Problem #1. My boys are both eager to color, but lack the dexterity necessary to color without snapping the crayons into little nubs.
Problem #2. Roger, my ever particular two-year-old, refuses to color with crayons unless they're 'nakey' (i.e. have the paper torn off). Don't ask me why. But I have done a lot of paper peeling.
Thus, we are left with boxes and boxes of nakey, stubby crayons, that drive my kids nuts.
My saving grace? Crayola Twistables. First of all, in my humble opinion, no other crayon company holds a candle to Crayola. Second, these Twistables are ingenious, especially for the toddler sector. They don't break, you don't mess with paper or sharpening or anything else. My boys love them. I love them. They eliminate stress. Ahhh...
They also sell these great Twistables in a "wet slicks" version and they are amazing. My daughter loves them! (And I do too!) If you've ever written with lipstick it kind of feels like that.
ReplyDeleteWe love these at our house too! I will say though that if you have very curious little boys like me, they will figure out how to twist them up all the way... and then they can easily break. They think it's hilarious to make the crayons "big". Still much better than traditional crayons though!
ReplyDeleteBrianne--My girls do the same thing! In fact, they broke more of the Twistables by spinning them all the way up and trying to color with them, or by using them as swords. Seriously. My girls. So I just don't spend the extra $ anymore. Anne--You're right. Nothing compares to Crayola!
ReplyDeleteI loved the twistable crayons until my kids extended them all the way and broke them off!
ReplyDeleteThese are my new favorite- http://www.barebooks.com/crayons.htm
Bonus- they come "nakey" :)
I'm glad crayons are relatively cheap. We used the fat ones for awhile so there was no breaking. :)
ReplyDeletemy 2-year old girl also requires naked crayons.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip
Correction: the kind I like are called "slick stix".
ReplyDeleteMy kid also has broken them off by twisting them to the top but I still love them. They are so fun to color with when we do it together.
AMMMMEEEENNNNNN!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more :)
what did you end up doing with the crayon bits? a friend of mine sorted them in silicone mini muffin trays and melted them in the oven - recycled multi-color crayon disks! thought i'd share it with you too... the twistables are amazing - definitely my choice for my two yr old.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny- I thought these looked fun and bought them when my older kids were toddlers and they immediately broke them all up and they were worthless.
ReplyDeleteWe tried Crayola Beginnings for my 18-month old this year since he has a hard time holding traditional crayons. They are so fun and amazing! And his coloring skills and attention span got a lot better! They're called tadoodles. You have to buy their triangle shaped crayons to go into the very cute holders so it's a bit of an investment, but we really feel like it was worth it to help our little one not get frustrated with coloring. And my 6 year old loves to color with them too!
ReplyDeleteMelissa and Doug sell triangle crayons without the paper that are wonderful for little hands and virtually indestructible. Crayola also sells a set of colored pencils that are just color (no sharpening). Both of these have been huge favorites for us.
ReplyDelete