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Pencils, and more pencils

22/10/2013

6 Comments

 
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Pencils. With two kids in primary school, pencils are a quickly disappearing commodity in our house. They need 3-5 sharpened pencils in their pencil case every day.

Natty prefers tic tic pencils, AKA mechanical pencils, while Sassy prefers wooden pencils, but they each use both.

While we love local school, we have no love for local pencils. They always seem to come with broken or crooked leads, splinter upon sharpening and just plain die. So on our annual trip to the USA, I stock up on Ticonderoga pencils, black for Natty and yellow for Sassy (only because they don't make pink).

Sassy loves to use small handheld sharpeners to sharpen her pencils down to one or two inches long before she retires them. Natty rarely uses his, preferring his tic tic. The tic tic pencils here are almost always 0.5 leads, but in the USA they are 0.7 and 0.9. The kids know which pencils take which leads and keep all their leads organized with no help from me. I think the whole mechanical aspect fascinates them, especially Natty.

Another clever USA purchase was a really nice multi-voltage pencil sharpener from Costo, otherwise I would never be able to keep a nice supply of sharpened pencils like in the photo!

6 Comments
Buckeroomama link
28/10/2013 02:50:28 pm

Check the local stationery stores. Many of them now carry mechanical pencils which use thicker lead (2B, HB). There's the Steadler ones that are more expensive, but then you also have the HK$5 or HK$8 ones that are just as good. If you can't find them, let me know --I can mail a couple over to you.

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Jacqueline (aka LantauMama)
28/10/2013 03:04:03 pm

Thanks! I love stationary stores!! We seem to have a large collection of tic tic pencils from here, the USA, and our favorites from Japan. But our 'normal' wooden lead pencils are all from the USA!
Which type of pencils do your kids prefer?

Reply
Buckeroomama link
29/10/2013 09:32:03 am

J prefers mechanical pencils and Z has no preference either way. That said, she does like the fact that she can "dress up" her regular pencils with the beaded pencil covers we got from Malaysia (at a souvenir shop).

Reply
Lawrence
5/11/2013 02:59:38 am

You can find these in HK. Probably the best most elegant pencil sharpener. I still have mine from when I was 3 years old living in HK. It has traveled with me from HK -> US -> HK 30+ years. It still creates the best and sharpest points.

As for good pencils, how about Faber Castells or Mitsubishi? A bit more expensive but you can't beat the quality.

http://www.jetpens.com/Uni-Mitsubishi-Hi-Uni-Wooden-Pencil-HB/pd/10968

http://www.carl-officeproducts.com/CARL_original/eng/product.aspx?id=553&cid=56

I'm a bit of a pen/pencil freak. Margot has absconded with a large collection of my Faber Castel coloured pencils.

Reply
Jacqueline (aka LantauMama)
5/11/2013 11:35:40 am

Thanks for the great reply and links Lawrence.

I have pretty much given up on local pencils, but if we run out I will give the Mitsubishi's a try.

Those manual pencil sharpeners are great, and we have one. For us, at this point, nothing beats my electric sharpener for efficiency - and with all the homework we have - time is of the essence :)

Reply
kate
19/11/2013 12:04:49 pm

oh my goodness, ever since you mentioned this to me a couple of weeks ago, and i must say i thought you were being a bit "perfect momma" ( of which genre i seek to be) about it i have noticed - YOU ARE SO RIGHT and it's like i (yes me, the mum) am always being told off about unsharpened pencils but they are IMPOSSIBLE to sharpen. so THANK you for this post - now if you could just translate it into traditional, that would be great :-) xx

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