Steve Anderson is married and has two sons. He is the former director of Boys to Men Mentoring Network of Minnesota, where he led national and international transformational weekends for boys. He has over ten years' experience working with men and boys, developing the emotional awareness and skills they need to reach their full potential. He also has over 20 years' experience teaching people how to be more effective communicators. He lived through his dad's spectacular burnout as a teenager and works with fathers to help them avoid doing the same in their own lives. He is a certified professional coach with training in applied neuroscience. Here, he discusses five ways to make a 10-dollar white board your new best friend for family fun and communication.

Gone are the days of banging chalkboard erasers together and inhaling a cloud of chalk dust. While kids' opportunities for drawing with chalk have been reduced to driveways and sidewalks, dry erase boards are ready to bring temporary art, games, and activities inside, as well as double as a family communication center. It can do all of this at a low cost, too. In this article, we will discuss five ways to take an inexpensive whiteboard and turn it into a great family resource for games, activities and communication.

A quick look around for white boards will get you a framed, 36 X 24-inch board for around 36 dollars. That's not bad, but you can get a 48 X 24-inch white board from a big-box home repair store for under 10 dollars.  Sets of dry erase markers run from six to ten dollars for basic 6-8 color sets.

For the handy parent, the first project you can do is make a frame for your board. Depending on your children's ability, they can work with you on the entire project or, if they are not ready for power tools, they can be in charge of decorating the frame. We haven't even gotten to the five ways yet, and you're already doing non-screen-based family activities.

1) Your new canvas:

Dry erase markers come in a lot of colors, which is great because you now have a two foot by four-foot canvas for all kinds of creations, from stick figures to the fanciest art you can make with markers, which can get pretty fancy.

It's also big enough to have more than one person working on it at a time. Set on a small table, you could easily get 4 people around it. Put on a stand and two people can work side by side.

2) Your new game board:

Dry-erase boards are perfect for games like Hangman and tic-tac-toe. Not only are there a ton of games like these, but a clean whiteboard is also just begging creative kids to create their own games around words and drawing.

3) Your new chore organizer/child's to-do list:

Okay, your kids won't love a to-do list, but you will. Both you and your children will appreciate a schedule of upcoming events. Your kids will like crossing out or erasing chores as they get done, and having dates of upcoming activities will also help children keep track of things they are looking forward to. This will both reduce how often they ask when the event is taking place and be a reminder of something fun that they can look forward to.

4) Your new check in space:

Kids don't always know how to express themselves or want to talk, but that doesn't mean they don't secretly want you to know how they feel. If your child can draw a circle, your child is able to draw a happy face, sad face, surprised face, and probably a lot of faces you won't understand. You can use your new whiteboard for people to draw pictures of how they are feeling – happy, sad, mad, etc. It can be a quick way to gauge where people are at.

You aren't limited to emotions, though. You can change the message on the board at any time. Here are some other options: draw a picture of what you are grateful for, draw a picture of something you want to do, draw a picture of the nicest person in school, draw a picture of the meanest person in school, or draw a picture of a mobius strip. Okay, the last one isn't that useful, but you can see how the others are. Each question can lead to a drawing and each drawing can lead to a discussion.

5) Your new message board:

When the games are over, the artwork is done, you have a message board. At the end of any project, a message of love or specific compliment from the evening is a perfect way to wrap up using your white board.

I started this by pointing out how inexpensive a white board can be. For the cost of the board and some markers, you will have a reusable canvas for your children to explore their artistic talents. It also opens a range of games to play, including classics you know and new games created by your family. It can double as a chore list or calendar, and it can be a new way for the family to share how they are feeling, even if they aren't in a talking mood. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, you have a moveable message board. As you can see, a 10-dollar whiteboard can be a great addition to your parenting toolbox. 

Find out more about Steve here: https://steveanderson.coach/