On Globes And Pencil Sharpeners

I am homeschooling my kids this year.

I am going to be the hottest girl in their class.

That's a first for me.

Homeschool is a hugely intimidating task. I not only have to educate my children, but I have to do it better than a public school would, or I get a big FAILURE stamp on my forehead. I have to make it fun, and try not to turn them into social misfits. You know - the kind of kid who can't interact with his peers because he's been spending all his time making macaroni art and breastfeeding.

Thank goodness I'm all dried up, huh?

So, in a rather unrelated event, CSN stores sent me a gift certificate to use in any of their 200+ stores, and so I picked out a few tools to use in our homeschool endeavors.

They shipped me an electric pencil sharpener and a globe, per my request.

I picked the pencil sharpener because there is nothing I hate more than a stupid hand crank sharpener that will only shave half the pencil and makes me use bad words in front of my impressionable kids.



Unfortunately, the electric one I picked out will not shave either half of my pencil. A week after this one came in the mail, I went out and bought a dollar pencil sharpener from Wal-Mart. It's not perfect either, but it comes a lot closer.

I'm not going to give up though. You get what you pay for, really. (This was a freebie for me, so no harm done.) I think next time I'll go with the X-ACTO brand.

The globe that I ordered was better. It spins, it correctly labeled all the oceans, etc. It's an inexpensive globe that gets the job done. I've used it in a couple of quick, impromptu lessons, and I was satisfied. Mostly the kids and I sit around the breakfast table, chomping on our cereal and taking turns spinning the globe, closing our eyes, saying, "I'm going to live in..." and then slamming our finger down on the spinning orb to make it stop on the location of our future homes. I need to learn to swim, by the way. We kinda love this globe - best toy ever.




I don't think the globe would fare well in a fall to the floor, or if it were taken hostage by my one-year-old, but I don't have plans to let that happen to our educational breakfast entertainment. As long as we're careful with it, this globe should last us as long as we need it. I would definitely buy it again, if I were made to do so with my own money.

That pencil sharpener can go to hell, though.

(In case you couldn't tell, this post is a review for products that I received for free from CSN Stores in return for posting my honest feedback and links to their website. I was not compensated in any other way, and I think it's obvious that my opinions are genuine.)