About a year ago, Danielle and I were looking to fill some empty wall space in the house. I thought the empty wall would be a perfect setting for a large whiteboard.

My then 5 year old was enjoying learning arithmetic. I wanted a prominent space to leave him some math problems to solve whenever he felt motivated to do so. Our younger one enjoyed doodling and we thought she might enjoy drawing on a "GIANT" board (relative to her tiny frame). I liked that the whiteboard would be located in an otherwise dull little hallway, well separated from their play area. This potentially creative space would thus be free from distractions. Now the wiser parents, we quickly established that a single large whiteboard would not work - We'd need to duplicate the whiteboard space to avoid a turf war between the two munchkins. I purchased two 3 x 2 ft framed magnetic whiteboards that would match the two photo frames in the space, colorful marker holders, magnetic erasers and letters.

The white boards have turned out to be simple but powerful tools for both learning and fun! Our older one loves making agendas, leaving me mazes to complete, and as designed, working the math, music and word problems we leave him.

Having separate white boards adjacent to each other works well for my 3 year old. Being a typical younger sibling, she likes to copy what her older brother is doing. She has learned to write her uppercase letters on the board. She also sees her sight words posted on the board.

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