You know what question Kate and I get a lot? “How do you girls do it it all??” Our schedules are full, just as many of yours are, and it comes with the constant struggle of balancing Mom-life with work-life. And like most other Mothers out there, when it comes down to it and one has to take priority, the Mom gig wins- no contest. If something has to fall through the cracks it’s not Mom thing; it’s usually the doing-laundry, cleaning-bathrooms, or showering-before-noon thing. So to answer the question, how do we do it all? Ha! We don’t! Those of you joining us at TOFW get to hear all about how we don’t do it all. In fact, most times sometimes we barely keep it together! The past few weeks have felt like that for me. I’ve been traveling a lot, and working on some huge projects (we finished our book!), so when I got home the other day after spending the weekend in PA (SO much fun- thank you East Coasters for a great time!) the last thing I wanted to do was pull out my big camera and cook. And then edit photos. And then write a big recipe post for today. What I did want to do? Play with my kids. Be goofy, be silly, be loud and crazy and do whatever they wanted to do. I asked them what they wanted to do, and lucky for me (and you) they picked something that I thought would actually be fun to share with you! So ironically, my intentions of turning off my blog brain back-fired, but it worked out in the end. I got to play with my kids, and you get a fun kitchen craft. Or something to entertain friends at the office when you’re tired of working. Since I had no intentions of making a big ol’ photography project out of this fun little activity, I just snapped some quick photos on my Phone and edited them right on my phone too, with the Thumba app. Come next Monday I’ll have my brain fully functioning again and I’ll bust out my big camera have an amazing recipe for you! Until then, let’s just play 🙂 This is sort of awesome.
We call these “Soap Clouds.” Where are all of our chemical engineers? I need to know why every awesome science project involving soap, hinges on the use of Ivory soap. Thoughts? Are there magical ingredients in there? I’ve always wondered that. I bet whoever came up with the original recipe never expected that so many science experiments would ensue with its use! I think the same thing about Elmer’s glue. Anyway, grab a bar of Ivory soap-yes, only Ivory! It’s cheap, but don’t worry, you can even use it as soap when we’re done here so we’re not being wasteful. So you don’t need to write us lengthy emails about being earth-hating-soap-haters.
Place a piece of waxed paper, parchment, plastic wrap, or paper towel in your microwave. Just don’t use foil, or we’ll have issues on our hands that are much bigger than your next burrito tasting slightly like a fresh mountain spring. This really doesn’t make a mess, so don’t be scared.
Start your microwave for a couple of minutes on high power. You don’t need to let it run that whole length of time, but you can just stop it when you need to. Want to see what happens?? It’s a little hard to see through my microwave door, but check it out (and ignore me when I say you need to turn your microwave turntable off, that’s for if you’re trying to video this experience:))
Ten bonus points for anyone who can reference my children’s ramblings about “the great devourer.”
I don’t know how it does it- but it starts growing! Sometimes the “clouds” are seriously HUGE, and other times they are sort of wimpy. I’ve noticed generally, the fresher the soap (as in the more recent I have purchased it) the bigger the result. We’ve done this a million times and my kids still get a kick out of it.
It looks like it should be foamy and wet, but it’s not. You can actually pick up the whole big chunk.
If you smash it, it will break into pieces and you’ll end up with soap dust everywhere, so be careful with little hands who like to smash things 🙂
It’s the weirdest looking thing. I love how it’s different every time.
Now. You have a giant blob of dried soap fluff and your kids were entertained for a total of 3.5 minutes. That’s a start! Sometimes I let my kids just take the whole darn thing in the bath tub and have at it. It’s one way to make sure they actually get cleaned in there. Or sometimes I hold it up over them in the tub and let it “snow” by smashing it and letting it sprinkle down like little snow flakes. Or, you can let them make their own little soaps. First, put the fluff in a bowl and let them do what they’ve probably been trying to do already- smash it to smithereens. It just kind of falls apart, so it’s actually kind of fun. And if it gets all over your counter, take my advice and sweep or vacuum it up first, then wipe it down. Otherwise you’ll end up with a big soapy mess.
