The fine points and bright colors of marker sets inspire an obsessive kind of doodling and coloring that can mesmerize kids for hours. I remember carefully choosing hues for a rainbow poster (yes, it was the '70s) that I proudly colored in and hung in my bedroom. Today, my kids love to make homemade versions of the same groovy kind of poster.

On a big piece of poster board, I use a black permanent marker to draw geometric shapes, balloons, stars, suns, people--you name it--until it's covered with designs. Over the next few days, the kids take turns coloring in the poster with fine-point markers. When it's done, they hang it on the kitchen wall. But instead of doing what I used to do--stare at it while listening to K.C. and the Sunshine Band--Kyle and Jake try to stump each other, à la WHERE'S WALDO , by trying to find all the items that they've colored in.