What do yo do with pencils when the eraser is gone?

[Ginevra]

It's a silly poll, to be sure, but I am genuinely curious. The erasers don't last the life of the pencil. What do you do? Poll to follow.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We use these awesome (as opposed to silly) cap erasers and keep using all pencils until they are fairy-size.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IFAV/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Jen500]

We use these awesome (as opposed to silly) cap erasers and keep using all pencils until they are fairy-size.

 

http://www.amazon.co...t?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

We use these also.

[unsinkable]

We don't have a hard and fast rule

 

Either Throw away or use hand held eraser. I've tried eraser caps but we don't like them.

[Miss Peregrine]

Throw away.

[JudoMom]

We use these awesome (as opposed to silly) cap erasers and keep using all pencils until they are fairy-size.

 

http://www.amazon.co...t?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

You made me order these in that other thread. My boys love them! They actually erase cleanly.

 

I used to just throw the pencil away. Jed (the dog) thinks pencil erasers are a delicacy, and with 5 boys there are often pencils on the floor. When he was a puppy he'd eat the eraser and then use the pencil as a chew stick, so they had to be thrown away :wacko: . However, now that he's a more refined :001_rolleyes: 2 year old pup, he only eats the eraser. Now I pop one of the awesome cap erasers on and the pencil is saved :hurray:!

 

I don't know what I'm going to do if Jed decides the cap erasers are tasty <_<.

[Ellie]

It's outta there. No mercy.

[TXBeth]

What I wanted to answer:

Once the eraser is gone, DD is no longer allowed to make any more mistakes until the pencil is finished.

 

What I actually answered:

Use a hand held eraser until the pencil is gone.

 

What we actually do:

Use a hand held eraser always, because they work better than the built-in erasers anyway.

[Guest]

Good cap erasers - who knew? I'm chucking this in my Amazon cart, along with 96 Ticonderoga pencils. That should do.

 

P.S. I love the phrase "fairy-sized". :laugh:

[*Lulu*]

I voted we continue to use them with a hand held eraser.

 

The truth is slightly more complex.

 

I cull the eraser-less pencils from my private stash and put them into the kids' pencil pouches.

 

When the kids quit leaving them laying around for the dog, loosing them everytime we turn around, or start paying for them they can have the ones with good erasers. :p

[Arcadia]

My kids broke the erasers on top of the pencils. The pencil top erasers don't erase as well anyway and my boys use the polymer erasers. They broke the hand held pink erasers too.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Good cap erasers - who knew? I'm chucking this in my Amazon cart, along with 96 Ticonderoga pencils. That should do.

 

P.S. I love the phrase "fairy-sized". :laugh:

 

 

Might I suggest that you sample the Mirado Black Warrior pencil as well... :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Mirado-Warrior-Pencils/dp/B00006IEES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371829596&sr=8-1&keywords=Black+warrior+pencils

[Jean in Newcastle]

I rarely use the erasers that are attached to a pencil. In my experience, they do not work well. So we use hand held erasers that work beautifully.

[regentrude]

Throwing them away when the eraser is used up seems very wasteful to me. It's still a very servicable pencil with quite a bit of life span. We use pencils until they are too short to hold comfortably, about 2 inches in length. The hand held erasers are of better quality anyway.

[Jen500]

Might I suggest that you sample the Mirado Black Warrior pencil as well... :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.amazon.co...warrior pencils

 

 

And another YES to these pencils!

 

Now if I could only find the perfect sharpener.

[Guest]

Might I suggest that you sample the Mirado Black Warrior pencil as well... :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.amazon.co...warrior pencils

 

 

I don't know if I can risk it...I'm pretty die-hard on the Ticonderoga. But who knows? I could get all wild and try something new. Plus, that is an extremely cool name...

[8circles]

Throwing them away when the eraser is used up seems very wasteful to me. It's still a very servicable pencil with quite a bit of life span. We use pencils until they are too short to hold comfortably, about 2 inches in length. The hand held erasers are of better quality anyway.

