How many of you have wound up with one of those freakishly large calculators or remotes from the dollar store? Kid #2 proudly came home with the calculator version and it lasted all of a day before it cracked in half on the first drop.

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Time to toss that bad boy, huh?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

The outer shell may be toast, but the buttons can live on.


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A few left-over peel-n-stick magnet strips and scissors later …

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… we wound up with some fun, practically free frig magnets.

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And man have the kids had fun doing math problems on the frig this week.

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And while petty and childish, I’ll admit that it was fun last night to skunk my snarky nine-year-old who declared that he “pretty much knows everything about math, mom” with a simple problem using negative numbers.

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Um, Kid … –25 + 54 does not equal 1, nor is the square root of anything involved.

And so that no one’s left out, anyone without a freakishly large calculator could just buy a new one for $1 and cannibalize it to make their own, cheap magnets. A small screw driver is all you need to open it up to get the numbers out, unless of course you’d like to just drop kick it a few times instead.

Anywho …

Overly Large Gimmicky Calculator or Remote?

April 2012 BLOG1

It’s What Not To Toss This Weekend!

And hey, what else could you do with calculator, remote or even keyboard keys?

Make push pins? Embellish cards? Art? Let me know.

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8 Comments

  1. Best use for these ever! Welcome back to blogging awesome things.

  2. cutekittypunk

    cool… usually i just let the kids play with it – you know my 18 month old, holds the remote to her ear like it's a telephone.

  3. bonniegetchell

    I absolutely love this idea– so very creative! 🙂

    -Bonnie @ Revolutionaries
    www.revolutionariesblog.com

  4. Rosebriars

    There's got to be a way to make them into clothing buttons. Weird, and probably ugly, but it's the first thing that came to mind.

  5. bluechillies

    This is an awesome ideal. I would head to the dollar tree and buy a cake pan and just plop them in it and use for math practice. I love the button ideal!