Today I’m joining my fellow Schoolhouse Review Crew members in the “5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials” Blog Hop! It is going to be great to see what other homeschoolers consider essential to their homeschool. With 89 bloggers participating I know there is going to be amazing variety!
So why am I kicking off the series with pencils? It seems like such an obvious answer, and pencils themselves are obvious, but what I learned the hard way is we need MANY. I might even venture to say I now buy twice as many as I expect we’ll use. You would think that would be plenty of cushion room, but we still run into problems!
It all began when I had the great idea of going “school supply shopping.” Each kid has their own school supply box. One bag of pencils should be plenty, right? We can always get more when they run out.
It just wasn’t that easy, though! Although most supplies remain in their boxes, pencils seem to magically disappear. Constantly. There is clearly a pencil stealing creature in our house because they insist they left it on their desk. Ah, but it’s not! I even implemented a reward chart where they could earn rewards each day they didn’t lose a pencil. Unfortunately, that didn’t change the situation.
Because our children have special needs (our oldest is on the Autism spectrum and our younger two have Sensory Processing Disorder), we often have many pencil casualties. Our oldest has a tendency to press REALLY hard on the paper. I’m pretty sure he breaks his pencil at least once per day.
Then there is the chewing. They both chew. Even with constant reminders they chew. They NEED sensory input, and if I don’t find a good replacement ASAP (something appropriate for chewing), the pencil will be no good anymore. They may even try to use it without the eraser, but that eventually leads to frustration because neither of them can hold a separate eraser very well because of their fine motor concerns.
So what happened to running out and getting more? Well, the problem is we would have so many incidents in one day that were beyond a sharpening, and we had no backups!
So a plentiful amount of pencils easily makes our personal essential homeschooling tool. I make sure we still have at least five backups, and when we’re under five we buy more. I also started buying more than enough as I mentioned because I’d rather have more than not enough! Our house became a major meltdown zone before I realized how important it was to have more than enough pencils!
We choose eco-friendly pencils, and I let them each pick out their favorite to also avoid another common pencil problem – arguing over them!
Of course, to compliment this homeschooling essential, I also make sure we have a good pencil sharpener!
Do you have any “pencil problems?”
Look for and bookmark 5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials so you don’t miss my other posts! Don’t forget this is a blog hop, so be sure to read the other great posts as well! There will be a variety of posts and some even have giveaways like an iPad mini! So set aside some reading time and get hopping!
Here are just a few of the great participating blogs:
Shalynne @ Wonderfully Chaotic
Jody @ Because I’m Me
Melanie @ A Year of Jubilee Reviews
Nikki @ Angels of Heart
Sara @ Embracing Destiny
Heather @ Only Passionate Curiosity
Jennifer @ Simblissity Cottage
Kathy @ Kathys Cluttered Mind
Annette @ A Net in Time
I invite you to check out all of the participating bloggers! Click on the button below for more!
We spend entirely too much time searching for pencils each morning in our home as well. I think they hide with the unpaired socks or something. I totally agree that a huge supply is what we need. I should start doubling what I get each year as I always have to go back and purchase more.
haha Yes! I don’t even know where they go! Even when we moved we never ended up finding all those pencils that had disappeared throughout the year! lol
I have a crazy amount of pencils. Hundreds of them. I bought so many packets on sale because I couldn’t stand NOT having enough. We start the day with a boatload on the table, and the kids always know where to find more.
That’s a good idea. I should put them all out on the table to avoid even the day-to-day frustrations!
We never have enough pencils. That’s my big item when we hit the back to school sales!
Yes! That’s when I stock up, too!
I hear you on the pencil thing! I got so frustrated we changed to SV bonded pencils. 🙂 You post made me smile Here
Oooh thanks for the suggestion! I’m reading your post about them now!
We have PLENTY of pencils ~ we just don’t enough SHARPENED ones, LOL!
Ha! I can relate to that, too!
I feel like I spend half my day sometimes waiting for kids to get pencils and sharpen them, and we ran through electric pencil sharpeners last year! We also have a dog that I sometimes catch running off with the pencils!
haha I’m glad our dog doesn’t do that because then I’m sure our issue would be far worse!
This is a simple essential but oh so true! A good pencil sharpener is definitely needed – we invested in two electric ones last year. 🙂
Yes, I’m still looking for one I really like. We got an electric one, but it’s just not that good. What kind do you have?
We had a battery operated one from Walmart that crapped out & then invested in one that was a little better from an office supply company.
Ah! That is where I will look then! Thanks!
it’s so true… writing implements are very important, and pencils are easy because they erase so well. 🙂
Definitely! Being able to erase is important for us!
Around BTS you can get pencils for cheap and other items as well at Office Depot, Staples, etc. Stock up.
Yes, that IS a good time to stock up!
The pencils around here disappear like socks! lol! We definitely need to keep a steady supply on hand. Fun topic! 🙂 ~Heather @ Principled Academy/ the Crew
Ha! I know!
It seems that pencils disappear around here! And for the life of me I can’t find a sharpener I really like!
Oh my goodness! I know what you mean! I haven’t found a sharpener I really like either!
There sure is a lot of preparations for home schooling. At least you have a great outlook on solving the problems that can arise daily.
There is, but it is totally worth it! 🙂