the blackboard is an excellent tool and very much worth it. it adds some fun and the kids pay attention to the messages left better than using the white dry erase board.

This is an alright inexpensive black dry erase board with markers. However, the set of markers included is not the one pictured nor what's in the description. They are not chisel point, they are not double ended, they do not have all the colors it lists. They are a set of 6 bullet tip, single ended. Red, purple, blue, green, yellow, white. Essentially you just end up with 1 less color (Orange) than the ones listed. The set it comes with is what is sold separately for $4.99. I bought the board w/markers and the set of markers as amazon's suggested combo "buy together and save" so as to have some extra markers and to have both chisel and bullet point. Now I've just got 2 sets of the same markers. Oh well. Decent product for the price, but you won't get what you might expect.