A few weeks ago, during Christmas week, I brought the boys into my office for a little fun. They always enjoy hanging out and playing with some of the office toys and running about. Part of the “deal” was that they first do their school work prior to playing. As I was working with them, I discovered that the big meeting room dry erase board (a.k.a. “white board”) was a great resource for doing some teaching of counting and other concepts. So I thought to myself, I should look into getting something like this for Lois to use at home for school!

Unfortunately, the average corporate-quality commercial white board of the size I see at work (classroom-sized) runs in the vicinity of $200-300!  Ouch!

So I went hunting online for ideas for cheaper white boards, and discovered an article that suggested that using “shower tile board” (~$13) from Home Depot could make for a very simple, if somewhat low-end, white board.

Inspired, we went to Home Depot and decided to go shopping. Over the course of a couple weeks, we accumulated a 4′x8′ sheet of tile board (melamine-coated particle board), a thin sheet of plywood for backing, and and a tube of Liquid Nails. For mounting on a wall, I ended up going with a “j-mold” which is typically used for hanging wall-length mirrors. Total cost, approximately $37.00. Sweet.

It has worked out beautifully. Here are photos of us putting it together, with a final photo of the white board in use.

Laying out the white board and plywood to prepare to glue them together:

Matthew helping me to squeeze Liquid Nails adhesive on the back of the tile board for attaching the plywood:

The white board (final size, 7′x4′) mounted on the family/school room wall:

Matthew doing addition on the white board: