"This is a good price, but it's not a real slate chalkboard. It's more like a thin sheet of pressboard with a shiny black coating on top. Chalk does write on it, but not with the same results as a real chalkboard. Also, when you erase, it leaves a type of indentation mark. Children probably won't mind, but it would have been nice to know that this wasn't a "real" chalkboard before I purchased it. If you want a real slate chalkboard, look somewhere else."