In Search of the Perfect Pencil

Hi Everyone!

Our second semester of our school year is well under way by now.  It is always a bit of a hurdle to get started again, as Christmas break is usually quite long and your school schedule becomes sort of a distant memory. . . but last week we started back, and by Friday I was feeling like we really were getting our subjects done. :)

In between semesters is always a good time to evaluate how things in your school are going--what is going well, and maybe what isn't going well and what possibly could you do to change things for the better.  I have several home school blogs that I like to read on a regular basis, as I gather ideas for things that might help or work in our own home school.  Even if you have been home schooling for fourteen years like I have--and classroom teaching before that--it is still helpful to read about what others are doing and evaluate in your mind if that idea is worth adapting for your child.

WELL--this is a super simple thing that I found, but I am still thrilled about it so thought I would share just in case there is anyone else out there with the same frustrations as I have had.  I have finally found the perfect pencil!!!  I am serious--I have been SO frustrated with pencils breaking on my daughter all the time.  She will be one problem into a math sheet--and her pencil breaks.  She will ask me to sharpen it, so I do--and just the moment it gets to the right length, that lead will break off right in the pencil sharpener!  Grrrrrr!  This has happened SO many times, and I have always been frustrated when it does, as you lose your child's attention and it wastes math time and turns it into pencil-sharpening time.  I never remember having this problem when I was teaching in the classroom, but I chalked it up to companies making pencils less well now-a-days.  I still think this idea has some truth behind it--pencils didn't do this when I had 20+ students in my class!  At first, I thought it must be my pencil sharpener and the sharpener I had in my classroom (those old crank ones bolted to the wall!) must have been a better quality sharpener.  So I went to the teacher supply store and bought the highest quality non-electric non-bolt-to-the-wall sharpener they had.  I loved the sharpener--but the pencils still broke!  :(

FINALLY, this week as I was reading one of those other home school blogs I mentioned above, the mom writing the blog mentioned how they loved Ticonderoga pencils, as they didn't break as easily for them and they sharpened well!  My ears pricked up immediately, and if I could have I would have left my house that very second to run out and buy some!!!  But alas, I had to wait until the next day--but I bought some as soon as I could!  They ARE more expensive, but they are SO SO SO worth it in my humble opinion.  I sat down at home and sharpened 24 pencils in a row--and not even ONE broke while sharpening.  AND they write really nice as well!

So--you may think this is a foolish thing to be happy about, but as a home school teacher, I spend a lot of my day with a pencil in my hand--or trying to make sure my daughter has a pencil in HER hand!

Now.  If only I could find the perfect colored pencils. . .

Anyone have any suggestions?

~Susan