Hellobee

Summertime means we are spending a lot more time outside – Jackson is mildly obsessed with the backyard, and if I let him he would basically live out there all the time. We don’t have much out there to keep him entertained, though, so my mission this summer has been to increase the fun factor in our backyard. I decided to start by capitalizing on one of his favorite activities – chalk.

Jackson absolutely adores coloring with chalk. We have a small chalkboard that we keep in the kitchen that he loves to carry around the house and color on, and he’s always been a fan of coloring out on our back patio. The only problem is, we have a tiny (and often messy) patio in our backyard, and it can be hard to find room for him to color without getting in the way – and it’s not easy to clean, either. So, I came up with another solution – a mega chalkboard where he’s free to color away for as long as he wants to!

We built this (giant) outdoor chalkboard with a large piece of plywood. It’s not technically the most weatherproof option, but it was the best way for us to get a giant board without any seams and it was cheaper than using cement backer board (which is the weatherproof option). It’s been out in our yard for almost two months now and has survived some seriously insane rainstorms with no noticeable warping, so I’m calling it a win.

To make the chalkboard, we just bought a giant piece of plywood and primed it as thoroughly as possible – this is the key to avoiding any water getting in. Then, we painted it with chalkboard paint and added a simple yellow frame (also well-primed).

To attach it to the fence, we used two cedar boards (since they weren’t going to be painted, we wanted to buy a wood that could handle getting wet) and placed them at equal intervals between the fence posts. Then, we screwed the whole thing to the fence posts and the cedar boards using black screws (so they are barely visible), and just like that we had an awesome space for Jackson to color to his heart’s content!

It can be hard to keep track of all of Jackson’s chalk, and we didn’t want to constantly be carting it back and forth between the house and the backyard, so we attached a little white hook on the side with a metal bucket (that has a hole in the bottom to allow for drainage if it rains) to hold all of it. He’s been really good about putting it away when he’s done, and it keeps everything nice and contained.

Jackson has had so much fun with this so far, and I love how busy it keeps him! One surprising favorite activity for him has been to play with the spray bottle of water that we use to clean off the board – he’ll spray the board, the fence, the trees around it, and then wipe them all down with a cloth. Then he’ll circle back around to coloring with the chalk and start the cycle all over again.

We’ve got a few other ideas for backyard activities and fun stuff for him – I’m thinking about making a hopscotch area with patio pavers, Mr. Garland recently suggested an outdoor water table, and I’m dying to build him and outdoor teepee!

What do you have in your backyard for your kiddos?