Then I saw the price of the dry-erase write-on globe, and I realized that I would not be purchasing it after all, on account of I prefer to be able to buy groceries and pay the mortgage. And still the thought of that write-on globe has been ticking around in my head for many months, until last weekend, when I stopped by an out-of-season yard sale and spied a beat-up old globe. It still had the USSR proudly marked on it, bless its heart, and therefore certainly had no place in my little geographically accurate homeschool. Unless… Check out how I turned that sad old globe into the write-on globe of my dreams, and grab some chalkboard paint of your own, because you can totally do this, too: If your globe is gorgeous and smooth and pristine you may not need to do this first step, but my globe? It was crazy beat-up, with parts actually peeling away or torn off, and so I peeled the entire top layer of paper off of my globe. The benefit to doing this is that I took the globe down to a perfectly smooth layer of plain cardboard, ready to be primed, but it was a lot of fussy work and it took an entire episode of Grey’s Anatomy to complete, so if your globe is clean and smooth and your primer will work over that smooth, sealed top paper layer, then breeze on through to the next step. Next » Whether or not you’ve peeled the top layer of paper off of your globe, it now needs to be covered with a couple of layers of primer. Choose a primer that will work with both the chalkboard paint that you’re using (there are several brands available, and even a D.I.Y. chalkboard paint recipe) and the cardboard material that the globe is made of, either smooth and shiny if you haven’t peeled it, or textured and porous if you have peeled it. Next » After the primer has dried for the time recommended by the manufacturer, you can paint your globe with chalkboard paint according to that manufacturer’s recommendations. With my particular chalkboard paint, I painted on three coats, letting the paint dry for an hour between each coat. I let the finished globe dry for 24 hours, then rubbed chalk over the entire surface to season it. So far my girls and I have doodled and drawn on our new chalkboard globe, and used it to learn longitudes and latitudes and the long-ago location of Pangea. In other words–we love it!
