WMFW - Taming the Runaway Pencil Madness

I know of very few homeschooling families who have their pencil and pen situation "under control". Meaning, we're not constantly buying new ones, only having them be lost, scattered or chewed up within days. And then there's the "But I don't have a pencil!!" excuse when its time for the kids to get down to work... how convenient! For them. Not so much for those of us who do the pencil/pen shopping and who also occasionally actually need a writing implement!

However, after much brainstorming, I have come up with a solution that seems to be working! The situation is still not as "under control" as I would like it to be, but it is very quickly becoming that way. Here's what I did:

First, I bought several packs of personalized pencils for each child. I got them from For Teachers Only, where a 3-pack of personalized pencils is less than $1! There's a $25 order minimum, though, which actually helped my idea to grow. Because of the minimum order amount, I went ahead and ordered 7 packs each for the older kids, and 6 packs each for the younger kids.

The first pack was a "freebie" - the boys awoke one morning to a pack sitting at their seats at the breakfast table. They were SO excited to have pencils with their names on them! Its amazing the little things that can make kids happy ;-)

I very quickly laid down the rules. The rules are simple: You are in charge of keeping your pencils. If you lose one, you will have to pay me $0.25 to get a new one. To get a FREE new one, you just have to trade in your old one, worn down to an unusable nub, so that I know you've gotten the most out of it!

(I will say that in order to help them facilitate this, they have designated boxes to keep their pencils and such in. Its much harder for anyone to keep track of things if the thing doesn't have a specific spot it belongs, that's just a natural rule of order)

Also, if (and when!) I find pencils lying around outside of their specific spot, I know right away whose it is. I haven't gotten mean enough to feign that they're lost just to embezzle my children out of quarters, but its not necessarily beyond me. Or I might just induce a "lost but found" fee of ten cents. I haven't been driven to that necessity yet.

So far, I've had to replace 4 pencils. Woo-hoo, $1!! Well, when you're, say, 7, (no names, please) and your weekly allowance isn't much more than that, it adds up! The boys are definitely becoming MUCH more conscientious about where their pencils are now. Both because of the fine and also because they really do like things with their names on them. So it is a solution that is definitely working for us!

For more fun and creative solutions to everyday problems, be sure to visit Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!