Jake got Boggle Jr as a Christmas gift. I stashed it away for 'someday' and someday came this week! I assumed it was like the grown-up version (Boggle Sr.?) so I really hadn't imagined it would be of any interest to a 2 1/2 year old fella. Well, as it turns out it's pretty cool even at his age (and mine!) and is something he'll grow with as well. Basically, it's a set of cards with 3 or 4 letter words (no not THOSE 4 letter words), a set of letter dice and a tray with several ways to play. Simply looking at the cards and the words is a way to introduce a 'game'. The cards can be placed in the tray for the player(s) to find the corresponding letters and line them up with the letters on the picture, or the word on the picture can be hidden and the letter dice selected from memory. I also just lined up the dice with letters set to spell out familiar words (such as the names of our cats).Jake's attention span for games is still a bit short (he asked for Chutes and Ladders today and sort of even played for longer than usual today so it's catching on!) but I really think this is a great way to combine learning and fun!
Jake is AWESOME at his letters and singing the ABC Song. We started building an alphabet book together and it's coming along nicely. Each week (or every few days I guess really) we create a 12x12 scrapbook page with cut outs of the capital and lower case letter and various things that start with the letter. Our "A" page has an alligator and an apple and an ant and AbbyCaddaby for example. Yay for learning and yay for the Cricut cutting machine!
Soap is soap. No, this isn't another soap making post...but it is soap related. Have you ever thought about soap? Of course not! But really, other than scent or bleach additives, how different is soap from soap? Not much. I found that cheap and/or unwanted shampoo works well all over the bathroom. I use a blob on the toilet brush or squirt some in the tub or sink and scrub it around. No yucky chemicals, smells nice, easy on the hands and kid/pet friendly for storage. I use the shampoo(s) I didn't like once I tried them or that were super cheap. I rarely buy anything but food at the grocery market, but when Price Chopper has a buy-one-get-one-free sale and I have a coupon I have scored shampoos for as little as 50 cents a bottle or even free! I bet you could even get some good "substitute" tub and bowl cleaner at a dollar store. Try it! You can always go back to your stinky, bleachy, toxic chemicals if you want to! :-)
Oh how I wish I could do yoga every day. OK, I suppose technically I could if I did my own sun salutations or made up my own routines but somehow that never seems to happen. So, alas, I schlep out to the gym to flop about on the dirty floor with a bunch of other people in a big usually cold room. It's really not that bad but it's a long way to Zen. Anyhow, I do bring my own mat because I am generally grossed out by other people and dirty floors and gym yuck and I also just happen to have one. Of course rolling your mat out on said dirty floor then rolls back onto itself when I leave so I am destined to collect dirt and gack anyhow. Recently my mat was shabby unchic with dust and road salt from the car and heaven knows what else and really needed a bath. But how to clean it? I looked it up on the trusty internets and found numerous people saying wash it in the washing machine. Could it be so easy?! Yes, but there's one catch I found (we'll get to that in a minute).
So I popped my mat into my machine with a little home-made laundry soap (see previous post!) and set it to cold and left the lid open so it wouldn't go to the spin cycle. Amazingly I remembered to go back and run it through a rinse cycle (again skip the spin cycle) and I remembered to go retrieve it after it was rinsed. It stayed in one piece and looked shiny and new! Yay! I hung it in the bathroom to dry. When it seemed dry-ish I draped it over a couple of laundry baskets to make sure it got enough air circulation. Seemed I'd found a quick way to clean when I assumed it would be a big hassle. Now...the catch. It takes a seriously long time to dry. Like a looooong time. In my case, longer than I allowed because when I proudly rolled out my fresh, sanitized mat on the dusty grubby floor and plunked down on it, my socks and yoga pants got wet. As class progressed I felt like I was going to slip as I squeezed out more water with every downward dog. I didn't really create a puddle or any danger to myself or those around me, but I now know I need to use a back-up mat until I'm really sure the washer-washed one isn't wet. Despite my learning curve, I'm happy with the results, a clean mat that even has a renewed 'stickiness' to it and a few fewer germs to boot!
