Waste not...

Jordan doesn't really like to color right now but he LOVES to break crayons and peel the paper off them. It can occupy him for hours, and that has actually come in handy, like this summer when I had a garage sale. I put a blanket under a tree in our yard and he happily sat in the shade and peeled and snapped crayons all morning.

We have so many random crayons from restaurants and places like that, that I don't really care if he breaks those. I get a little upset when Logan forgets to put away his "good" crayons, though, and little brother starts in on those, because Logan WILL NOT color with broken crayons.

Anyway, we have all these broken crayons that I keep in a shoebox, because it seems so wasteful to pitch them.



At one point, I wanted the Crayola Crayon Maker, which basically melts your crayons down into new ones. It's THIRTY BUCKS though. Doesn't seem worth it.

So, yesterday I decided to try a little project. I bought a Wilton star-shaped silicone mold (for MUCH less than $30, I might add) and put some of the broken pieces in them.



Then I put them in the oven at 300 degrees for a few. I just kind of kept an eye on them to determine when they were ready to come out.

Half melted.



Then, when they were done, I put them outside for a little while to cool, then tipped the mold upside down and out popped the new crayons, all swirly and pretty.



The star shape is cool, because there are still points, but it's too thick for Jordan to break. It's also easier for a toddler's hands.

Jordan still doesn't like to color. He prefers to stack the stars into towers.



Oh well. At least he's not peeling and breaking them, and all those crayons didn't go to waste!

I'm going to stick one in a sandwich bag in my purse so I'll always have a crayon handy. Just thought I'd share our little crayon-saving tip.