Make It At Home Monday: Melt & Pour Oatmeal Lavender Bar Soap

I have a truly guilty pleasure for artisan soaps. You know, the really expensive handmade ones you find at Whole Foods, local farmers' markets or food co-ops? The ones that cost several dollars a bar and then inevitably get sucked down the drain still half intact when the kids are in the tub? So, looking for another fun handcraft to try out at home, I stumbled upon several recipes to make your own melt and pour bar soap. For pennies on the dollar, I whipped up a batch of quick and easy (and quite lovely, if I do say so myself) oatmeal lavender bar soaps.

This is a simple project you could do with children and/or adults. It's also been a great way to encourage good hygiene and more hand-washing here as we are in the peak of flu and virus season and it's been running rampant around S's school.  If you'd like to try it out yourself, here's what you'll need to know:

Melt & Pour Lavender Oatmeal Soap

Makes 12 bars, but you can cut the recipe in half or increase as you wish.
Materials: 
*I am including links to items I purchased from Amazon, but these are not affiliate links

• 2lbs oatmeal soap base (I purchased this one)
• 1 tsp lavender essential oil
• 1-2 TBSP dried lavender buds (you can purchase these in bulk or harvest from your own garden if you're lucky!)
• silicone soap molds (I have these, but you can even use a silicone cupcake mold)
• crock pot or microwave safe glass dish & microwave

Directions:

I used my typical crock-pot method to make my soap. I also cut the recipe in half to make half a dozen bars. You can use a sharp knife to cut your soap base into smaller chunks beforehand if you wish, but mine melted just fine in its 1lb block form on the low setting in our crafting crock pot. I also filled the ceramic base with a bit of water to create a water bath and placed the soap base in a metal mixing bowl fit over-top for more even cooking. I did check up on it and stir intermittently to prevent burning. I removed the bowl from the heat source before it was completely melted and stirred remaining lumps.

In the microwave version, you'd place your soap base in a microwave-safe glass dish, such as a Pyrex measuring cup and you will want to cut down your block of oatmeal soap base into 1 inch chunks. Heat on a medium/high setting for 3-4 minutes, stopping and stirring intermittently to make sure the soap base is melting but not steaming and burning. You'll want to remove it from the microwave before it is completely melted and stir any lumps out.

Now with either heating method, you're ready to add the lavender essential oil and buds. Mix to incorporate and you're ready to pour into your molds. I set a couple of vinyl placemats down on my counter top first to catch any spills and protect the counter from the heat. This mixture is hot and should be done by an adult with proper precautions! Now you can add in any individual scents you wish (see "variations") or sprinkle on some additional lavender buds (optional). Let your soaps set for about an hour at room temperature or until solid. You can speed up this process by transferring the mold to your refrigerator or freezer. When they are hardened completely, they are ready to pop out and gift, store or use. I love these tin soap containers for storing soap and lotion bars.

Variations:

You can individualize scents by adding in other essential oils you like. I love the combination of lavender with lemon, mint or rosemary oil. You can also change up your scent altogether. I think a peppermint rosemary soap would be absolutely lovely, for instance. Swap out your lavender oil for peppermint and rosemary essential oil and your lavender buds can be replaced with dried rosemary leaves. Or try a floral soap with dried flowers and an accompanying floral scent.

A safety note about essential oils: Just because something is natural does not mean it is always safe. Please take precautions when using essential oils both on yourself and especially with young children. Essential oils should not be taken internally by anyone of any age (unless they are cooking grade essential oils used in baking) and they should not be used directly on the skin without being diluted. When introducing a new oil even through a carrier oil, soap or lotion, please keep allergy safety in mind. You may wish to test a small skin patch before lathering up with a new soap or lotion. I recently learned that there is a risk of respiratory distress associated with the use of eucalyptus and peppermint oils with children under the age of 2 (these are commonly found in OTC products like Vick's Vapor Rub for congestion). There are a lot of online sources about the use of essential oils, some backed by companies who sell them. I believe they are well-intended and I even purchase oils for myself from one particular company, but I also refer to reliable, evidence-based resources for information about safe use.


