Did you know about National Crayon Day? I didn’t but now I’m going to celebrate it with the kiddos!
National Crayon Day, celebrated on March 31, is a day to celebrate and enjoy the invention of crayons while having an awesome time to just color. So get those crayons, mama, and color away! While you’re at it, put on some soft music in the background and grab a glass of wine to go with it (juice for the kids, of course). Ahh… The joys of life!
Another fascinating fact I learned was that National Crayon Day is also the day Crayola retires a color (so sad). However, there are always new colors being made! Me, personally, I’m cool with any shade of blue because blue is my favorite color and apparently blue is the most favored color. There are so many colors out there and so many different shades of the same color. It’s astonishing to know there are thousands of colors out there.
Crayons have definitely come a long way from when they were first invented. Nobody really knows when crayons became crayons but we do know safe crayons started in 1885 thanks to two cousins, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. However, it wasn’t until 1903 that Crayola came to life with the help of Binney’s wife who came up with the name Crayola. So thank you, Binney and Smith, for making pigment changes in crayons safe to ingest if it happens (and trust me, it happens)!
Crayons are such a huge part of all of our lives and they continue to be for our children.
Coloring is actually a huge part of development and muscle training for your fingers, hands, wrists, arms. Who would have known?
You have the big egg crayon that young toddlers can palm like holding a ball. I use these with my little guy. However, if big sis comes along to color as well, he wants the pencil crayons or markers. Next, you have the big fat crayons to help the transition for more of a defined grip. I like these more than the skinny ones. I find them to be easier to grip and color with.
After that, there are the skinny crayons and even pencil crayons – all to help your child build and develop those fine motor skills as well as learn how to hold a pencil properly.
There are also other ergonomically made crayons that were made to help your child’s grip. Ooly makes one called Left Right Ergonomic Crayon. I’ve never used them but did come across them while researching National Crayon Day. They look pretty cool.
Here are some fun ways to celebrate National Crayon Day!
Did you know that coloring actually begins when a child starts to eat and they accidentally drag their arm or finger through their food? You can learn more about the Developmental Stages of Art here. And there are plenty of educational shows about coloring, including the ones listed below:
- Mr.Roger’s episode of How Crayons Are Made
- Daniel the Tiger’s episode of Daniel Visits the Crayon Factory
- Learn Colors with Color Crew Collection
Another fun thing to do with crayons is to melt them! By melting crayons, you can make:
- More crayons by melting them in a regular muffin tin or a shaped muffin tin, like hearts or clovers.
- Lego pieces by putting them into a lego mold.
- Lanterns or suncatchers by melting shaved crayons on wax paper and then cutting the wax paper. For a lantern, you’d have to glue the pieces to a lantern frame. For a suncatcher, you’d just cut a shape and hang or tape to a window.
Lastly, you can just color!
Grab a coloring book or a piece of paper and allow your creative masterpiece to evolve naturally as you draw and color with crayons, using all 8 or 120 colors from your pack.
The sky is the limit on National Crayon Day!
