My six year old desperately wanted to give his siblings a gift for Christmas. He told me he was planning to buy Ellie a motorized scooter, but he thought he might not have enough money (he has about $6) and asked if I’d be willing to chip in. He had similar goals for his baby brother’s gift.
He was disappointed after we talked about how his plans were most likely not going to work out this year (but perhaps in the future). However, he jumped on board as soon as I suggested this project for Elijah’s gift.
And really, what’s not to love? It’s fast and easy, colorful, and it uses up things you probably have lying around anyway. There are a million tutorials for this project around the Internet, but just in case you haven’t seen/done this before, here you go:
Supplies:
Broken crayons (of course you could use whole crayons if you prefer. We just happen to have a huge bin of stubby crayons and I assume that if you have children, you probably do also).
Bowl of warm water
Silicon muffin pan (other types may work, but we’ve only ever used the silicon version).
Oven
Instructions:
If your crayons still have the paper attached, stick them in a bowl of warm water for a moment. The paper will peel right off and you won’t have to waste hours of time peeling them the hard way (like we did initially).
Sort crayons according to color into the muffin tins.
Once your compartments are pretty full, preheat the oven to 230 degrees F. Bake the crayons for 15 minutes. Pull them out and let cool, if they are completely melted. Otherwise, leave them in a bit longer, checking every few minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool.
When cooled, pop your new toddler-friendly crayons out of the muffin pan.
Let the toddler crafting begin!
Ethan was thrilled with how these turned out and he’s delighted to give his little brother a gift he made almost all by himself.