Soapmaking for little ones!

I had a desire to introduce Makayla to the joys of creating soap. Since she is only five years old, I did not want to make my traditional lye soap. So we enjoyed an afternoon of "melt and pour" soap-making. This is not true soap-making, for you purists out there, but it gave her a wonderful sense of creating something of her very own and hopefully created fond memories. As she gets old enough, and if she shows interest, I will share with her the secrets of traditional soap-making.



Makayla is trying to choose which "Princess color" to pick for her soaps. Instead of creating color with herbs, teas etc., as I do for my soaps, I had purchased some coloring for soap-making. I know, I know.....not natural. My goal was not to create a pure and natural soap...my goal was to make this a fun, exciting and enjoyable experience. As she gets older, I will explain about chemicals, health and the reason it is important to make soap without artificial scents and colors. But for now...I wanted her to fall in love with soap-making. You might notice a small chef sporting his "cooking with Mom" outfit courtesy of Grandma :) Elijah does work a lot in the kitchen with me and loves to "create".



Melt and pour soap is so easy....visit any craft store and buy a block of "soap". Place it in the top of a double boiler and heat until melted. Really easy and clean up is a breeze...it's soap after all! Here we are pouring Makayla's soap into the molds. We made sea creatures, flowers, leaves, seashells and more. Since Makayla lives in Florida the ocean theme was lots of fun. She was so excited to know that she was taking something she made, all by herself, to Mommy who wasn't able to come visit this time.

I had one mold of turtles and frogs and allowed Elijah to create a few "green" things of his own. He doesn't think he wants to use it, thanks to years of brainwashing education on the need to avoid chemicals, but he thinks he would like to display it in the bathroom. If you are visiting...avoid the apple green stuff :)



And here is the final product of all the hard work done by two little pairs of hands. Truthfully, I am not sure who had more fun...me or them :)

I encourage you Moms to relax the standards a bit and instill a love of soap-making (and many of the other lost crafts) in your children. This took only a few hours out of my day and hopefully gave Makayla the joy of creating something with her own hands. As she takes her soap home to share with Mom and other family members, she will experience the joy of giving. Win, win situation!

Doing this sort of activity with kids helps instill self-confidence and brings a joy that no toy from "Wally world" can provide...all it takes is a little of your time :) Trust me...you'll have a blast!