Ballpoint Pens.


Drastic times call for drastic measures.

The word ‘assorted’ on a product’s packaging always makes me think of chocolate..  Thought for another day.

I splashed out on this $5 carton of assorted coloured ink ball point pens yesterday.

SSG Manor is the Bermuda Triangle of biros.  I had this system of attaching a pen to the little clipboard that I use for writing shopping lists in the kitchen but there was something about those pens being clipped like that because it made them all disappear off the kitchen table.  Then I hid a few biros on a nearby bookcase but the effort of getting up from the table to find a pen to write my list has already defeated me.

Enough was enough and after one too many trips to the supermarket that have ended with vital things not coming home with me, I wrote ‘cheap box of biros’ on my list in super legible writing and voila, 50 new biros to find homes for in my life.

About 45 of the biros are in the pantry in the kitchen…

another two are in my handbag.  I’ve decided writing new developments in blue makes them stand out on a page of black and white print outs and the regulation black ink we need to write in at work.  One new box of ball points, so much inspiration to improve my current work practice!

Oh, there were some other biros in my bag after all.  Weren’t there when I needed them during a phone call yesterday…

And four red ones have come to work because despite the collection of pens already on my desk,

I don’t have any red ones that are easy to write with.

This expensive Japanese number has an ultra fine point that makes chicken scratchings across the page whenever I try to write with it.  For some strange reason, this frustrates me the most with red ball points.  The Woolworths ball points write smoothly with solid colour for a bargain price.

iTunes

Speaking of writing, the teachers at daycare have put me onto an app that’s working really well for Preschooler SSG and his classmates right now.  It’s called ABC Writing and there’s both a free and paid version (costs $2.19 from memory).  The teachers were commenting that it’s an especially useful app because the strokes for each letter are numbered and the children need to follow the order of numbers on the screen accurately with their writing finger to be able to progress to the next letter stroke.  I tried it yesterday and it’s harder than it looks.  I like to think that the app creators are sticklers for precise technique and that the reason I struggled is because of this rather than any fault on my part like routinely combining cursive and printing in the same word….

Tell me everything.  What it the ballpoint pen situation in your household like at the moment? Do you have a favourite brand of ballpoint?   Ever been unexpectedly impressed with cheapo or free biros?

Any tips for helping a preschooler learn to write when your own script is a bit shocking?  I’ve been doing dotted letters in words that Preschooler SSG can then ‘write’ over with his own pencil.


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