I have really found a love of creating some of my own health & beauty and home care items. It is a way for us to have fun and be creative while also living more frugally and knowing what ingredients are in the products we use and gift. These soap bars would also make a lovely gift, especially paired with a bar of Melt & Pour Body Balm! Handcrafting with and/or for your family is a wonderful way to preserve the joyful memories of our summer garden while patiently waiting for spring and I can imagine how that will expand again as we move into this next gardening season and the harvest it will yield.

Until next time...

Happy Playing!

Make it At Home Monday: Rainbow Nature Journal

Hooray, hooray, it's finally today! The first "official" day of our Sprout Scouts Playcamp. I'll bet you think I had a million and two things planned out for today to kick off our amazing summer. You probably think I executed them all exquisitely in a graceful dance that resemble some freakish crossbreed between June Cleaver and Teacher Tom. Actually, no. Not even close. With all of the planning I have done for our Sprout Scouts Playcamp (insert shameless plug to join our Facebook group and share in our activities this summer), I really felt strongly that we all (myself included) need a week to ease into this whole being at home together thing. S has very mixed feelings about school ending. He is "nervous" about not having school (it's like we're related or something!), he misses his school friends and he wants things to be the same--including the routine of having "Morning Work."

All things we can deal with here! This morning, both boys sat at the little table (thank you, Tatty, for helping with this while I eased into the morning with some coffee and oatmeal) and played with playdough using our favorite garden playdough mats from Picklebums. Playdough is an activity that can easily captivate their attention for a whole morning, but today everyone was excited to pack up and head to our local Botanical Gardens. It's the kind of place I drool over. I have been quoted (accurately) in a preschool graduation speech as referring to it as "my perfect classroom." Yes, I would live there if we could but we shall have to settle for visiting as often as possible this summer (and all year round).

On my way out the door, I grabbed a book to bring along, Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow, partly because I love this book, partly because it fit in my purse. We rarely need any take-along activities on our visits to the botanical gardens, but this was a good backup just in case, and both boys loved hearing it as we ate our picnic lunch.

While we were there, S and Y both tried their hands at some art under their giant tree house. Today's activity was watercolor painting at some makeshift easels. This reminded me of how much I have been dreaming of having an outdoor easel. I asked my husband if he could kind of DIY one for us this summer--even showed him a Pinterest photo--and he kind of chuckled the way he did when I asked for a wine bottle rack to store all of my sensory bottles... Nonetheless, as we all left the gardens somewhat reluctantly but sufficiently tuckered out, I had plans to figure out how to construct something in our own yard for outdoor painting and I also remembered this cute little project I did with S as a young toddler based on Planting a Rainbow. 






Well, a great miracle happened here and no one took an accidental car nap on the way home! Both boys fell asleep and I investigated the front and backyard contemplating ways to create an easel space. Ok, maybe my husband is right and we don't need any more junk really cool stuff loitering around our play garden and keeping our pop up greenhouse company... But then I remembered our door is magnetic. Our door is magnetic! Introducing the easiest, most portable outdoor easel ever, a magnetic bulldog clip!
Such a fine line between genius and madness, huh? The boys are eager to get back outside (especially S) and play in our own garden. I've set a couple of easel stations and some watercolors out for us and when we're done, cleanup is easy peasey lemon squeezy!

But I promised you a post about making your own Rainbow Nature Journal, not one about my excessive excitement with magnetic vertical surfaces...

One of the most exciting features in Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow is the second half of the book that opens up ladder style into a rainbow of colorful blooms, ready to be picked and displayed. I love the idea of presenting both boys with a nature journal to begin our summer together, and I decided creating a couple of small, portable rainbow ladder books would be a great way to do that! I've done this on a larger scale before with S (pictured above) and they can be created in a number of ways. For the smaller versions I made today, I cut six sheets of cardstock in rainbow colors in half (width-wise). Next, I set each page overlapping the next with about an inch of border. Once they were all aligned, I folded the booklet in half. I hole punched about an inch inward from either end on the crease and tied a length of twine through the middle to bind the book. I glued the edge of each page down on the "cover" side and the first, red edge down in the center. The larger book (above) was made in a different way--rather than folding in half, the fold was made about 1/4 of the way in to create larger page space inside. Tape and glue were used to bind it rather than twine. You can do either method! How will you use it? Here's a few ideas...

