For several months we swore off crayons. 
When the kids would get a box, more than 3/4 of the wax sticks would get broken – accidentally or not – and the other 1/4 would have their paper torn from them and then used in “cakes”.
Cakes being these things lovingly crafted by Cara containing wooden blocks, the odd piece of cereal and itty bitty shreds of paper.
And now you know why crayons aren’t a welcomed site around here.
Then came the Perdue chicken nugget giveaway and the “back to school” pack we received. Which included 99 crayons or something. Which my kids attacked. Which I had to police like a nanny state or risk having brightly colored pieces ground into my area rug.
Magic Eraser has become my friend.
Mom bought them a table and set of chairs for Christmas last year[1] and I have cleaned crayon off everything more times than I care to remember.
Today was a “drawing” day and before I had a chance to warn, “Keep it on the paper or the crayons go up.” Oliver had drawn a bright red line right down the middle of the table.
I pulled out a roll of electrical tape, some printer paper and set to work.
I pieced together the printer paper with the tape and affixed it to the table and both sides of the easel. I assigned Oliver to the table and Cara got the easel and I told them to stay away from each other.
Within ten minutes, they had covered their respective surfaces with a couple of stray marks and were onto to something else – bored with what had taken me twenty minutes to put together.
It takes me less time to scrub the crayon of the table and I save the paper and electrical tape for more appropriate craft projects like…I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
- [1]I think it was Christmas and I think it was last year.↩
