school supplies Archives - In The Playroom

I love Stabilo and always find their products really good quality, so I was very happy for my little early writers to test out some of their pens and pencils.

We were sent:

Cappis – Felt tips that help you stop loosing your pen lids
Scribbis – Felt tips with a triangular shape ideal for young children
Woodys – 3 in 1 pencil crayon, wax crayon and water colour
Easygraph – Pencils that make it easier for children to get the right tripod grip
Easy Original – Writing Pen that encourages the right grip, for age 6+

Along with some Early Writer works sheets for the children to practise.

I have actually bought Scribbis, Cappis and Woodys before, but some of our old ones were just starting to run out (after lasting for ages!). I do find these better quality than some of the cheaper colouring supplies I have bought for the boys in the past, and I always notice that they get more enjoyment out of their colouring when they are working with decent equipment. It avoids those annoying issues of pens running out of ink quickly, pencil crayons easily snapping and all those irritating frustrations – so I have learned from mistakes in the past, to buy decent pens and pencils. It is worth it!

The great thing with these colouring pens and pencils, especially the Scribbis and the Woodys, is that they are designed to help younger children develop the right grip right from the start. These can be used for their mark making before they are at the stage of even writing letters at all, and will help get them into good habits. By being chunky, and the Scribbis being triangular it really helps the children to naturally put their fingers and thumb in the right place and get the correct pencil grip rather than going for a fist grip. This is a problem we had with Mr Z when he was younger and started nursery, he always used to try and write without the proper pencil grip and it does have a real impact on handwriting. Now that we have got him out of that habit, his work is a lot neater and writing is easier for him!

I’m keen for Mr T and Mr R to start with the right grip in the first place, so I would rather encourage them to use the Scribbis and Woodys in the hope that it will give them a little push in the right direction! Another great thing with the Scribbis is that when your child presses down really hard on the paper, the nip just pops back out again afterwards. With other pens, that amount of pressure could easily damage it but the Scribbis are really sturdy and able to take rough scribbling by little ones. This is really handy for Mr T as he does press down quite hard! The woodys are also great that when they press down hard, it gives such a deep strong colour. It is much more effective than regular pencil crayons, it has way more depth to it so they find it much more enjoyable to use.

Mr Z and Mr T enjoyed doing the early writers activity sheets from Stabilo, following the lines, drawing circles and doing dot to dots – all of which helps to promote early handwriting skills and pen control. Mr Z also wanted to use the new pens and pencils to do his school holiday homework. The Easygraph pencil was really easy for him to use, as the integrated grip zone meant there could be no confusion on exactly how to hold his pencil. His writing is definitely improving and getting smaller and neater, so the right tools can only help him to improve more and more!