I happened upon instructions for making your own laundry soap and I immediately was fascinated by the prospect. I'm always glad to use fewer chemicals around the house and HELLO - SAVE MONEY! Below are ingredients, instructions and my tips based on having made this a couple of times. It's really easy, quick and oddly fun.
First off - what you will need:
- A 5 gallon bucket (I scored a perfect heavy duty one at Lowe's for $2.34)
- Sauce pan
- Hot water
- Washing soda (Arm&Hammer is the only brand I know. You can buy it at Price Chopper for about $2.99 for a 3lb 7 oz box and don't confuse it with BAKING soda they are different animals)
- A bar of soap (I used Ivory but Pure n Natural or something without additives would be fine. FelsNaptha is a laundry bar soap but I find it's too strong to use exclusively)
- Borax (I bought mine at Target for about $2.99 for a 4 lb box)
Second off - what you will do:
- Measure 4 cups of water into your saucepan and start heating to just below boiling.
- Grate the bar of soap. I used a regular cheese grater for my first batch. I used the grater attachment for the KitchenAid for my second batch. Hands down winner (pardon the pun) was the machine. You could use a food processor too. I used a full bar of Ivory and about 1/4 cup of FelsNaptha.
- Add the soap shreds to the heated water and stir occasionally until melted. Try to keep the mix from boiling. You'll end up with slightly sudsy, cloudy water.
- Pour your hot soap mix into the 5 gallon bucket and add 3 gallons of hot water. I just used hot tap water.
- Add in 1 cup of washing soda and stir for about 2 minutes or so. I used a big wooden paint stick but you could use a wooden yard stick or a long spoon or whatever you've got.
- Add 1/2 cup of Borax (if using) and stir again for about 2 minutes or so.
- If you want to add some essential oil for a bit of pretty scent, put in about 10-15 drops and stir up one last time. I made a plain batch the first time and added about 15 drops of Body Shoppe Lavender oil my second go around. My soap result was very lightly scented so I think you'd have to add a LOT to make overly scented soap. In other words don't worry about it being stinky.
Third off - what you will have:
- That's it basically! Put the bucket somewhere safe so kids, pets, or other critters can't mess with it. I put mine in the basement laundry area and used a large lobster pot lid to cover it. Let it sit overnight.
- When your new soap is thoroughly cooled it will look like whitish Jell-o. Give it a really good stir to break it up into a more pourable form. I stirred my second batch much better than the first and could easily funnel it into empty plastic milk jugs. I've also used empty laundry soap jugs. It works the same lumpy or smooth.
- When you're ready to use it just dump about 1 cup into the washer as usual and wash away. If you have a high efficiency washer I expect you'd use less but the 'gimmick' of HE laundry detergents is that they are low sudsing. This DIY stuff is already low suds so it should work a-ok in any kind of machine.
I was able to do 35 full size loads with the first batch so at less than $9 for supplies which would make at least 6 batches I calculate about 4 cents per wash. You can do 18 loads of laundry a month for under $10 a year! Tide and other commercial soaps cost between 22 and 25 cents per load so we're talking 80% off or more. This really is simple and doesn't take much time, and who wouldn't make time for a 80% off sale?!
Enjoy! Feel free to comment or email any questions and I'll try to help.
Jake got Boggle Jr as a Christmas gift. I stashed it away for 'someday' and someday came this week! I assumed it was like the grown-up version (Boggle Sr.?) so I really hadn't imagined it would be of any interest to a 2 1/2 year old fella. Well, as it turns out it's pretty cool even at his age (and mine!) and is something he'll grow with as well. Basically, it's a set of cards with 3 or 4 letter words (no not THOSE 4 letter words), a set of letter dice and a tray with several ways to play. Simply looking at the cards and the words is a way to introduce a 'game'. The cards can be placed in the tray for the player(s) to find the corresponding letters and line them up with the letters on the picture, or the word on the picture can be hidden and the letter dice selected from memory. I also just lined up the dice with letters set to spell out familiar words (such as the names of our cats).
