Into the Ivory

This morning we are setting out on an adventure with a bar of Ivory Soap and I’ll be “live blogging” as we go!

I handed Honeybun the bar of Ivory soap and told her we were going to play with it today. She asked what it was and I said “can you figure it out?” I had her read the label (which oddly doesn’t say “soap” anywhere!) Then I had her smell it and she “couldn’t smell anything.” I had her squish it and she said it was hard and not bendy. I opened the package a little and had her smell again and she still couldn’t smell anything.

I gave the bar to Doodle and he promptly ripped it open but wasn’t interested in smelling it.

When Sugarplum woke up she took the bar and immediately knew it was soap and thinks it smells like strawberries.

We then started brainstorming what we might be doing with the soap:

• Taking a shower? (Honeybun–and she doesn’t want to!)
• Taking a bath? (Honeybun again–and she doesn’t want to do that either!)
• Washing the car? (Sugarplum)
• Taking little things down and washing them? (Honeybun)
• Washing Doodle? (Sugarplum)

I asked them if they could think of anything that doesn’t involve cleaning things and they only came up with one idea:

• Going swimming and making bubbles? (Honeybun)

Experience 1: a small piece into the microwave:

Sugarplum’s mind was blown as Honeybun exclaimed “WHAT?!?!?”:

What does it feel like?  Sugarplum thinks it looks and feels like popcorn.  Doodle tried to eat it but I don’t think it tasted very good (nothing a good hand and mouth washing can’t take care of, good thing it’s 99.44% natural, right?)

Experience 2: what could we possibly be doing with these items?

Clean mud of course! (a great sensory experience I learned while teaching preschool in Oklahoma)

Here’s how to do it:

Doodle had to stop for a quick snack while the girls and I prepared the concoction but was quickly back in the action.  Honeybun refused to touch the clean mud and opted instead for playing in the remaining water (as did Doodle before dumping it all over the floor). I did make Honeybun do one good squish which she said she hated but Sugarplum is still going strong and just proclaimed “I could do this for a really long time!”

A few things I learned from this experience:

• You can use the soap you exploded in the microwave instead of grating it and it will just crumble into the bin (much easier and less cleanup!)
• I recommend tearing up the toilet paper at least a little bit.  We did not and it all stuck together and made a big clump when we added the water and I had to break it all up by hand after
• Live blogging with three kids is hard!  Capturing the pictures, uploading them, formatting the post…oy!
• No Ivory soap around?  “Dirty mud” is just as fun! (a few months ago we put a little potting soil–fertilizer free–in our water table with some water)