My DS9 is crazy about Mechanical Pencils. He gets very upset if I toss his favorite one in the desk with all the other pencils. He loves looking at all the different mechanical pencils in the office supply store. He loves drawing little detail stuff. He dislikes pencils that need to be sharpened. I could probally keep going but I think you get the picture. I quess gifted liking precision can come into play here.

It would be fun to know - Does anybody else have a obssessed with Mechanical Pencils Kid? Any other fun obssessions?

My dad was that way, guess it was the engineer in him. I do enjoy a good mechanical pencil, and of course have a specific lead size that I most prefer!! (Where's the smiley with the little helicopter hat??) Ds9 definitely likes his mechanical pencils way more than regulars.

Calculators here! DS7 has 5 or 6 calculators already, and he's still upset that he didn't get another one for Christmas!

Two years ago at Christmas, I got him an "office"--a plastic drawer organizer full of office supplies such as paper, envelopes, stapler, notecards, labels, etc.

He hasn't discovered mechanical pencils yet, or I'd be in trouble.

I think DD is more in the "prefers mechanical pencils" camp than in the "obsessed with mechanical pencils" camp. I never really gave it much thought until this thread started. Now looking at her desk and work spaces around the house, she tends to collect lots of regular pencils to draw and doodle with and just have on hand, however, whenever it is time to write or work or do any serious task, she always reaches for a mechanical pencil.

Hmm..the things I learn about my DD by reading this board! lol

This is so funny. Where else can you go on about mechanical pencial, calculators. Thanks for your comments. I needed a good laugh tonight.

I think the sign interest is very cute. Like lots of things they drive you a little crazy and then you get to laugh about them years later.This is a good one to write down so you don't forget.

ROFL. Watch out for Dottie's pencils!!! My DS7 also prefers mechanical pencils. What is up with that???? Maybe they should put that question on the next version of WISC. "Do you prefer mechanical or #2 pencils?"

My father has an obsession with them. And yes, I would say that why both parents are very intelligent, my father would be the highly-profoundly gifted of the two. DS6 is no obsessed with them, but he DOES love office supplies, which of course, so does his mother. Both kids received their own pens for Christmas because they kept stealing mine!

Many years ago they sold 1 mm lead for mechanical pencils. THAT was the cat's meow. It never broke and the lead was so SMOOTH to write with.

The smaller leads catch on the paper and make a vibration not unlike chalk screeching on a chalkboard. It was and still is annoying.

When I was in college, I saved my 1mm pencils for tests. Using them was like slipping into a hot bath - SOOOO relaxing.

Weird, huh?

As a high school teacher, I get very amused about pencil preference among my students. They get very set in their ways!

I'm a sharpened-pencil girl. Sharpened in a very good electric sharpener, please, to a well defined point, but not sharp enough to snag the paper or risk breaking.

And there are two kinds of lead - I have no idea how to describe them, but I know which kind I like and which kind I hate. The one I hate requires more pressure on the pencil.

And then there are preferences on notebook paper...

This is my favorite thread. I love this idea.

Okay this is just too weird. A relative gave my kids packs of mechanical pencils for Christmas and they were so excited about them and I was thinking "Huh?"

LOL, DS5 got some mechanical pencils and graph paper notebooks for Christmas. He LOVES them. He was so excited to see that graph paper existed because he kept drawing his own so that he could do different projects with it. When he found out he could have a whole book of graph paper, he realized that the possibilities are endless.

Oh, and another interest (although I won't say obsession really) is dice. DS5 loves dice. We went and got him dice that has all different numbers on them (like ones by 20's, and different shapes, etc.) He thinks they are the coolest things. He makes up his own games with them.

Our DD also. Her daddy is a gamer, so she's been interested in them forever. She especially likes dice of unexpected size. She has some that are very tiny and one inflatable die that is huge. :-)

I had a similar thing with playing cards as a teen. I liked huge playing cards, tiny ones, round ones, etc. I still have most of the decks.

A gift certificate to any office supply store would very likely send my DD15 over the edge! She LOVES all things stationary related!

I don't have an obsession for pencils - I actual HATE pencils. Someone mentioned fingernails on the chalkboard - that's how I feel when I write with a pencil. I really NEED my pens. And I have a couple of really nice quad-point pens that I guard - they are awesome.

