The Crayon Monster
In the past, I have tried to be really resourceful with our broken crayons. I had a lot of crayon pieces from when I taught middle school, and when there’s a little one learning to use them, that little person is going to break a lot of crayons in the beginning. So, I would peel the paper off the crayon pieces and melt them down in a little muffin tin to make crayon cakes. Great in a little drawstring bag for a little extra Christmas present or a birthday present for friends.
However, I guess somewhere along the way Jane figured that crayons should be broken and without paper. She’s gotten some new crayons lately, and the first thing she would do was break them in half and peel the paper off of them. At first, we would get upset with her deliberate destruction. Then I realized why she was doing it – because she watched my example – and then we tried to teach her the difference between brand-new, nice crayons and old broken ones. To no avail. There was no enjoyment in the fresh scent and sharp tips of brandy new crayons. Just breaking and peeling – and then coloring.
And then one night I realized that she had sat for 45 minutes quietly and contentedly peeling the paper off her crayons with very little interaction from us. It was Sunday night when Doug and I were trying to prepare everything for a short little day trip to the coast and we were too busy to pay a lot of attention to her (as she really should have been asleep anyway). rather than enjoy their fresh scent and nice, fine tips, the first thing she would do is break them in half and then peel the paper off. At first, we would get upset with her deliberate destruction. But then I realized why she did it.
And then I has a light bulb moment. (I even heard Steve Carrell say it in his Despicable Me voice in my mind.) She was sitting by herself and doing something, quiet and content, for a pretty long time without TV and without us playing with her. That doesn’t happen ever. Hey, and she was strengthening her fine motor skills! And it’s not that terrible of a thing to do, in the grand scheme of things. Unless she starts trying to break and unwrap all her friends’ crayons. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
So for now, I think we’ll switch focus to making crayons in fun shapes (using something like this) rather than insisting that she not break them.
