Do you know about smencils?

A couple of months ago I could not have told you what a smencil is. Now I can educate you about smencils. A smencil is a smelly pencil, see what they did there?
The PTO sells them a few times a year and they are $1 a piece.
Now this is the tricky part, smencils are not just a fundraiser for the kids, they hold many many lessons in their little plastic cases.

First, there is the investigate before you buy. The first time they were smelling them Daryl took one dollar to school. He picked Juicy Lime and when he got to class he realized he didn't want Juicy Lime he wanted Grape! We had a long talk that night about smelling all the pencils before you lay your money down. This is called being an informed consumer!

Second, we need to learn to control ourselves. According to Daryl they sell 10 different smencils at the same time. So he figured this week when they went on sale he would just take all 10 of the dollars in his wallet. Ummmmm, I vetoed that plan. I told him last time there were two or three smencils that he definitely didn't like. So I asked him WHY would he want one of each. Also, I explained we will never own everything that we want. True happiness is wanting what we have not having what we want. With Christmas around the corner we are still working on this one. But he did agree with smencils if he could get four he would be happy with that.

Lastly, smencils taught mom you are only 7 once. As crazy as I think the smencil thing is, you should see these kids rush the school door with their dollar in hand, I love that he gets excited about a special pencil. I used to get excited about little ceramic cats. My brother would not even come in my room because all of the cats freaked him out. Daryl is growing up so fast, it makes me sad sometimes, but then smencil week comes along and he gets really happy. And that makes me really happy!
PS-Rootbeer is my favorite smencil
PPS-I collected ceramic cats from ages 7-20, then I got a cat, I'm allergic. Go figure!