboard. And the dust would bug me too. So a whiteboard made the most sense to me.

 

I am presently debating between a large whiteboard for the wall or magnetic whiteboard paint all over the wall. The latter is more expensive and I would have to want it forever because you can't just paint over it, you need to totally sand the wall before re-priming it. OTH, I would be able to draw directly all over a wall and the thought of that makes me super excited. As an aside, if anyone has used whiteboard paint, I would be interested in reviews.

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We're planning on getting a full sized chalkboard. (Recommendations would be appreciated. :)) I'm with Hunter in that I don't like the white board markers. I've also read posts on the SN board here from an OT who talked about the therapeutic value of the physical act of writing with chalk. Some of the little folks in our house could use the arm and shoulder strengthening.

 

The more I reflect on it, the more I think that a lot of the very old ways of classroom teaching -- sitting on benches with no back support; standing up when called upon to say an answer out loud; walking to the chalkboard to write something out; using a combination of near and distant vision -- were actually pretty good for sensory and motor development. Perhaps they also figured out by trial and error that this helped to keep order in the classroom. It makes more sense to me than the way many homeschool families do things now -- having the children sit and work quietly with books for X amount of time, then take a break where they run around like crazed ferrets. ;)

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There is lots of art and tactile issues that writing on a blackboard provides, that markers on plastic do not. Chalk is a lot like using pastels, but more erasable and safer feeling. Chalk and markers are entirely different media. Slate and plastic are totally different surfaces never mind colors.

 

It's kind of like kitchen floors. Some people love the trouble of a wooden floor and others like convenience of linoleum. They are not interchangeable for many people.

 

These handheld blackboards look really nice and come in black and green. They are borderless and unframed and designed for Waldorf students. http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/psstone/store/agora.cgi?product=Blackboards_and_Chalk&xm=on

 

There are some demo videos for Arithmetic Village that show students drawing game boards on chalkboards. http://www.arithmeticvillage.com/activities/david-activities/

 

http://www.arithmeticvillage.com/activities/linus-activities/

 

Eleanor, I really like Blackboard Sketching too. It's an oldy but a goody.

Edited by Hunter
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We have an easel from IKEA that is both chalkboard and whiteboard, and both sides are also magnetic. I really prefer using the chalkboard. I like the look of a chalkboard best, although the dust is annoying. We have wood floors, so I can easily clean it up. If it was over carpet it might bother me more.

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I started a thread on this subject a while back. Here's the link if you want to look at the replies. I went with chalkboard and have LOVED it. Got mine from www.usmarkerboard.com

 

 

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200900

 

 

Also... I started a thread on the dangers of dry erase markers too so it's on here too.

And, as for dust....I'd personally rather have chalkdust than dangerous dry erase "dust"/residue.

 

Finally...before I made my decision as to going with the green or black chalkboard, usmarkerboard sent me two small samples of each. We (hubby and I) both liked the black.

Edited by mhg
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We have a showerboard from Lowe's as well. It was very inexpensive and we love it. We use it every day.

 

As for the odor of dry erase markers and lack of sensory input from them- we use dry erase crayons. They have no odor, they last a LONG time, you don't need to worry about putting caps back on them, and it does provide sensory input. You can feel it very well in your fingers as you write on the board. We do keep a small spray bottle of plain water and a rag next to the board because it's SOOO much easier to wipe it off with a tiny spray of water.

 

Here's a pic: http://www.givingourbest.blogspot.com/search/label/Language%20Arts

Edited by grace'smom
spelling error
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As for the odor of dry erase markers and lack of sensory input from them- we use dry erase crayons. They have no odor' date=' they last a LONG time, you don't need to worry about putting caps back on them, and it does provide sensory input. You can feel it very well in your fingeres as you write on the board. [b']We do keep a small spray bottle of plain water and a rag next to the board because it's SOOO much easier to wipe it off with a tiny spray of water. [/b]

 

Here's a pic: http://www.givingourbest.blogspot.com/search/label/Language%20Arts

 

Thanks for the tip! We had stopped using our crayons because they take too long to wipe off.

 

LOVE your school room!

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