 

 

It never occurred to me to throw away an eraser-less pencil. That does seem wasteful.

[Lisa in SC]

We use.the cap erasers mentioned upthread. We also use hand held erasers, but not as often as the cap type. I can't bring myself to throw away a good, serviceable pencil. Ticonderogas and Black Warriors stay, but any pencils I don't need or want are given to one of the local schools, along with a cap eraser if necessary. If it's a really sub-standard pencil, it's thrown out. No mercy.

[happi duck]

We use these awesome (as opposed to silly) cap erasers and keep using all pencils until they are fairy-size.

 

http://www.amazon.co...t?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

:iagree:

 

I prefer pencil to pen. I think I only use pen for checks and addressing envelopes.

 

I like to use up pencils completely. Reading that some of you throw away eraser-less pencils made me gasp. :scared:

 

The paper mate cap erasers really do work great and last.

[Loowit]

We use handheld erasers, not the ones attached to the pencil. My DS is a bit obsessive about the eraser on his pencil staying in perfect, unused condition. He has a wide assortment of handheld erasers. Slightly off topic, he is also the one who used to peel his crayons so they didn't have the paper on them.

[Guest]

 

And another YES to these pencils!

 

Now if I could only find the perfect sharpener.

 

 

This one gets my vote.

[JudoMom]

 

:iagree:

 

I prefer pencil to pen. I think I only use pen for checks and addressing envelopes.

 

I like to use up pencils completely. Reading that some of you throw away eraser-less pencils made me gasp. :scared:

 

The paper mate cap erasers really do work great and last.

 

 

 

It's the sound. My sons don't pay attention to if there is an eraser or not, so then they run that metal over the paper and it makes that awful nails-on-the-chalkboard sound (my boys claim I have bionic ears) or it rips their paper.

 

Also, Jed (the dog) sometimes makes the metal sharp when he's extracting the evidently delicious eraser.

 

However, you'll be relieved to know that the awesome Arrowhead cap eraser has solved both of these issues. Waste no more, I will.

[JudoMom]

 

And another YES to these pencils!

 

Now if I could only find the perfect sharpener.

 

 

The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener wins any pencil sharpening contest. It's manual, but it's (in the over used word of my boys) EPIC!

[KrissiK]

Well, I've never had to worry about that because the minute my kids get a new pencil, the eraser is bitten off. We always use a hand-held eraser that I keep in my pocket or it would get lost.

(Sigh).

[Jen500]

 

The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener wins any pencil sharpening contest. It's manual, but it's (in the over used word of my boys) EPIC!

 

 

Now that one looks promising. I like that the sharpener moves the pencil as you turn the handle.

[happi duck]

 

 

It's the sound. My sons don't pay attention to if there is an eraser or not, so then they run that metal over the paper and it makes that awful nails-on-the-chalkboard sound (my boys claim I have bionic ears) or it rips their paper.

 

Also, Jed (the dog) sometimes makes the metal sharp when he's extracting the evidently delicious eraser.

 

However, you'll be relieved to know that the awesome Arrowhead cap eraser has solved both of these issues. Waste no more, I will.

 

 

Ack! Just reading that made my skin crawl.

 

When the kids were little I changed out pencils quite often so I never dealt with young kids using short or eraser-less pencils. If we went to a museum I'd buy new souvenir pencils and we'd switch to using those. If they received a pencil for a prize we'd use those etc. I would take the partly used pencils as my own and use them up.

[JudoMom]

 

Now that one looks promising. I like that the sharpener moves the pencil as you turn the handle.

 

 

We've had two sharpeners since last August, and we've never had bad sharpen out of either one.

 

It can be kind of finicky with our colored pencils, but I really think that's because our colored pencils have been abused for a couple of years and the leads have broken inside the pencil. I keep a little handheld for those.

[Alte Veste Academy]

And another YES to these pencils!

Now if I could only find the perfect sharpener.

