Yes, this is another Pinterest-inspired activity!
My sister actually pinned this off of a blog we both frequent, and I thought it was a great idea. You take plain old Ivory soap (you know, the stuff that floats?!) and put it in the microwave.
Yep, the microwave! I'm not sure who thought to do that, but it is pretty stinkin' cool!
***Note: apparently, it DOES need to be Ivory soap. I haven't tested it myself, but several readers said other kinds of soap burned in their microwave. I can't imagine that burned soap smells a whole lot better than burned popcorn, so I wouldn't advise using another brand. Plus, Ivory soap is cheap!
Basically, it forms this humongous cloud that Caleb then played with for quite a long time. You just have to watch out for hot spots. I let it cool a bit before I let him have at it. Then, I just gave him a big tray and let his imagination run wild!! I'm terrible at taking pictures of the process when I'm doing crafts like this, so here are a few from the original blogger:
After he was done creating with the soap cloud, I put the soap cloud back into the bowl, added a tiny bit of warm water (a little goes a long way...I learned that one the hard way and ended up having to add another bar of soap to get rid of the gooeyness!), and mixed it up. I did this multiple ways--with a wooden spoon, with a food processor, and with an electri mixer. The mixer did the best job by far, even though the tutorial on the blog above says that any of them will work. I beg to differ. Or else, maybe my stirring skills are lacking. Either way, go with the electric mixer.
Then I brought out the cookie cutters and Caleb and I formed fun shaped soaps to our hearts' content! It was a lot of fun and something he could easily do. He just filled the entire cookie cutter with the soap, pressed it down, and smoothed it out. We could take the cookie cutter off again as soon as it was formed, so he could do the same shape multiple times.
Sadly, I never did quite get the food coloring to work right. I'm going to try again sometime and see if I can get my "batter" smoother. My one attempt to color a butterfly turned out, ahem, less than stellar...
After leaving them in the garage to set for two days, we had a whole bunch of fun soaps...everything from vehicles, to flowers, to Lego men!! I think this will definitely encourage him to "soap up" a little more, too! :)
Good, clean fun...and a great boredom buster!!
My sister actually pinned this off of a blog we both frequent, and I thought it was a great idea. You take plain old Ivory soap (you know, the stuff that floats?!) and put it in the microwave.
Yep, the microwave! I'm not sure who thought to do that, but it is pretty stinkin' cool!
***Note: apparently, it DOES need to be Ivory soap. I haven't tested it myself, but several readers said other kinds of soap burned in their microwave. I can't imagine that burned soap smells a whole lot better than burned popcorn, so I wouldn't advise using another brand. Plus, Ivory soap is cheap!
Basically, it forms this humongous cloud that Caleb then played with for quite a long time. You just have to watch out for hot spots. I let it cool a bit before I let him have at it. Then, I just gave him a big tray and let his imagination run wild!! I'm terrible at taking pictures of the process when I'm doing crafts like this, so here are a few from the original blogger:
(photo credit: www.ourbestbites.com)
After he was done creating with the soap cloud, I put the soap cloud back into the bowl, added a tiny bit of warm water (a little goes a long way...I learned that one the hard way and ended up having to add another bar of soap to get rid of the gooeyness!), and mixed it up. I did this multiple ways--with a wooden spoon, with a food processor, and with an electri mixer. The mixer did the best job by far, even though the tutorial on the blog above says that any of them will work. I beg to differ. Or else, maybe my stirring skills are lacking. Either way, go with the electric mixer.
(photo credit: www.ourbestbites.com)
Then I brought out the cookie cutters and Caleb and I formed fun shaped soaps to our hearts' content! It was a lot of fun and something he could easily do. He just filled the entire cookie cutter with the soap, pressed it down, and smoothed it out. We could take the cookie cutter off again as soon as it was formed, so he could do the same shape multiple times.
(photo credit: www.ourbestbites.com)
Sadly, I never did quite get the food coloring to work right. I'm going to try again sometime and see if I can get my "batter" smoother. My one attempt to color a butterfly turned out, ahem, less than stellar...
Not quite like the other pictures above, but the white ones were plenty fun enough to keep Caleb's attention anyway. I didn't bother with the food coloring anymore.
After leaving them in the garage to set for two days, we had a whole bunch of fun soaps...everything from vehicles, to flowers, to Lego men!! I think this will definitely encourage him to "soap up" a little more, too! :)
Matt said he wants to take a Lego man on each of his summer trips. :)
Once I figure out how to add the food coloring, I definitely think these could be fun little gifts for the kids. What a fun novelty gift!
Good, clean fun...and a great boredom buster!!
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