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Apparently I've been a little negligent at home lately.


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I'm sitting here doing math with my daughter. I'm all happy 'cause she is doing well even though she has to do a lot of work on her own because I am working full time.

 

My pride was crushed when she turned to me and said, "I have to go get my knife to sharpen my pencil".

 

I guess I haven't kept close tabs on our school supply needs. :001_smile:

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:lol:

 

Thanks for the good laugh!

 

Incidentally, I've found it challenging to get a good pencil sharpener. The smaller ones are always getting lost or broken, and the reviews at amazon aren't great for the more permanent ones. What's a homeschooler to do?!

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Mechanical pencils have been a bust in our house, too. The kid tries not to press too hard, but he gets going on a math problem and by the end is in a scribbling frenzy. Light, light, harder, harder, harder, SNAP. Every single time.

 

What's the sharpener consensus, anyway? Manual or battery/electric? Any specific brands to seek or avoid?

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We've had a horrible time with pencil sharpeners too. The mounted ones always sharpen crookedly and the handheld ones, break, get lost or just do a crummy job.

 

Someone on the board mentioned these:

 

http://www.staples.com/Staedtler-Wedge-Pencil-Sharpener/product_428748?cmArea=SEARCH

 

They do a fantastic job of sharpening and since they are metal it's hard to break them.

 

As far as getting lost, this year each kid got a pencil box with 1 pencil, pencil sharpener, scissor, ruler and box of crayons. If you lose anything, leave it out so a younger sibling gets into it, or break something due to your own negligence, then the child has to do extra chores to earn a replacement. In 4 months, 1 child has lost 1 pencil (and had to do extra chores). It's been wonderful. Granted the panic cry goes up when someone realizes they can't find their pencil, but they have become very dedicated searchers now instead of just wandering around wasting time because they don't have a pencil. They do get a free replacement pencil when theirs is deemed too small (but they have to show me first so I know they are not just trying to cover up a lost pencil).

 

Also these pencil sharpeners are cheap enough that if I had to replace some it's not the end of the world.

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Mechanical pencils have been a bust in our house, too. The kid tries not to press too hard, but he gets going on a math problem and by the end is in a scribbling frenzy. Light, light, harder, harder, harder, SNAP. Every single time.

 

What's the sharpener consensus, anyway? Manual or battery/electric? Any specific brands to seek or avoid?

 

We have the manual xacto brand sharpener. I love it, it's lasted for more than a year and still going strong. We sharpen a LOT of pencils at our house. It screws into the wall, so you have to find a good place to hang it, but its worth it!

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We've had a horrible time with pencil sharpeners too. The mounted ones always sharpen crookedly and the handheld ones, break, get lost or just do a crummy job.

 

Someone on the board mentioned these:

 

http://www.staples.com/Staedtler-Wedge-Pencil-Sharpener/product_428748?cmArea=SEARCH

 

They do a fantastic job of sharpening and since they are metal it's hard to break them.

 

As far as getting lost, this year each kid got a pencil box with 1 pencil, pencil sharpener, scissor, ruler and box of crayons. If you lose anything, leave it out so a younger sibling gets into it, or break something due to your own negligence, then the child has to do extra chores to earn a replacement. In 4 months, 1 child has lost 1 pencil (and had to do extra chores). It's been wonderful. Granted the panic cry goes up when someone realizes they can't find their pencil, but they have become very dedicated searchers now instead of just wandering around wasting time because they don't have a pencil. They do get a free replacement pencil when theirs is deemed too small (but they have to show me first so I know they are not just trying to cover up a lost pencil).

 

Also these pencil sharpeners are cheap enough that if I had to replace some it's not the end of the world.

 

Thanks for this link! We used to have a small metal one that worked great. Who knows where it is now. I'll have to stop by Staples and pick up more.

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Mechanical pencils have been a bust in our house, too. The kid tries not to press too hard, but he gets going on a math problem and by the end is in a scribbling frenzy. Light, light, harder, harder, harder, SNAP. Every single time.

 

What's the sharpener consensus, anyway? Manual or battery/electric? Any specific brands to seek or avoid?

 

We got some thicker lead mechanical pencils at Office Max. They seem to have fixed the problem of leads breaking in the hands of those who press too hard.

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eyepencil?!? oh my!!

 

I inherited an old Panasonic electric sharpener from my dh's college days and I love it. It stays plugged in through the back of my desk so it cannot be easily removed by mysterious "borrowers". The kids are always leaving their pencils on my desk when they work in here with me so they get rotated through fairly often for me to sharpen (they would happily use a dull pencil until there was no lead whatsoever, but I love a so-sharp-you-could-use-it-as-a-weapon point on my pencils).

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Rose, just wanted to say you shouldn't feel like a negligent mom over this. Your daughter had to use her noggin and figure out how to solve a problem and she did - so that's great.

 

And, now she has one of those "my childhood was so difficult" stories to tell her own kids and grandkids about how she had to actually (can you believe this?) sharpen her pencils with a knife! Not too many youngsters nowadays will have a story like that to tell.:D

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I'm sitting here doing math with my daughter. I'm all happy 'cause she is doing well even though she has to do a lot of work on her own because I am working full time.

 

My pride was crushed when she turned to me and said, "I have to go get my knife to sharpen my pencil".

 

I guess I haven't kept close tabs on our school supply needs. :001_smile:

At least she knows how to sharpen her pencil with a knife. If I would suggest such a thing my two would look at me as if I had 3 heads.:confused:

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