 

 

I highly recommend mine...but it is unfortunately discontinued. I paid $37 4 years ago and it is still going strong. It was in my hand-carry bag when we moved. :lol: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IEIE/ref=wms_ohs_product_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I don't know if I can risk it...I'm pretty die-hard on the Ticonderoga. But who knows? I could get all wild and try something new. Plus, that is an extremely cool name...

 

 

I do like these better than the Ticonderogas, but I recognize that good people can have differing opinions on this issue. ;)

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

We use them with a hand held eraser. I have one child who chews off the eraser (yuck). So I have plenty of full size eraser less pencils.

[8circles]

 

 

It's the sound. My sons don't pay attention to if there is an eraser or not, so then they run that metal over the paper and it makes that awful nails-on-the-chalkboard sound (my boys claim I have bionic ears) or it rips their paper.

 

Also, Jed (the dog) sometimes makes the metal sharp when he's extracting the evidently delicious eraser.

 

However, you'll be relieved to know that the awesome Arrowhead cap eraser has solved both of these issues. Waste no more, I will.

 

 

You can pull the metal piece of pretty easily if that would help.

[JudoMom]

I highly recommend mine...but it is unfortunately discontinued. I paid $37 4 years ago and it is still going strong. It was in my hand-carry bag when we moved. :lol: http://www.amazon.co...g?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

We had the 1987 version of that and it lasted over 20 years.

 

I took my Classroom Friendly sharpener with us when we had to evacuate because of the wildfire last year :lol:.

[Slartibartfast]

Erasers never seem to last very long. We have hand held erasers and pencil top erasers.

[LucyStoner]

Do what any zombie would do. Brains. Brains. Brains.

 

[*Lulu*]

Do what any zombie would do. Brains. Brains. Brains.

 

 

Are those any good? My kids would think that was beyond awesome.

[joannqn]

Might I suggest that you sample the Mirado Black Warrior pencil as well... :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.amazon.co...warrior pencils

 

 

I'll third the Mirado Black Warrior pencil. I don't buy anything else. Dh went to Office Depot yesterday and asked if I needed anything. My answer was, "Yes, graph paper, quarter-inch and Mirado Black Warrior pencils. If you can't find the right pencils, don't buy any."

 

And another YES to these pencils!

 

Now if I could only find the perfect sharpener.

 

 

I also third the Classroom Friendly Sharpener. After going through a ton of different sharpeners, this is the one that has actually lasted more than a couple of months. My three year old can use it without a problem. We don't use the clamp; it's really easy to use not clamped down. You can also get it on Amazon for an even $25 and free shipping if you have Prime. We affectionately call ours Carl. It comes in different colors. Here's the blue one.

 

As for pencils. We keep using them with a handheld eraser. I was shocked when my reading student told me that her mom just throws them away when the eraser is gone. For us, that's often when the pencil is still almost full length. Why waste an entire pencil?

[Orthodox6]

I don't even use the eraser that comes attached to the pencil. Almost all brands feature poor-quality erasers that smear the pencil marks and erase marks badly. For years I have used the "click-erasers" (brand name? that type of product) because they work so much better.

[zoobie]

 

 

Might I suggest that you sample the Mirado Black Warrior pencil as well... :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Mirado-Warrior-Pencils/dp/B00006IEES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371829596&sr=8-1&keywords=Black+warrior+pencils

 

Love Black Warriors and these Staedlers:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TUGZQK/

 

In case you decide to conduct a blind pencil test. :)

[plath]

Mirado black warriors here, too!!

[Guest]

I don't even use the eraser that comes attached to the pencil. Almost all brands feature poor-quality erasers that smear the pencil marks and erase marks badly. For years I have used the "click-erasers" (brand name? that type of product) because they work so much better.

 

That is one reason why I'm a die-hard Ticonderoga pencil snob. Down with awful pencils! Don't even try and give me those as party favors and VBS take-homes.

