Think Board Review

Think Board is a premium stick up whiteboard for any room, table or wall. They can be used at work, in the classroom or at home.

Think Board gifted me a Think Board Large in exchange for this review and my honest opinion of the product. I was surprised how well we got on with it.

Think Board Large

Think board have a selection of different size products- we reviewed the Think Board Large which comes as either 90 x or 120 cm or 60 x 120 cm, you can select from clear or white premium. We reviewed the clear 60 x 120 cm board.

The Think Board arrived in a cardboard post tube (which the kids are having lots of fun with as their new telescope). The Think Board Large comes with the Think Board Kit included.

The kit included a black marker pen, spray bottle of cleaner fluid, a cleaning cloth and velcro dots.

Installing our Think Board

I was a little concerned I wouldn’t find space for the Think Board but I decided on a space on the wall. Think Board have several videos to help you install the board and I used this one to help me out:

I was on my own and managed to fit it easily first time after watching the video. I might add any marks you see in the photos are actually my dirty wall not the think board, I do have a 3 & 5 year old so forgive me for not having time to clean my walls!

You can see from above that the clear Think Board is not that obvious once attached to the wall and I have been happy leaving it up all the time. I was also really concerned about sticking something to my wall. I have peeled it back a few times over the last couple of weeks and each time it has come off really easily with no marks on the wall. It also seems to stick back fine so I have been really happy with this aspect and for us it has worked perfectly.

We use lots of markers in our house on the wipe clean books and whiteboards we have. All the different markers have worked fine on the Think Board and all have wiped off easily with the cleaning cloth which is a good quality cloth.

Visuals

Followers of The Autism Page will know that my kids are both autistic and have speech and language difficulties. As such we use lots of visuals in our house. A really key time to use visuals for my boys is when we are transitioning from one activity to another. Especially if it is something they don’t want to do.

Now and Next Board

We use a now and next board which is a way to show them what is happening now and what will be happening next. My son’s specialist school also use this method. We currently have a few different boards or velcro charts for this which I can never find the minute I need it. We also have a small whiteboard that we use but I keep it in the cupboard so it is not in the way and as such tend to forget to use it. So I decided to try out using the Think Board as our now and next visual.

My drawing skills leave much to be desired but having it out on the wall in the main room we use with the kids meant I did use it far more than usual. It was really handy to just be there and at the same time not in the way. I plan to keep using it for now and next visuals when needed.

Attention Autism Visual Board

Attention Autism is a therapy that we do at home usually once a week. I usually forget to do the visual element of the therapy so having the Think Board up was a good way to start using it so that I would be replicating how the therapy is delivered at my son’s school.

For those unfamiliar with Attention Autism it has a number of stages, at home we tend to just do stage 1 & 2 but my son sometimes does up to stage 4 at school. Using the visual makes it clear how many stages we are doing and as we complete the stages it is easy to cross out the stage we finish as we move on.

Using Think Board at Home

We have a children’s easel at home and whiteboards but they tend to spend more time in the cupboard than out because they take up lots of room. I have to say we have done so much more mark making and writing practise with the Think Board up than we would normally. It makes such a difference just being there.

The first thing I did was to draw a border on the think board to make it clear for the kids where the board is and not to draw on the wall and they have kept to it really nicely.

I wasn’t sure if we should have the large board but it has been brilliant we can easily write out the whole alphabet and lots of numbers which we are working on with the kids.

A big problem with helping your kids learn at home is having resources to hand. Having a Think Board on our wall has allowed us to make up learning opportunities as they come up / come to mind. I really have found it useful.

It’s not just for the kids, its a handy way to do some brainstorming without wasting lots of paper.

Quality & Value for Money

The Think Board Large is £34.99. If I’m honest at first I thought it was a little pricey. However having used it for a couple of weeks I can see it is good quality and will be used for a good period of time.

For me the real win has been finding another way to engage the kids with visuals and mark making. They have both been showing off some of their new writing, drawing and spelling skills and it has been wonderful to have them asking for the pens.

I have been really impressed with Think Board and may have to get myself one of their small desk based ones or their calendar. You can see the range of products over on the Think Board  website.