How to use them

There is not much to learn. This page is here so you can see everything a DoDone can do before you decide how you want to use yours.

Sliding the cover
What goes inside
Where they go
Clipping them together
Taking the back off
Making your own pictures
Helpful accessories

Sliding the cover

One finger, one slide, and the job is done.

Each DoDone is split in two. One half shows the task. The other is a cover your child moves across with a finger. Move it one way and the job is still waiting. Move it the other and it is done.

Because the cover hides one half and reveals the other, you can also use a DoDone as a reveal. Put a spelling word with a mistake in it on one side and the correct spelling on the other. Same for math facts, Spanish vocabulary or memory verses.

What goes inside

Picture in, back on, simple as that!

The back lifts out, the picture drops in behind the window, and the back goes on again. It takes about as long as it does to watch.

Anything you can print or draw, from a plain sheet of paper up to laminated photo paper. Thicker material sits more firmly and lasts longer, but plain paper works and costs nothing to redo.

Plain paper. Fine for text and for trying an idea out.
Photo paper. Better for photographs, which is where these are at their best.
Laminated. The most durable, and the one to choose for anything a younger child will handle every day.
Transparency film. For a DoDone on a window, where the daylight comes through the picture rather than falling on it.

You can make your own in the image editor, or start from one of the free printables.

Where they go

They stick to almost anything you already have. A magnetic stand holds a set on a desk or a table, and the front of the dishwasher works as well as the fridge door.

Three DoDones on a sunlit window, printed on transparency film, showing a flowering plant and a cardinal at a bird feeder — On a window, printed on transparency film. The light comes through the picture and the frame alike, and sticky tack lifts off the glass again cleanly.

Clipping them together

The small green clips join one DoDone to the next, at the corners and along the edges. Stack them into a column, build a grid, or leave them separate. Nothing is glued, so you can pull the set apart and rebuild it whenever the routine changes.

A clip being twisted and pulled away from the holder strip it arrives on — 1. Twist and pull a clip off the holder strip.

Two DoDone frames held edge to edge with a clip about to go on the join — 2. Hold two frames edge to edge and bring a clip to the join.

The clip being pushed on so it grips both frames at once — 3. Push it on so it grips both frames at once.

Two DoDone frames joined by a clip at each end — 4. One clip at each end, and the two are joined.

Once they are joined, the whole set moves and hangs as one piece.

Taking the back off

Every DoDone has a back panel held in by perforations. If you cut it out, the DoDone becomes an open frame that sits over a sheet rather than holding a picture of its own. That's what makes the sheet protector method work.

You can still put a picture in afterward. It won't feel as snug, but it holds. A deburring tool cleans up the cut edges in a few seconds and is worth having.

A pointed tool cutting the perforated back panel out of a DoDone, leaving an open frame — Run a pointed tool round the perforations and the back panel comes away, leaving an open frame.

Making your own pictures

Characters from the style guide: children of varied appearances, a reluctant face, a pleased face, and a simply drawn desk — The style guide. Click to read it.

If you are making artwork with an AI tool, the style guide is the resource to direct it to: one house style across every age, simple backgrounds that still read at thumbnail size, and a clear difference between a job not done and the same job finished.

Give your AI the address of the style guide (https://dodones.com/style-guide.html), or copy the written rules off it and paste them in. Then say what the task is, how old the child is, and whether the DoDone has two windows or three.

Ask for one picture at a time, never a pair at once. Get the first right, then ask for its pair to be made from that one, so the same child in the same clothes turns up in both. A three window DoDone is one picture and two short lines of words, and the words go in the windows afterwards in the editor.

Read the style guide

Helpful accessories

Every set already comes with clips, sticky magnets and sticky foam, so you can put your DoDones up the day they arrive. These are just the things we reach for most often at home.

A magnetic stand The same idea for a desk or a table, if you would rather the set stood up beside the work than hung on a wall.
Inkjet transparency film Print the picture on this and put the DoDone on a window. The daylight comes through it.
A laminator For anything a younger child will handle every day. It arrives with enough pouches to get going.
Laminating pouches The ones we use once the pouches in the box have run out. They protect the pictures and make the colors shine.
A deburring tool Cleans up the perforations after cutting a back panel out. We have been glad to have it at Christmas and birthdays too, for the nubs left on any toy that twists out of a plastic frame.
Sticky tack Your set already has magnets for anything metal and sticky foam for everything else. Sticky tack is the one to reach for when you want to be able to take a DoDone down again cleanly, on a window or a painted wall.
A magnetic whiteboard The one to get for a wall. The magnets in your set hold a DoDone to it, so you can move things around without re-sticking anything.

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