Each of your children has 2 pencils to do their Math:
1 with a working pencil lead,
and
1 with a working eraser.
Has anyone else got this problem?
For some reason it haunts me.
I can't get my children to sharpen their pencils without eating them up
(cheap pencils? How can I even tell?).
And they're always breaking mechanical pencils.
Or are too small to change the leads themselves.
I think it's a problem that can be solved...
but I haven't yet.
Do YOUR kids have one sharp, eraser-clad pencil?
If so, HOW?! WHY? PLEASE TELL ME THE SECRET!
14 comments:
Ha ha ha When you find the answer let me know. You can never tell with pencils until you use them. I love the ones with the soft wood, they seem to sharpen the best, but I have a hard time finding them. We usually end up using the mechanical pencils and they each have a white eraser (they seem to not tear up the paper like normal pink ones). Little Man seems to always have 4 pencils at the ready just in case one breaks, and then another...
It's a mystery to me what happens to all the pencils I buy! I can never find one when I need one. Maybe when I'm moving furniture around in our schoolroom tonight I'll find a stash.
Celee
I have given up. After 12 years of homeschooling, I just stock up on pencils, topper erasers, AND those huge pink erasers... it's just not worth the fight.
ha ha I can never find the pencils and I never seem to see my kiddos USE them lol! They prefer crayons and markers, and since no one but me has to understand their school work, why not? :) And I still can't find a pencil when I want one...
Big bucket of lead pencils so if one breaks during work, they can just swap rather than play the "Oh, I will just sharpen my pencil and get totally off track" game and a big bucket of erasers so they can't play the "Oh, I will just find myself an eraser and find my toys in the process" game
All our pencils are in a big plastic box with paper cups in it. Each paper cup holds a different colour pencil. Easier to maintain than you'd think, the littlest ones only want one colour to work in most of the time anyway!
I bought separate erasers (the pink rectangle ones) after Silas bit the erasers off of most of the pencils. So, now everyone has a pencil and a separate eraser.
I just couldn't resist commenting to this post - yes we do have exactly the same problem!! In fact some days even just finding a working pencil is a miracle & a search for the elusive eraser that they were using 10 seconds earlier is almost a daily struggle with my son!
If anyone knows any brand of pencils that don't constantly break when sharpened - I'd love to know!
Hope you have a wonderful day
Renata:)
I think you gals have helped get my brain whirring again. I do need to stock up on separate erasers.
THEN I need to buy better quality pencils (artist pencils maybe? Not Dollar Store ones) and also I have wanted to keep them all in a bucket for them to exchange and then I or a big one could sharpen all the dull ones at once.
Second problem:
A pencil sharpener.
I would like a hand crank or battery powered. Haven't been impressed by the reviews I've read and haven't been ready to by a $150 dollar sharpener.
But... I would if you knew of one you LOVED. It's a bit of a guessing game without getting the word up.
Thanks Ladies.
We had the pencil sharpener dilemma. None of them worked. They would sharpen and then the lead would fall out. GRRR. So I got on ebay and bought an old hand crank one--the kind we had in elementary school! It is old and used and works WONDERFULLY! Maybe you could snatch one, they get listed from estate sales and such. The other sharpener I have that works is for my eyeliner. Its metal and really nice. Well. I HAD...the children used and and who knows if I will ever see it again. Good thing I don't wear eyeliner much anymore. Okay. Ever. :)
J,
I LOVE the metal pencil sharpeners - that's what I use for my art, and use the little hand-helds for the kids, but I think you're right. The old hand crank work the best.
I've been worried about eating up the whole pencil because of the lead falling out, but I think it would work fine if I actually bought quality pencils that gripped the graphite.
I think you look fab without eyeliner ;-)
How did you know this is a universal problem?
Pencils seems to be the only thing that break or go missing faster than socks in the dryer :-)
I do not like mechanical pencils. They are way to easily broken but I found at Dollar General (or whatever you local dollar store might be called) pencils that are filled with tips of lead. When one wears down you pull the top one out, stick it in the bottom of the pencil and it pushes through a nice new strong, sharp pencil lead. I love them. They are under $2 for either 4 or 6 of them. I can't recall.
As for pencil sharpeners...I'm to the point where I'd spend $150 on a good, long lasting, working one. Even the hand crank one broke :-0
Anyway, that's my 2cents :-) Thank you for stopping by our blog and for your sweet comment~
~Cinnamon
Cinnamon, It has been a pleasure and a blessing to think of and pray for you and yours!
I have tried one of those once by accident and you're RIGHT! It was awesome and lasted much longer than I thought it would. I might have to see if I can find some and just see if they are as nice as I remember. A certain amount of expense would be worth avoiding the heartache.
And ditto on a $150 dollar pencil sharpener - I'm sure it would earn its keep around here! ;-)
Hello Lene!
I've been taking care of niece and nephews a lot lately and have been having the same dilemma afterschool during homework time. The oldest (14) uses a mechanical one, but the younger two would lose them, so we stick with the basic. We just bought a whole bag of pumpkin erasers on clearance at target for $1.00! So we will be good on the erasers now.
I have also gotten those pencils with the individual lead in the dollar bins at Target. I got a pack of like 10 of them for $1.00 as well. That was awhile ago now, I will have to keep my eye out for them again. My worry with those has always been one of the single leads falling on the floor and the baby getting them (when I have had babies around) so most my friends will younger crawling ones around still don't like to use them.
Anyway, Love you!
Good pieces of advice there Di-friend. Thanks!
I love you!!! Enjoy those girlies:-)
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