• Use some double sided tape and take a color scavenger hunt outdoors. Collect colorful petals, leaves and blooms that can be stuck onto each matching page of your journal.
• Using old magazines or seed catalogs, cut out pictures of colorful plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables to glue onto each page.
• Take and print photos of things in nature to glue onto each page.
• Use stickers of colorful items found in nature to stick to each page.

Or come up with your own great idea! And don't forget to share it...

Happy Playing!

Make it at Home Monday: Cinnamon Playdough

Ah, Labor Day... It marks the unofficial end of summer. It signals the onset of school season--and S will visit his new preschool classroom and meet his new teachers tomorrow! It gives permission for all things pumpkin spice scented...even playdough! Since S will be starting school this week, I wanted our "last day of summer" to be extra special. He chose a trip to the science museum this morning (I think I might cry in the car after I drop him off!). He also chose a self-directed science experiment at home this morning and dropped a purple plastic bowling pin in the toilet (I think I might inquire about extra early drop off and maybe slow down when I send him out the door...).

Parents have all kinds of mixed feelings when it comes to sending off their babies to school for the very first time. I am, indeed, looking forward to going to the bathroom with the door closed. And then drinking a tall cup of coffee before going back to the bathroom with the door opened because Y can't walk in yet. Or drop something in the toilet. S has his own mixed feelings about this special occasion. He is very excited and also very nervous. Some of us contend with our mixed feelings by baking delicious cookies to slip into our children's lunchboxes. Some of us are on strictly gluten free diets and are going the baking mix route instead. And for those of us who fit into the latter category but also love to play at home in the kitchen, there's playdough!

We love playdough here. We use it in a lot of play and learning activities, and when we can, we make our own. I enjoy trying out new recipes for playdough, but more often than not, I return to this treid and true classic stove-top recipe. And as often as I make playdough here, you'd think I would remember to put cream of tartar on the shopping list when I run out. Yet, I always seem to forget! What is cream of tartar anyway?! So the last couple of times I've made playdough here, I've tried some substitutes (after doing some research on the topic via Google search).

So after our morning at the science museum, S requested to play with playdough after his nap and while he and Y have been napping, I've been playing in the kitchen slaving over the stove to whip up a wonderfully Autumn-scented playdough using ingredients you probably do have in your kitchen already:

Cinnamon Playdough
Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 3 tsp white vinegar*
• 3 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 TBSP ground cinnamon
• food coloring (This is optional--I love the natural color the cinnamon adds to this dough that makes it look--and smell--almost like cookie dough! It will be the perfect addition to a cookie-themed story stretcher we'll be doing later this week!)

*I will admit I was skeptical about substituting in vinegar for the cream of tartar. I have a super schnoz and I hate the smell of vinegar. The smell was not particularly strong in the finished playdough and with the addition of a scent (like the cinnamon in this recipe or an essential oil of your choice), you could easily overpower any residual vinegar aroma that may be present after cooking. Alternatively you can use lemon juice in place of the vinegar.

Instructions: Combine your ingredients in a pot over medium heat and stir continuously until a stiff dough forms in the center of the pot. Then you are ready to take the dough out of the pot and let it cool until it is comfortable to touch. If your little chefs are helping you in the kitchen, please make sure the dough is cool enough for their little hands to handle! Knead the dough until smooth and enjoy using it as is or with your favorite clay and playdough tools. We have especially enjoyed using playdough in our sensory table lately as this both creates a great play space and contains the associated mess. Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag between play sessions to keep fresh. For best results, make sure your dough is totally cool before storing!

