One of the things that amused me when the twins started school was that I got an email from Evan's form teacher about pencils. It was an email only about pencils. I like this teacher very much and I think she is great. But I was highly amused at the amount of effort she was putting into discussing pencils. It stated clearly that pencils could not be sharpened on both ends (boys might end up poking their eyes out. I know this could happen, but it still tickles). She also stated that, in his pencil box, there ought to be 5 'good quality' pencils. By that, she meant pencils with lead that didn't break too easily. Her rationale? So that the boys would not need to spend all their time sharpening pencils.
Pencils. I really wasn't thinking very hard about the pencils I was going to buy them. I was ready to buy them funky neon pencils and whatever fun ones that tickled my fancy. After all, since I was the one doing the stationery shopping, I ought to be the one having fun with it. But in the end, I just bought the boxes of 12 since I did have two kids to equip.
5 pencils for Evan meant 5 for Jordan and 2 spare. I imagined, very optimistically that I was done buying pencils for the better part of the year. The box, however, did.not.last.
By Chinese New Year, the pencils were beginning to look terribly worn down and we sub-ed a new one in. By week 8, I had to go to Evan's bookstore and pick up another box of 12. But alas, even with 5 pencils rotating in and out, we were pretty much down to stumps by now, the last week of term.
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| A pencil that had the beginnings of another tip. Obviously, he remembered what the teacher had warned him about. |
I cannot figure out why.
Yes, I get that they do all their work in pencil and I get that they drop their pencils a lot but still, to power through 5, actually 6, full length pencils in under 10 weeks; that is quite a feat.
Oh, my 6yo has discovered the joy that is... Smiggle. Haha! When can primary school kids get to use mechanical pencils? :P That might solve those sharpening issues. Haha!
ReplyDeleteI think they can use mechanical pencils but At this age, they will spend most of their time loading their pencils with lead because they would be breaking the lead half the time by pressing too hard! -roll eyes-.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm old school. Proper wooden pencils first!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Singaporemombloggers/permalink /600866853324210/?stream_ref=2
:)
I don't really get this problem with my boys. They have a mix of both mechanical and normal lead pencils. So far I have been getting Steadler for them.
ReplyDelete