Make your own chunky crayons for toddlers

Don’t you hate it when that brand new box of crayons you just bought turns into a bunch of broken small pieces in no time at all? It is often because the thin style of crayons are just too small for little fingers – especially when they can’t gauge how much pressure they are putting on those crayons to keep them from breaking.

Now, instead of tossing out those crayons or leaving them stranded in the bottom of the crayon box, hang onto them to make your own chunky crayons for your toddlers. And if you run a child care service, this will also help you save money as every last bit of crayon is used up, and the chunky style crayons are much more durable for everyday use.

The easiest thing to do is whenever a crayon is broken, peel off the paper wrapping and toss it into a ziploc bag. Once you have a good quantity of broken crayons, preheat the oven to 265F. Take a mini muffin pan (it is the kind of muffin pan that instead of making full sized muffins, they make smaller mini miffins and cupcakes) and divide up the crayons into each muffin section. You can sort by putting all the various blues in one muffin section, and all the pinks and reds in another. You can also make up your own color combinations for swirl style crayons.

Put the muffin tin in the oven and watch carefully for 5-10 minutes (varies depending on the amount of crayon in each section). Remove from oven the moment crayons are jello-like – not runny liquid but not still in crayon chunks. Allow to cool to room temperature then pop the entire muffin tin into the freezer for about 20 minutes, or until the chunky crayons can be removed from the muffin tin easily.

These chunky crayons make great gifts as well!