Then, either in a bowl with a spoon, or with an electric beater, or in a food processor, like I’m using, add warm water, just until it comes together. Just like pie crust, folks! This is why I love kitchen crafts. To test it, grab some with your hands and hold it in your fist. If it holds together in a ball, it’s ready.
Take the mold-able mixture and let kids press it into cookie cutters. Make sure kids are old enough to know it’s not food, or they are likely to attempt to eat it!
These photos below are from a batch I made a while back, (and photographed with my regular camera) and I let my kids add just a couple of drops of food coloring to make colored soaps. After the soaps are molded, but still wet, you can gently push them out of the molds. Let them sit in a cool, dry place for a few days and soon you will have little soaps to wash (or play!) with. I would only use a small amount of food coloring as to not stain anything!
Funny how my kids are always very interested in getting extra clean when it’s with soap they’ve made themselves.
Now go have some fun with your own kiddos today! Or, just grab some soap and have fun in your office break room at lunch. C’mon- you know you want to.
Reminder: Once again, only use IVORY soap. Lots of people asking this in the comments, or commenting they have a burned mess in their microwave because they didn’t read it earlier in the post! Ivory!
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Questions & Reviews
Lol so your little one like ninjogo (spelling?) So is my little boy
I am SO doing this TODAY!!! Only like week 2 of summer break and the kiddo is already going bonkers lol! As I only have my one beautiful son as of yet, I’m loving being able to look up these awesome things to do with him! Glad I found you guys, so totally looking forward to SOAP CLOUDS!!! 😀
This looks awesome! Can’t wait to see my grand-kids faces when we do this! Thanks for the video, I think I would be afraid to try it if I hadn’t first seen it done.
I will have FUN with this at the Senior Activity Center as we like to do lotsof fun and unsual things…thanks!
When I was attending Weight Watchers, my friend1 told me to come by her house. She had a birthday present for me to take to my meeting. When I got there, she had made me a cake with a figure in a bikini bathing suit! My first thought was that I could not take that to my meeting!! She started laughing and told me she had made it with Ivory snowflakes and had dyed them! I took it to my meeting!
Totally radical dude I still cant believe its not butter!
my girls loved this! thanks 🙂 they actually kept stirring with the left over until it made a gooey slop, it kept them busy for 20 minutes!!
These soap clouds are really cool. I can’t wait to do this with my third grade class. After we press them into cookie cutters, they’ll make great Father’s day gifts!
brilliant….. i want to know the back story…. who first thought… hmmmm lets put soap in the micrwave lol
We are studying clouds and just did this whole experiment right down to making it into our own shapes! I wish I had a video camera for their reaction while watching the microwave! VERY cute!!!
I teach a Pre-K class and will be hosting Summer Enrichment soon, this will be a definite project, thanks for the inspiration!
Okay, I’m definitely going to need to do this with my students! Fun science experiments are the best! Thanks to Janeen (commenter 61) for the explanation of how it works.
Could you be so kind and write down the ingredients of ivory soap, because here in Slovenia we don’t have such brands, but perhaps we have something similar. Thank you. I really want to try this.
Hi Vida,
I’m sorry I don’t have the package to look at the ingredients. It’s just a particular brand of soap so I don’t know if that would be much help. You could always order it online though!
Vida, maybe you could buy several different bars of soap. Test them to see if one floats. If it does, you might have Slovenia’s version of Ivory!
Vida, the ingredients are: Sodium Tallowate and/or Sodium Palmate, Water, Sodium Cocoate and/or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Fragrance, Coconut Acid (may contain), Palm Kernel Acid (may contain), Tallow Acid (may contain), Palm Acid (may contain), Tetrasodium EDTA
Taken from this link. (The P&G website doesn’t sell Ivory bar soap!) http://www.drugstore.com/ivory-bar-soap-personal-size-original/qxp46672?catid=184086
If you use food coloring to color the new soaps and the kids use them to wash with wont it dye the kids colors as well?
