This month’s Sandbox press issue was a project designed with my son in mind! I found the original idea here!

My preschooler is becoming more and more independent. He is learning to do so many things on his own but there is one thing I still have to help him with or I know it won’t be done – washing his hands! With winter colds and the flu spreading so quickly amongst little ones, hand washing is a habit I want to cultivate. This month’s craft will hopefully help with that!

These soaps are easy to make and involve getting your hands messy – with soap – so kids love it! The soap is formed into a snowball around a special surprise that is revealed as your child washes his or her hands. Hand washing will become more regular as your child anticipates the special treat inside. Have your child help you pick out the small treasures at the store to increase the excitement to play with them!

Supplies:

Food Processor or cheese grater

3 bars of Ivory soap (or any other white soap)

1/3 cup warm water

4 tiny plastic toys (check age appropriateness for your child)

Makes 4 snowball soaps.

Steps:

1. Use a food processor with the grater tool to grate the bars of soap. Alternatively, you can use a cheese grater to shred the soap by hand, but this will take much longer.
2. Pour the grated soap into a large bowl.
3. Have your child pour the warm water over the soap and start to mix it together with his or her hands. The mixture should be squishy and moldable. Use a little more water if necessary to get the right texture.
4. Scoop up a handful of soap (about ¼ of the mixture) and mold it into a shallow cup in your hand. Place one of the small toys on the soap and mold the soap around it into a ball.  Repeat for three more snowballs.
5. Let the snowballs dry completely before using – about 4 hours.  
   Want a snowball soap but don’t feel like making one? No problem! Enter the GIVEAWAY here! Just leave a comment on this post telling me you favorite (or least favorite) thing about snow before February 28th! Make sure your email is correct!  I’ll choose a random winner at the end of the month! Good luck!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tracy & Carrie

I got the idea for this craft from my friend Micha over at mama:monk. She has a great blog about being a Mom and how it compares to being a monk. She can explain it better – go check her out!

She has awesome weekly posts called Thankful Tuesdays. I love being reminded to recognize how much I have to be thankful in my life. It keeps me from focusing on myself and all the things I wish I had. While teaching her 2 year old how to be thankful Micha incorporated the idea of a Thankfulness Tree. I loved this idea and made my 3 year old make one with me as well!

We started out with basic supplies: cardstock, a pen, glue and some scissors.

I cut out the tree from the green cardstock. You can draw it or trace one from online but I just went at it freehand:

Cut out your leaves from red, yellow, and orange cardstock. You may not believe this, but some trees have all different kinds of leaves growing on them! They don’t all have to look alike – unless you are a purist…

Next glue your tree onto a piece of white cardstock:

Then I had my son start listing off things he is thankful for. He then got to put the glue on the back of the leaves – this was very exciting!

I slapped on a label and there you have it – a reminder of all the things Ethan is thankful for. I hope this little craft encourages a thankful spirit in my boy!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.Help get your family in the thankful spirit with this fun Indian Corn Magnet craft! It is simple enough to complete in less than an hour and kids can easily make some to give as a great gift for Grandma, a teacher, or a friend. The beads and magnet can pose a hazard to little ones so, parental supervision of anyone under 3 is necessary

Use this project to help your child focus on the blessings in his or her life. You can make a list of things he or she is thankful for and hang it on the fridge with this magnet. You might be surprised by the things he or she will say once you get started – Mommy and Daddy, friends, or even a favorite toy. My son even added his soccer shoes and ceiling fans to his list.

Supplies:

1. Pipe Cleaners
2. 11 mm tri-beads in red, yellow, orange, clear, and tan (tri-beads are three sided stackable beads)  
3. Glue
4. Small round magnet
5. Tan colored raffia ribbon

Steps:

1. Cut your pipe cleaners in half and make an X with the two pieces, bending them together. Keep one piece up for the stem while bringing the other three down to form the Indian Corn shape.
2. String the colored beads onto each of the three pieces of pipe cleaner. You can put the beads on randomly or make a pattern. Bend the pipe cleaner at the bottom and wrap around the bottom bead to keep the beads on.
3. Knot a piece of raffia around the stem, using glue if necessary.
4. Glue your magnet onto the back of the raffia and let dry.
   Hang on the fridge to hold up your child’s most recent art project!