“Wash your hands!”

We have all hollered, “Wash your hands“, to our kids after they have used the restroom… and I am sure I am not the only house to discover that I am out of the pump variety of soap as my children have gone overboard with the suds.   AND, using a plain bar of soap is slippery for the kids to hold on to (and they’ve used it to draw on the mirrors).  With six kiddos, I needed something to help them independently wash their hands without leaving a disaster in thier wake.

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Felted soap pouch to the rescue!!

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We have collected a bunch of wool yarns over the years – even have a ball of reclaimed wool from an itchy sweater.   We wrapped the wool yarns around our bar of soap.

Make sure there are at least three layers of wool yarn over the entire surface of your bar of soap.
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Once it is covered, dip the soap into as hot of water as you can stand.  I used tongs.  Pull it out and rub it until suds appear.  Let it sit until it has cooled again then reheat the bar by dipping it again into very hot water.  The warm water will cause the wool to shrink and by rubbing it together vigorously the wool begins to felt.  Repeat until the yarn strands start to cling to each other.  Your wooly soap will continue to felt as you and your children wash your hands.  The soap will slowly shrink till nothing but a wool pouch remains.

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We appreciate the fact that the kids are not as destructive with this soap, compared to the pump kind or the traditional bars.  The wool helps exfoliate their hands as they suds up, great for muddy hands… AND, it looks pretty too!

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Washing Hands Song:

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How do your kids wash their hands?

Check out our other posts about soap and hygiene:

• A Science Experiment with soap:  How to make Erupting Soap.
• Learn history while handwashing with Soap Carved Arrowheads.
• Help your child be motivated to wash their hands with Treat Soap.
• Germs, Germs, Germs.  Learn about them with these kids activities.