the size of the crayon really does matter....

before i quit teaching last year the ot (occupational therapist) told me not to throw away any of my broken crayons but to give them to molly to color with instead of buying her brand new ones. why you ask? well, she told me that when little kids use the bigger crayons they often hold them in a cave-man-like manner - wrapping their entire hand around them. but when using broken pieces that are smaller, they are forced to grip them more like a pencil thus improving their writing ability. when they are learning to hold a pencil it will be much more natural.

molly colors all the time and i really hadn't given it much thought until we started having a lot of broken crayons. i kept them and now notice a huge difference in the way she holds the crayons. her coloring doesn't change but her finger placement sure does.