If I could plan the perfect Christmas stocking for a homeschool mom, it would have 2 pomegranates, Ticonderoga #2 pencils (hundreds of them) and all the extra space would be filled with those soft peppermint candies that melt in your mouth.

Maybe that’s my perfect stocking, not yours?

I have this thing for pomegranates; soft peppermints- and…

… Ticonderoga #2 pencils that sharpen beautifully, hold their point and don’t lose their eraser the first time my son writes a “b” instead of a “d”.

I should have purchased stock in Ticonderoga years ago.

I love pencils.

Sharp, precise, smooth pencils.

But, do you know what I hate? I mean loathe and despise.

photo by Lisa Davies

Pencils.

• Cheap pencils from the doctor’s office.
• Lousy pencils with the really cute decorations on the outside.
• pencils that won’t sharpen.
• Worthless pencils that lose their erasers before my kids even open their journals.

But today…

TODAY, I have fallen in love with almost all pencils.

I finally found a pencil sharpener that is the great equalizer.

It treats expensive, wonderful, quality pencils and cheap, peeling, “can’t hold their lead” pencils equally and without prejudice.

I will almost never say what I am about to say, but I can’t help myself.

Go buy yourself a Carl Angel 5 Pencil Sharpener right now.{affiliate link}

I’ll send a quick text while I wait…

This puppy is so amazing, that at 5:00 am this morning I stumbled into the kitchen and dug through my drawers looking for pencils that needed to be sharpened.

It grips the pencil, automatically feeds it into the sharpener, and makes it “Turner Sharp”.

(Turner Sharp was invented by one of my 6th graders a million years ago. He wouldn’t use dull pencils, so he would sharpen all the pencil in the classroom until they met his standard. Since his last name was Turner, we dubbed the pencils worthy when they were “Turner Sharp”)

**Caution** Little people need to be supervised

I even made a bad quality video to demonstrate its awesomeness.

If it’s ok with you, I’m not gonna pretend I’m a videographer.

The amazing, effective, and foolproof pencils sharpener is at this link:

Carl Angel 5 Pencil Sharpener
{affiliate link}

Related: What you really need to homeschool {No. It’s not a boxed set of workbooks…}

PS- Share this with every homeschool mom you know.

Across the globe, children are crying because their pencils break as they try to write their name and then they melt into frustration when they try to sharpen their favorite pencil “all by myself”.

Each week, squirrely kids escape from their desks under the guise
of “I just need to sharpen my pencil”.

You will be doing great good by spreading the word!

PPS- Any crafty ideas about how to use old dull useless pencils sharpeners?

I have about 147,000…
I’m thinking a Lego fortress for those mini-figures I keep stepping on, but I’m open to suggestions=).

Homeschooling with Confidence {free}