It’s well known that it’s not healthy for the kids to stay too much in front of a PC. That’s why I decided to offer them a chance to play with a laptop as long as they want. Just like a real notebook, it has the “Undo” function, just that it’s in the shape of a small sponge: draw – erase, mistake – erase, not perfect – erase, perfect – admire and erase and so on.

There are a lot of chalk blackboards out there. I chose this type since it is really special and it’s not quite complicated to build.

I bought a pine panel from a hardware store and then I cut it in two pieces of 35 cm by 25 cm.

I sanded their surfaces (it didn’t look that good), I beveled the inside edges and rounded the outside ones, so it looks a lot smoother and to resemble more to actual modern notebooks.

After coating it with a layer of primer I traced the outline of the back side drawing, the outline of the screen, keyboard and touch-pad. I then painted them by hand with a special blackboard acrylic paint.

Even it’s not really fair, I used the strawberry, the well known symbol of quality and innovation in the wooden laptops field.

The approximately 15 inch screen is large enough so you can express yourself, yet keeping the entire thing in a reasonable size.

I then applied two layers of varnish all over the laptop, except the black writing areas. Then I connected the two parts with a couple of hinges.

Because you could only keep it either closed or fully extended, I drilled a hole in the back and inserted a dowel in it, in order to keep the screen at the correct angle.

All we need now is a very large box of chalk. The chalk we had laying around got used in no time.