Invitation to Play: Playdough Name "Cookies"

Name recognition is a very important early literacy skill. Recognizing their names and the letters in their names is one of the first ways children learn to read and write. And well before they are ready to independently autograph their most prized work and possessions, children can practice name recognition through play. This simple invitation to play and create their names using cookie cutters and cinnamon playdough is the perfect addition to a pretend bakery shop for the cookie lover in your house. Just make sure they realize it's not actually cookies or cookie dough. While it is edible, this recipe will be super salty and won't taste anywhere near as good as it smells!

Well, it's time to wake up those sleepy heads and get back to our end-of-summer celebrating. We live around the corner from a 7-Eleven and I'm pretty sure there's a slurpee with my toddler's name on it just waiting for him there. However you're celebrating summer's end, (or counting down the hours until school starts), I hope you're having a great Labor Day and Happy Playing!

Make it at Home Monday: Alice the Camel Brown Bag Puppet

It's Monday and we're still learning and playing about Israel in honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut. We've recently renewed our family membership to our local zoo. One of my son's favorite attractions there are the camels, an animal native to the desert climate of Israel! He loves to sing the popular children's song/action rhyme, "Alice the Camel," a cute little ditty that demonstrates counting backward with a humorous surprise at the end:

Alice the Camel
Alice the camel has five humps,
Alice the camel has five humps,
Alice the camel has five humps,
So go, Alice, go!

Alice the camel has four humps...[continue in this fashion, you can also use your fingers as you count backward]

Alice the camel has no humps,
Alice the camel has humps,
Alice the camel has no humps
Now Alice is a horse!

If you have a group of children with you, grab a large sheet and you can act out the song with children as "humps" who take turns moving to the front as they are counted "out" to be the head. This was a favorite activity in my classroom teaching days!

Alternatively, you can make your very own Alice the Camel brown bag puppet to use as you sing. 

You Will Need:
a brown paper lunch bag
a google eye
brown construction paper
scissors
glue
markers, crayons and anything else you'd like to add for decorating

Instructions:

1. Trace or copy the shape of a camel to brown construction paper. If you do not have brown construction paper, you can use white paper and color your camel or you can use another brown paper bag. If free-handing a camel silhouette is not your strong suit (it's not mine!) you may want to use an image printed from the internet or a stencil. Older crafters can assist with this step and cut out the camel shape. For younger crafters or those who are short on time, you may wish to prep the camel in advance. 
2. Glue your camel to the rectangular bottom flap of the brown paper bag so that when you insert your hand into the bag, you can flap your camel up and down. Glue on the eye and decorate your camel as you like. You may wish to draw on a mouth or other details. My little artist even enjoyed decorating the bag!
3. Once dry, use your puppet to sing "Alice the Camel" or put on a puppet show! 

Make it at Home Monday: Shabbat Story River Rocks

I've seen some beautifully handcrafted river rocks used in preschool and homeschool settings lately. Many times they are used with handwritten letters as an alphabet manipulative or for emerging readers to practice sight-words and even spelling their own names. I've seen gorgeously painted pictures of weather-themed graphics for use at Calendar Time/Circle Time. I've seen amazing graphics done as well in this fashion for use with story telling activities. I have horrible penmanship and am not particularly artistically inclined either, so after seeing a photo of a beautiful set of story river rocks done entirely with stickers, I felt a sense of relief and inspiration. I found small river rocks for sale at our local Dollar Tree in the floral department. There are larger options available at craft stores that would better accommodate larger graphics and/or smaller hands. Our Dollar Tree also had a collection of brightly colored alphabet stickers that I used for a set of alphabet river rocks (not pictured). When I recently purchased a pack of small Shabbat themed stickers, I had an idea--they would be perfect for creating Shabbat Story River Rocks, a great addition to our Shabbat theme this week or to any Shabbos afternoon! You could, of course, make story rocks related to any number of themes using or creating your own small stickers/graphics. Here's how:

Make it at Home: Shabbat Story River Rocks
You will need:

• river rocks in the size/shade of your choice--I purchased mine at the Dollar Tree and they are on the smaller end and in a variety of shades, light and dar
• accordingly sized stickers/graphics--if you are printing your own graphics, consider printing onto sticker paper to save the effort of gluing
• Mod Podge or similar product to seal (I used the goopy stuff you paint on and a small foam paint brush--you can also get spray versions if you have a well ventilated work space available)

Place your sticker on its rock, making sure to smooth it as carefully as possible over bumpy surfaces so that no edges are coming up. Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge over top. For best results, you may wish to coat the entire rock with a seal. Allow to dry before using for story-telling and play. 

