Crayon on Walls - Updated 08/2010

It has been a while since I have blogged, but after today, I had to share a few lessons learned.

Never allow a 3 year to leave the table with a crayon. Pat him down first!
- You may say duh, right but as a multitasking mother on the phone, I underestimated the agility of a little boy "I habba go poddy Mama"

How to clean crayon off the walls. WET WIPES!!! Who knew!?
Here is how the humbling lesson was learned....
I had given my 3 year old a washcloth with soap and had him start wiping the walls. I told him to continue until it was all done. (I was very serious too even if it took all day)

UPDATE August 2010: Have your kids use the wet wipes as a creative yet memorable punishment. When they are asleep from all that hard work (and rightly so) you can use the Mr. Clean Eraser - NOT FOR KIDS. As mentioned in the comments (Thank you for your feedback Gen and Claire!)- it works wonders! It also works for more than crayon. I have used it for the paint marks toys make when run across the walls, the garage door-entering into the home from garage, and those little black marks on the corner baseboards that no one knows where they really come from!

My 1 year old daughter wanted in on the action, so instead of getting three washcloths dirty (you know I had to have one of my own by now-five minutes into the cleaning) I decided to give her a wet wipe.

In just a few minutes I found she was the most productive! How neat. The wet wipes were a wonder for crayon even on carpet!!!!! I hope if you ever come across this dilemma, you will remember this lesson and feel free to act as though you thought of it first. Hey if a 1 year old can come up with it, you can too!