This is our go to rainy day activity and the best part is, the mat only cost me $1! I love finding uses or coming up with craft ideas with items I can purchase at our local dollar store.
Dry Erase Mat Kids Activity
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For this activity you’ll need –
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– Clear Vinyl Shower Curtain Liner (The clear liners were the only ones that worked for me using the dry/erase markers)
– Washable Non-Toxic Dry Erase Markers (we already had these on hand)
Even if your local dollar store doesn’t carry the clear shower curtain liners you can still purchase them at Wal-Mart or Target for a couple dollars. Simply tape the edges to your floor, let your child draw on their their new dry erase mat, and wipe off when they’re done then it’s ready for you to use again. Ours wiped right off with a wet towel, after my son was done doodling and making roads for his cars. In the picture above we used a clear shower curtain liner and a cheap white liner underneath so he could see what he was drawing because we were outside, otherwise when we are inside my kitchen floors are white so it’s no problem!
As for a mess, there was none! But if you’re worried about having one just have your child put on some old clothes for this activity, hang the shower curtain liner up, or lay it on a table to draw on. The markers dry so fast and only wiped off if the towel was wet. If you try wiping with a dry towel you have to scrub at it a bit but if you wet the towel before you wipe it off everything wipes off clean! So my son was mess free and so are my floors!
Another idea that we’ve used with a shower curtain was creating a giant play mat for my toddlers cars. I bought one of the plain white shower curtain liners then used black permanent marker to draw the roads and tape it to the floor for him to play!
** I thought I should add to this because there were some people concerned about the marker rubbing off on their child’s clothing. However my son had no residue from the markers on him after drawing. The markers wipe off with a wet towel, not on the dry clothing.
What are some of your favorite activities reusing everyday items?
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Robin Rue says
July 28, 2014 at 9:15 amNow that is just plain awesome!! My kids would LOVE that.
rachelle says
July 28, 2014 at 11:13 amI never would have thought to use a shower curtain liner, great idea!
Lexie Lane says
July 28, 2014 at 11:23 amOh wow! I can see my son spending all day on this! He loves to draw! Lovely!
teresa mccluskey says
July 28, 2014 at 1:15 pmThis is a great idea! I am always looking for neat ideas like this I will be heading to the store later to pick up items just for this!
displacedyinzer says
July 28, 2014 at 1:27 pmWhat a cool idea! This would help me out because my daughter loves drawing on the floor!
citymomsecrets says
July 28, 2014 at 2:26 pmomg this is such a great idea! not just for rain, but because max loves to draw, i would put this down in my living room and let him go crazy! haha
Jaime says
July 28, 2014 at 9:23 pmThat’s a great idea! I would never have thought of doing that for my daughter when she was little!
Anna L says
July 28, 2014 at 11:05 pmI’m so doing this after our next visit to the dollar store! Thanks for the awesome idea!!
Kero Pinkihan says
July 28, 2014 at 11:47 pmwhat an awesome find! Now the walls (and carpet) are saved from huge mess of scribbles. Parents nowadays are lucky with so many options!
Danielle Stewart says
July 29, 2014 at 1:13 amLove it. I know that by the end of playtime my kiddo would have been covered in dry erase marker.
Yona Williams says
July 29, 2014 at 3:21 amOh wow – that is a very cool art idea. Looks like the lil’ guy really got into it – that’s a lot of drawing he did!
Lois Jones says
July 29, 2014 at 6:40 amI love cheap and fun toys and activities! Great idea!!
Laura Coble says
July 29, 2014 at 4:23 pmAwesome idea! Pinning this!
Maggie says
July 29, 2014 at 7:06 pmWhat an awesome idea! This is so cool!
Dawn @ Pin-n-Tell says
July 29, 2014 at 10:36 pmJackie, this is such a frugal, fun and fab idea! Thank you so much for this, i’m so pinning it! Also thank’s for including this repurposed idea in our Pin Party last week 🙂 Hope to see you again, we have a party every Friday.. new theme every week!
Sarah says
July 29, 2014 at 11:00 pmWhat a fun idea! Does the marker get all over your son’s clothes?
Jackie Cravener says
July 29, 2014 at 11:29 pmNope not at all! The marker drys so fast and only wiped off for me with a wet towel. I was worried about that too before I tried it. I tried wiping the marker off with a dry towel and you kinda have to scrub at it but if you wet the towel it wipes right off easily.
Chrissy says
July 29, 2014 at 11:32 pmThis is a genius idea! I am going to Dollar Tree tomorrow haha 🙂
katrinagehman says
July 30, 2014 at 11:10 amThis is really cool and a great idea. thank you so much for sharing.
Blanca Quiroz says
August 1, 2014 at 4:13 pmthis kind of activities, allow children feel free and better, overall in a rainy day when they can leave outside to the playgroung 🙂
Hilary says
August 18, 2014 at 10:13 amThat is a GREAT idea! Thanks for sharing! I’m going to share it on social media one of these days. 🙂
Judy says
August 24, 2014 at 6:30 pmDoes it get on their clothes when they lay down like the child in the picture?
Jackie Cravener says
August 24, 2014 at 6:56 pmWe didn’t have that problem at all. No residue was on my son’s clothes after making the drawing in this post. The only way the markers wiped off was if I used a wet towel, using a dry towel didn’t work so I didn’t have to worry about his dry clothes wiping all of the artwork off if he chose to lay on top of it. Another alternative is hanging the shower curtain up on something so if you don’t want your child laying on it.
Ellen says
September 3, 2014 at 3:23 pmThese sound like wet erase markers, which I only recently discovered. Regular dry erase smudges and comes off no matter how long it’s been.