If you use food coloring to make new soaps wont it turn them the colros you use?
You can do something similar with a putty made with icing sugar and eggwhite. Roll it into balls then line the microwave tray with baking parchment and arrange marble sized balls in a circle. nuke on around 800 for around 10 seconds, you will need to tweak it a bit depending on your microwave. If you want coloured puffs, add a little food colouring to the putty.
So excited to have discovered your blog!! I’m going with Ninjago for that great devourer quote…? This is definitely something we’ll try in my 3 children household (ages 1 1/2-5) in which I am the sole nanny. We love easy, quick, & awesome projects!! 🙂
My Grandmother did the christmas tree snow in the 50″s with ivory
It was the greatest…
Great devourer! NINJAGO! I am totally doing soap clouds with my son tomorrow, I was looking for some fun stuff to do at home tomorrow thanks!!
Just a quick note for the points. The Great Devourer is from Lego Ninjago, lol. My boys love that show. (And I can`t help but I love it too!)
yep I have been watching the show even when my boy is not here with me.
I’ve read nearly all of the comments before asking this: do you use a separate food processor for soap than you use for food? Or does it clean up enough that it doesn’t effect the taste of your food?
Doesn’t it smell when you microwave soap? I microwaved soap one time for another project (plain old Ivory) and the smell was nauseating and lasted for days.
Coolest idea ever!!! I’m a preschool teacher, and we only have 3 weeks left, but I’m going to make this work into my lesson plan somewhere. It’s an awesome activity on so many levels…and ends with their most favorite thing of all…taking something home with them!!! Thanks a mil for sharing!
“Holy weird coolness!” says my six year old. We are definitely going to try it this weekend!
“The Great Devourer” is a Giant snake on Lego Ninjago. No worries it was destroyed in the season finally.
Lego Ninjago ! Moms with three boys know lots of random trivia! ( :
Awesome fun! Thanks for sharing!
Can you use other brands of soap?
I can’t wait to try this with my grandkids when they have their grandma day with me this summer!! Awesome Idea..Thanks for sharing!! I know my preschool classes would love it too but I am not THAT brave!
what fun! and I was wondering , when putting it together again, if you could add a little of your favorite oil scent, if that would work. (I must try)
I found this info today. How does it work?
Ivory soap is one of the few brands of bar soap that floats in water. But when you break the bar of soap into several pieces, there are no large pockets of air inside. If it floats in water and has no pockets of air, it must mean that the soap itself is less dense than water. Ivory soap floats because it has air pumped into it during the manufacturing process.
The air-filled soap was actually discovered by accident in 1890 by an employee at Procter and Gamble. While mixing up a batch of soap, the employee forgot to turn off his mixing machine before taking his lunch break. This caused so much air to be whipped into the soap that the bars floated in water. The response by the public was so favorable that Procter and Gamble continued to whip air into the soap and capitalized on the mistake by marketing their new creation as “The Soap that Floats!”
Why does the soap expand in the microwave?
This is actually very similar to what happens when popcorn pops or when you try to microwave a marshmallow. Those air bubbles in the soap (or the popcorn kernels or the marshmallow) contain water. Water is also caught up in the matrix of the soap itself. The expanding effect is caused when the water is heated by the microwave. The water vaporizes, forming bubbles, and the heat causes trapped air to expand. Likewise, the heat causes the soap itself to soften and become pliable.
This effect is actually a demonstration of Charles’ Law. Charles’ Law states that as the temperature of a gas increases, so does its volume. When the soap is heated, the molecules of air in the soap move quickly, causing them to move far away from each other. This causes the soap to puff up and expand to an enormous size. Other brands of soap without whipped air tend to heat up and melt in the microwave.
Thanks for sharing!