Freak369's Full Review: Dixon 33312 My First Ticonderoga Pencil
When little Annabelle finally arrived here she came with a ton of stuff her father purchased for her before her big move. Oddly, the one thing she was dying to show me was her new Hello Kitty pencil case, normally she squeals like a stuck pig when she sees anything with Hello Kitty on it so I though that was why she was bouncing around like Tigger. “You weddy for dis? were the words she uttered when she slowly pulled on the zipper tab. Inside were about twenty perfectly sharpened “My First Ticonderoga” pencils. She looked like she just won the lottery. She stood there, wide eyed, looking at all the pencils then her eyes darted around the room looking for something, anything, she could write on. Since it’s been so long since my kids got so jacked over a simple pencil I could do nothing more than chuckle and indulge her as she scribbled her name, hearts and little flowers all over the paper.
Dixon “My First Ticonderoga” Pencil
I’ll admit it, I never knew that these existed until Annabelle whipped them out and showed them to me. I might have seen them at the office supply store or walked past them twenty times at the school shop but I never picked up on them. For all intents and purposes these are the same Ticonderoga pencils that you get in the twelve pack at Wal-Mart and Target but they look like they have gained a little weight. They contain #2 lead so they can be used for standardized or computer scored tests [those annoying “fill in the circle” tests], they write nice and most pencil sharpeners will accommodate them with no problem. Dixon states that these are 13/32” in diameter, how that relates to a regular pencil is beyond me because I don’t have the patience to sit there and measure a standard pencil and then count out the fractions. This is about one and a half times thicker than a regular pencil but it doesn’t look like those huge things that you see in the gift shop at Niagara Falls with the red tassels on them.
After seeing Annabelle in all her glory with these pencils I had to try one out to see how they wrote. Much to my surprise they felts pretty darn good, I thought they would be a little on the chunky side to feel comfortable but I was wrong. I almost hate to admit what I did next. Since these were certified as non-toxic I decided to give it a nice big bite to see what happened. This was before I started reading about the PMA Certification so I though that maybe these were ”bite proof”. Alas, these will still show teeth marks but the good news is that even if you take a chunk out of this or gnaw off all the yellow and green finish, you won’t get sick from it. When I called her dad to ask him where he got them he said he’d have to look at the receipt. He tracked them down at ‘The School House’ [a small homeschool depot] for about four dollars a dozen. This might sound a little hefty to pay for pencils but hey, your kid is only a kid once, might as well start them off with something that will help them and won’t get them sick if they are part beaver.
My biggest concern wasn’t the finish on the pencil or what type of lead it had inside, no, it was the eraser. I have no idea how she does it but she manages to break the eraser. Not break it off but break it in half. Maybe she is erasing too hard with it or pressing too hard on it but no eraser seems to safe from her Hulk-like grip. These have held up nicely so far but time will be the true test where this is concerned. I did give the eraser a bite too, it didn’t come loose or wiggle around so they may have capped it a little tighter than their regular pencils.
PMA Certified Non-Toxic
Since this is something that was completely new for me, I figured I would pass along this information. Just like the AP Certified Non-Toxic warning you see on most Crayola products, this one carries the PMA Certified Non-Toxic label on the package. Until I started reading about it, it never dawned on me that most kids bite their pencils at some point in time. In order for a pencil to get this labeling it has to pass a stringent series of tests on the core, eraser and finish / lacquer to ensure that it is 100% non-toxic if ingested. Even more strange is that there is a Pencil Makers Association, also known as the PMA, [no, I am not making this up] that conducts the tests and issues the certification / seal of approval.
The Bottom Line
Even though Annabelle has had a lot of other pens, pencils, markers and crayons to work with in the past, it never dawned on me that I should have started her out on something like this so she could get a good grasp on it and have more control over what she was writing. She really liked writing with the Crayola Twistables and now that she’s been using this pencil she’s writing better and loves the fact that they look like regular pencils. Since my boys are older things like this often go over my head and I forget she’s still got a way to go to catch up to them. If you have a child that is learning to write or notice that he or she is having a little trouble working with a regular pencil then please do yourself and your child a favor and pick up a few of these for them to try out.
The teacher's favored choice for that important "first" No. 2 pencil. Large 13/32" diameter barrel allows for more control in children's little hands....More at Business-Supply
#2 lead Large, 13/32' diameter, barrel allows for more control in childrens little hands Top quality latex-free eraser provides clean, easy correction...More at Staples
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