Over the last several months, I’ve had several meetings with my son’s teachers at school discussing his difficulty with hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. One of the products the school’s occupational therapist recommended was the Flip Crayons from Handwriting Without Tears, which I recently received as a sample through my work with Smart Mom Picks.
What astonished me about Flip Crayons was how TINY they are! Each pack contains 5 crayons measuring 2-3/8 inches. I, like many mothers, have always assumed that the best crayons for children are the chunky crayons that are advertised as easier for little hands to grab. But, apparently jumbo crayons reinforce a fisted grip that kids later need to unlearn when they start to work on writing their letters.
The small size of the Flip Crayons requires kids to color using the same grip they’ll need to use when they are writing with a pencil. They are two sided because kids are supposed to flip them back and forth to switch colors as an exercise in developing hand eye coordination.
Coloring with the Flip Crayons is definitely challenging. I could tell using the crayons was a struggle for my son and even I found them tricky to color with. (Maybe that’s why I have terrible handwriting?)
We also had trouble with him pressing too hard on the crayons and accidentally breaking them, so I would suggest picking up a few extra packs of crayons if you’d like to use this product with your child.
Even if your son or daughter doesn’t break them, they are so tiny that I can see them accidentally getting lost pretty quickly. Most of the teacher supply stores that sell them online seem to have bundle packages and the extra crayons you don’t need would make cute party favors for the goodie bags at your child’s next birthday celebration!
Photo credit: Handwriting Without Tears
