48 Pencils and 36 Crayons

The bittersweet end of summer is rapidly approaching.  I feel refreshed from not having worked for two months and I'm full of new memories of time spent with the girls.  While I realize that summer can't last forever, I want to hang onto the peacefulness for as long as possible.  So, I decided to make a list of fall chores and try to get them done before school starts.  

At the top of my list was "school supplies."  This is always one of my favorites and I've blogged about it before.  I enlisted help from the girls.  The girls had already received new backpacks from their grandmother, so they were willing to recycle other supplies.  We went through our box of leftover supplies and pulled out as much as possible.  Then, we began with Lacey's Second Grade List.  Each second grader is expected to produce 48 #2 pencils (sharpened.)  Even if we weren't raising kids in the age of technology, doesn't 48 sound a little excessive?  Can you imagine how many hours a day a kid would have to write in order to consume 48 pencils during the year?  And, all 48 must be sharpened in advance.  According to Cassie, teachers don't like kids to sharpen pencils during class.  Oh, now I get it.  A kid uses a pencil until it has no point left, then grabs another pencil.  I'm a teacher too.  I know that kids sharpen pencils to interrupt, to distract, to entertain, and to stall.  That's why we have a few minutes designated at the beginning of class for pencil sharpening.  The invention of the electric pencil sharpener has really simplified the task.  48 sharpened pencils!!  Picture this - it's the first day of school and there's a busload of second graders, armed with 48 sharpened pencils apiece! 

Next on the list, "1 Box of Crayons (No more than 36)."  This is another one of my all-time favorites.  When this was first a requirement for Cassie, we gallantly headed to Target, list in hand.  We discovered that crayons come in boxes of 8, 16, 24, 48, 64 and 96.  We could not find a box of 36.  Of course, I recommended we go with the 24-count box.  But, knowing that she could have up to 36, Cassie wouldn't agree.  If you were a kid, wouldn't you hold out for the extra 12 colors?  Every day, when you had to reach in your desk and pull out that box of crayons to do another boring assignment, wouldn't 36 be much more exciting than 24?  Back then, I ambitiously visited several other stores, in search of a box of 36 crayons.  At sometime, somewhere, crayons must have come in boxes of 36.  I've yet to discover where that is.  Yet teachers continue to tantalize kids with that "No more than 36."  It just isn't fair.  And, poor Lacey doesn't have the English or the background knowledge to understand why I won't buy her a box of 36 crayons.  Look below to see what happened.

Cassie helping Lacey search for the box of 36 crayons.