I've used story rocks in a group setting to have children make up their own story about Shabbat. They can be used individually or as a family in this manner as well. They can also be used to sequence events of Shabbos--what do we do first, next, last? Additionally you can play games like "I spy" or "What's Missing?" using the a few or all of the rocks (for more advanced players) to guess which picture you might be thinking of or which one is missing from the collection. 

Happy playing and story-telling!

Make it at Home Monday: Counting Apples

We're off to school! As in, down the stairs and into the living room... Yes, we are officially kicking off our Homeschool Preschool adventure tomorrow. We are not glued to a schedule or even a set of goals, but rather taking it a day at a time and continuing to use play and child-led exploration to incorporate Jewish and secular themes into our daily routine. I am very much a planner, but I believe in starting small and expanding rather than backtracking and dealing with feelings of discouragement. For now, I have one small activity specifically planned for most days and then a proverbial bag of goodies we can expand and extend on if we have the time and energy for it.

Whether you teach at home, outside of the home, or just want to incorporate some thematic activities at home to expand on what's happening in your child's classroom or a seasonal event, there is a vast array of educational materials you can access, purchase and make at home to facilitate skill development through play. This is starting to sound complicated and expensive, you are thinking. And you are right--it can be. I've often dreamed of somehow starting a toy lending library in our community, but that particular dream is one I keep on the back burner for now. In the meantime, I make a lot of my own learning and play materials by combining items I have in the house (or can purchase inexpensively from a dollar store or discount store) and free educational materials you can access online from a variety of like-minded bloggers, parents and educators! Additionally, thrift stores are often a great resource for gently used toys, educational materials, books, craft supplies and more.

For this kick-off DIY post, our very first Make it at Home Monday, here's how I made our Counting Apples material:

 I accessed these free printable apple counting cards via  a Jewish Homeschool Blog. This particular blog is one I frequently use for a great deal of wonderful Jewish themed learning materials and ideas for both the classroom and home. Pinterest is another great tool for searching theme related printables and in a pinch, you can create your own using personal photos or images from the internet. I cut and laminated the apple cards, which could be used in a variety of ways on their own (sequencing, counting and saying the number of apples on each card, etc). Nonetheless, I like to combine flashcards with three dimensional objects whenever possible--and as an added bonus, this is no longer just a math material teaching one-to-one correspondence and sequencing skills; it's now a fine-motor activity as well.
I used small tongs from the dollar store party section and some decorative apples I found last September in a craft store. The wooden tray is also one purchased from a craft store and the basket is recycled from a batch of cherry tomatoes. I try to limit any purchases to items I can use in a variety of ways or use again and again. In addition to saving money and on space, repetition of exposure to materials (like tongs for instance) encourages solid development of skills being targeted (in this case, fine motor skills).
The idea of Counting Apples is to use the tongs to pick up the apples corresponding to the number of apples on each card. My toddler has had a lot of success with using the tongs and the size is perfect for his little hands. If that is frustrating for a child, however, I would remove the tongs and have him use his hands directly. You can select a card for the child or have the child select a card and match the number of apples to that on the card. If you don't have toy apples lying around, you could use real ones, cut ones from paper or use red pompoms instead.
As a rule of thumb, I don't "force" my son to use a certain material or to use it for a certain length of time. Many times I just put one on the shelf for him to discover and explore. When he finds it and starts to check out what it is, I might sit and show him how it can be used. At first my son had a lot of fun just using the tongs to pick up and move the apples from place to place and I allowed and encouraged that. I later showed him how he can use them to count and match the number of apples on each card. If a particular toy or material seems to be frustrating a child, I might put it away and try again another day with it. My main goal is for learning to be a positive and child-led experience in our home (as well as when I teach outside of the home). As always, happy playing and learning!