When reading some of your posts about how the right pencil feels and how it's like a nice bath, it gave me the willie's. Yuck! I hate all lead. Now a fine point pen with blue, red, and black... that's heaven.

DD9 does prefer mechanical pencils over regular ones, but I don't think she's obsessed.

What a fun thread idea though.

Oh, this is great. My husband is the one with the stationary fix. He loves a nice pen & pencil set. He doesn't have to have mechanical or wooden, but he loves the smooth, clean line. Same with pens - a smooth line, good weight, clean, fine line - definitely gift material in my house. Very personal items for him.

But the real obsession for my guys (DH & DS6), is anything miniature. It doesn't matter what it is, but the smaller & more detailed the better. We have considered setting up a miniature Christmas tree just because of this. DS is the same with this stuff. Anything mini and his whole demeanor changes while he tells you how tiny & cute it is.

When DS was four, he dropped a teeny tiny die (1/8 in square) down the sink drank. He was DEVASTATED. OMG he cried all day and pouted for a week. It wasn't till DH finally found a replacement that he finally got over it.

For my DS4 it was church bells. Mostly via youTube (a fairly safe line of inquiry on there). He would look them up, all his toys were bells, pretend or otherwise and could tell you the notes of any bell he heard.

I've never thought about getting DD7 mechanical pencils, but maybe I should, I've always wondered why she has to have 30 + perfectly sharpened pencils in a plastic bag in her backback, just in case she needs them.

This is So funny to read! DS7 has been fascinated with calculators for as long as I can remember...when he was 2, I would keep 2-3 different small ones in my purse and whenever we were out and he needed something to fiddle with, he would grab the calculators and just sit there and explore. When he found DH's Scientific Calculator you would have thought it was Christmas. He also LOVES dice...the cooler shaped/colored/larger numbers the better...he makes up tons of games with them.

My son's massive obsession is maps and graphs...maps of any kind, you name it, he loves them. At last count we had over 100 of them - regular city ones, park ones...you name it. He will just sit and draw his own. We went on a field trip the other day (we homeschool)to a water treatment plant and he was totally fascinated with the graph computer read-outs that were showing from the biological tanks and he wanted to know what each color of the chart/graph meant. I remember the engineer just looking totally confused as to why this "little person" wanted to know exact details and numbers.

This is great! DS9 was/is obsessed with maps too. We have maps of the world and the US on his walls, when we travel he collects maps from our stops, at amusement parks he gathers the maps up and memorizes them, a favorite toy when he was little was the Leap Frog Globe, he will pore over street maps, and family members send him maps from their travels as souveniers!

We don't have an obsession with pencils or calculators, but there is a strong preference for mechanical ones. Although, if given the choice I don't think DS would write at all. He can't wait for the day he doesn't have to handwrite anything and it's all on computers.

Oh glad to hear we are not the only map crazy family :-) His whole wall is covered in this giant map mural of the world and we literally have baskets and baskets of maps. Where ever we go and there is a map, it is coming home with us :-)

THIS IS ME!!!

My mom works for a cleaning supply company, and I go CRAZY when she brings home the sample cans of this or that product because they are minature. I still have many miniature items I collected all throughout childhood. My husband thinks I'm a freak. Now I can tell him it's because I'm gifted.

I'm reposting for by LBLCMama, who is asking about obssessions.

Thanks, onthegomom.

You are welcome.

My youngest (5) is obsessed with locks and keys. He has a huge key ring with different types of keys, and he will stop and touch locks that grab his attention. He also loves safes, lockboxes, and handcuffs as well.

My oldest (10) is completely obsessed with Star Wars, and has a ton of those little figures, books, etc. He's also obsessed with giant squid, and octopi. He has had these obsessions for at least 5 years.

I first began to realize my son's quirkiness may actually be giftedness when he began a real interest in birds and bird books at age 5. He has Sibley's Field Guide for the Eastern and Western United States. Then he has Sibley's complete guide to bird behavior. He wants to BE Sibley when he grows up!

I've realized, though, that his interest does not just lay with birds and nature - he is curious about everything. So now rather than pushing or encouraging solely ornithological stuff, I am trying to help him broaden his interests.

But it all started with a Sibley Field Guide book and he didn't put the book down until he knew the wing spans of birds, the shortest bird, the biggest bird, and the bird sounds also.