Recently, Mark has become obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED, with peeling things, particularly crayons and whole garlic cloves.  He peels the garlic while he sits on the counter next to me when I’m making dinner.  This is really useful on two fronts – I have peeled garlic to use and he’s not pestering his sister during the arsenic hour.

nothing a broom can’t take care of!

Even more useful to me, however, is his obsession with peeling crayons.  This has been going on for a couple weeks and we’ve almost run out of crayons to peel.  At this point, he’s even peeled all of our little bits of broken crayons that I’ve been saving to send in to a crayon recycling place (like this).  Not exaggerating, he’ll peel crayons for an hour straight, totally content.  He gave up napping a couple months ago and he spends quiet time in the office/playroom with me so that Ellie can have her own quiet time that’s actually peaceful.

He can even peel while lying on his back!

Peeling crayons has been keeping me sane the past couple weeks.  So anyone – do you have any old crayons to donate to us for peeling? We’ll take them!

And, add “peeling things” to my list of screen-free mesmerizing tips for kids! Don’t forget about painting the house, washing shells, pouring water, cutting paper, and playing with potato peels!