Make Your Own Mosquito Repellent Candles

It is the season for insects to be out full force and while I seem to have some natural immunity to getting eaten alive, my children do not.

David Fisher, the candle-making expert on About.com has some good recipes and ideas on how to make citronella candles. He also includes other suggested essential oils such as clove, cedarwood, lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary and lemongrass. Check out his mosquito repelling essential oil blend recipes.

There are also lotions that contain some of these essential oils that you can apply to your skin for double duty because candles will only scare them off for so long. Peppermint, citronella and lavender smell pleasant enough to wear, yet mosquitoes detest the taste and smell of them.

Some also make their own spray with a few drops of essential oil in alcohol. That doesn’t sound too gentle for children’s skin, so I would opt for a lotion. Here’s a gentle recipe from Sunspirit Aromatherapy that’s suggested as an insect repellent, although I don’t know how effective it is as I haven’t tried it yet.
-1 drop Lavender oil
-10ml Jojoba oil

At Nospray.com (a coalition fighting against the spraying of toxins) cinnamon oil and catnip are touted to be safe alternatives to Deet. Cinnamon oil would certainly smell nice in a candle too.

With the arrival of the Japanese Encephalitis Mosquito, it has become important to make sure those pesky mosquitos are not snacking on you. Japanese encephalitis symptoms include Headache, neck pain, and Nausea. . Japanese encephalitis does have a vaccine and you should contact your local medical professional for information on obtaining this vaccination.

But how else can you protect yourself against mosquitos? Keep mosquitoes away from exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and socks, you can even wear a mosquito net hat. Tuck shirts into pants and pants into socks to cover gaps in your clothing where mosquitoes can get to your skin. For a natural repellent use essential oils for making your own Mosquito bug spray repellent. Add oils to water and spray into the air or add small drops to your clothing. Use a Necklace or Bracelet oil diffuser to help repel mosquitoes naturally. Insect bracelets and necklaces are great for children too.

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I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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