I have a butcher block island and I too worried about the same thing having 3 school aged kids. I make sure that they always do homework on a book or something so that we don't get pencil marks or marker leaks. Knock on wood the only major problem we had was ink from a bread bag got in printed on the wood. I have no idea how it happened but it's gone now.

Once a year my husband will sand it down (light sand) and then tung oil it. We've had it for 3 years now and it still looks brand new. We actually bought our cabinets and are redoing our entire kitchen around that island because I love it so much!

No experience, but I sure hope not!
My mother in law says that butcher block is unsanitary. Does anyone have an opinion on that one? BTW, she replaced her formica with the Blue Pearl granite that I found for cheap. She doesn't like it, as she wanted gold, and I don't like it (and am not installing it) just because it is too cold and hard for me. So I really hope that butcher block stands up well to kids, because soon I am going to have butcher block counter tops and 5 kids!

my kids sit at the butcher block often. DD does her homework there every night and the occassional arts and crafts project. They both eat there often. As a matter of course, they do most of their arts and crafts at the kitchen table because it cleans up easier than the butcherblock, however, the BB is still looking good and I consider it a "child friendly" surface (although with the caveat that I am not super fussy about the kids having fun and messing around).

I think you have to be able to accept that wood is not indestructible, and be OK with that. The type/hardness of the wood species can make a difference in the abuse it can withstand. I would certainly have a no Sharpie rule, since that stuff can soak through and into almost anything... :-o
;-)

Rochelle, it is possible to keep wood sanitary, and in fact, I've read quite a bit about wood having natural oils that kill germs.

If you want more protection for the wood, and you don't plan to chop directly on it, you can do what we did and finish it with Waterlox, which gives it a tougher surface and makes it waterproof, so less prone to absorbing stains, and easy to clean.

Thanks everyone, I'm glad to hear mostly positives on this, as I strongly prefer wood on the island. And I can live with imperfection.

We have an oiled wood island and 3 kids under 9, and after a year, I'm relaxing about it (but it took a year...) Play dough and crayons are no problem. I don't let them use markers on it. Spills of red juice are fine as long as you get them up quickly. I hope I relax a tiny bit more about it, but it's been a really nice, soft, warm surface in our kitchen.

To RochelleP3 - my MIL also thinks butcher block is unsanitary (she also thinks granite is unsanitary - go figure. I have both!) I suppose any surface is unsanitary if you don't clean it - I use Method surface cleaner on my oiled wood island, and I feel like it's clean.

We've had ours for about 2 or 3 years and believe it or not, it's the adults that have damaged it. One of us (I say dh, he says it was me) put a hot pot down on it and left a slight scorch. I was drilling something (please don't ask) and took a little chip out. Ours was Tung oiled, not sure if that's what you mean by oiled. I keep thinking it is stained forever (blueberries, markers - not sharpie, and lots of other kid things) but so far it has all come out.

I'm planning on sanding it down this summer to try to get the burn mark out and fill in the chip.

Hah, Budge, I could have written your post, down to drilling on it! That's the one thing that still stands out after 20 years, the 1/4" wide drill bit hole! But I put hot pots on it all the time and it hasn't scorched.

Our hard maple slab (not end grain BB) looks really warm and nice, at 20 years old. It isn't perfect looking, but we never tried to keep it that way. We gave up oiling it a few years after we bought it and have only sanded it once. As Budge said, many things have been spilled on it and it just fades after a while.

As far as it being unsanitary, some years ago people believed that and everyone was switching over to plastic cutting boards. Then studies started to show that wood was actually more sanitary than the plastic. Unless you're going to put raw meet on it, I wouldn't worry about it.

I think some people go overboard with this sanitary thing anyway. The liquid antibiotic soaps you see everywhere now are actually leaving us more vulnerable to germs. They succeed in killing off the weak bacteria, eventually creating superbacteria that are resistant. The soap goes down the drains and gets into the waterways, affecting everything.

My 2 cents.