New Toys and 100+ Followers!!

Over break, I received two new toys office products to play with! One I received as a gift, and one I asked the company to review.

First I'll do the review, and yes, it's for the pencil sharpener that everyone loves! Classroom Friendly Supplies sent me a sharpener so I could experience it for myself. I tried to go into the test run with an open mind, but knowing how much everyone else loves this sharpener made it difficult :) And everyone is right! I LOVE this sharpener! It gives the nicest point of any sharpener I've used. It seems to take away more of the wood casing to expose more lead, so the pencil can go longer between sharpenings (which apparently isn't a word, according to Blogger). And it's very reasonably priced, especially considering how long electric pencil sharpeners last (or don't last).

I had my first grader try it out to see how easy it was for her. I used the included brace to attach it to the table to hold it steady and demonstrated it a few times. The only part that she had a hard time with was pressing the black pieces together to insert and remove the pencil. She was physically able to do it, but she just kept forgetting that step. That will take a little practice. Each time she pulled out a pencil, she said, "Ooooo, sharp!" So she was obviously impressed as well! Or maybe it was because we finally had a decent sharpener in the house :) We used it to sharpen all of her colored pencils, too. Sorry to inform her that it's going to school! Thank you to Classroom Friendly Supplies for the sharpener!

The other thing that I'm excited about is my new electric three-hole punch. I put it on my Christmas list, and I actually squealed when I opened it. Then I received very odd looks from my family members, which, if they know me at all, they should have expected. Since I keep most of my papers in binders, this is an awesome gift. I also do social studies notebooks for three units for three sections of students. To translate, that's sixty-five copies of each page to punch. So yeah, I'm excited ;)

And speaking of excited, I reached 100 followers! Thank you to those of you who offered to help me with my giveaway. If anyone else is interested in offering something for my giveaway, please let me know by the end of the year. I'd like to conduct my giveaway after the new year :) And thank you and "hi" to all of my new followers! It's very flattering to think that there are 100 people that considered reading about my experiences, so thanks again!