 

I'm gonna try out the Black Warrior though. That's a cool name.

[songsparrow]

What I want to know is: what is the magic stuff that is used to make the original erasers that come on the pencils? Because we've tried all types of erasers - cap style, the large pink erasers, and various other kinds - and although they look and feel like they're made of the exact same stuff, none of them erase as well as the original pencil erasers. Why is that?!?!?!

 

As for the poll, we usually lose our pencils before the erasers wear out.

[PIE!]

We don't bother with extra erases. Eraserless pencils get used for things that don't require erasing - doodling, baby scribbling, etc. We also just scribble out mistakes.

[MistyMountain]

My 6 year old is rough on erasers and wears them down fast. I don't want to buy new of something when I don't have to so we use a hand held eraser. I don't like how the pencil top ones erase.

[Zuzu822]

I highly recommend mine...but it is unfortunately discontinued. I paid $37 4 years ago and it is still going strong. It was in my hand-carry bag when we moved. :lol: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IEIE/ref=wms_ohs_product_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I do like these better than the Ticonderogas, but I recognize that good people can have differing opinions on this issue. ;)

 

We had the 1987 version of that and it lasted over 20 years.

I took my Classroom Friendly sharpener with us when we had to evacuate because of the wildfire last year :lol:.

 

 

I have a Panasonic from 1985 that's still working like a dream. My parents gave it to my grandfather that Christmas and when he passed away in 1987 it came back to us. I've been using it nearly my whole life, and I won't let the boys use it for fear something will happen. I've never used a sharpener that comes close. I used to bring pencils home from school, sharpen them, and take them back the next day. Lol

 

ETA: I should add that I know all the above because my grandpa labeled everything, and that label is still on the bottom. He would have made a great homeschooler.

[Amethyst]

Usually, mutter under my breath and do a huffy breath and toss it back into the pencil holder while yelling, "Where are all the good pencils!" and then eventually on an ambitious day, toss all the lousy eraser-less pencils in the trash.

 

But I don't do it right away. That seems extravagant. ;)

[bobbeym]

We use mechanical pencils that have refillable erasers.

[Tita Gidge]

We use mechanical pencils. Those erasers always seem more decorative than functional :)

 

So we almost always use separate erasers for the life of the pencil.

 

Every once in awhile the kids bring home a free pencil from the dentist, library, or Halloween party.

 

Once we sharpened one.

 

(They usually get donated LOL)

[Wheres Toto]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has a kid that likes to eat erasers. Usually the eraser-less pencils get thrown into a box of pencils the kids use when they are playing around with writing. I try to keep ones with good erasers in the school pencil boxes since ds will try to erase even if the eraser is gone and the sound of the metal scraping on the paper drives me nuts (fingernails on a blackboard kind of nuts). I may have to try those pink cap erasers. I'm thinking if I duct tape it to the pencil, maybe it will stay on.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Love Black Warriors and these Staedlers:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TUGZQK/

In case you decide to conduct a blind pencil test. :)

 

Well, truth be told, my favorite pencils in the whole, wide world are some Lyra cedar ones that The Magic Cabin once included as a freebie with an order. They didn't even sell them, so I thought that was just mean. LOL I never could find them for a price that didn't make me faint, so I just use them for special occasions. No one else is allowed to touch them. :tongue_smilie:

 

What I want to know is: what is the magic stuff that is used to make the original erasers that come on the pencils? Because we've tried all types of erasers - cap style, the large pink erasers, and various other kinds - and although they look and feel like they're made of the exact same stuff, none of them erase as well as the original pencil erasers. Why is that?!?!?!

 

I felt the same way you did until I tried the ones I linked above. The ones I linked are 100% "the magic stuff."

[jenn-]

We either use a pencil topper, a handheld eraser, or throw it away if the pencil is nearly too short for use anyways.

[nrg]

Cap erasers are always a part of the end-of-summer uber cheap offerings at Staples, Office Max, etc. I buy several packages and use them throughout the year/