C is for Crazy Crayons


Heat makes a crayon a little loopy; it may melt into a swirl or pool into a whirl. With this in mind, we chopped up crayons and baked them in shaped mini cake tins, making large blocks that are easy for toddlers to hold and will surely inspire older artists. Encourage kids to come up with combinations: A blue-and-white blend for drawing the sky, for example, and a mix of reds and oranges for sunsets.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED
A kitchen knife
Old crayons
Mini-cake tins (we used pans with heart- and circle-shaped pockets)

CRAYON HOW-TO
1. Parents can use the knife to chop crayons into pea-size pieces, taking care to keep colors separate so kids can combine them as they like.

2. Preheat the oven to 150° while children fill the tin with crayon pieces, arranging them in interesting designs.

3. Bake just until the waxes have melted, 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Remove the shapes after they have cooled. If they stick, place tray in the freezer for an hour, and the crayons will pop out.

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Advice for the day: If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: "Take two aspirin" and "Keep away from children."
--Author Unknown

I'm going to try this with all those crayons we hace accumulated from restaurants and things.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

I did this today and used my mini-muffin pan to make the crayons. They turned out really cute, but the best thing is that I realized that these are PERFECT for the 12-24 month age range. They can't be broken (without real effort), they are easy to grasp, and they are too big to be a serious choking hazard (won't fit in a toilet paper roll). They seem to be the perfect solution for taking the worry out of letting the little guys have fun with crayons.

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I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them