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SoapyLove book review

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516h37O9EOL._SS500_Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove has published her first book, SoapyLove: Squeaky-clean projects using melt and pour soap, and it does not disappoint!  SoapyLove is not only a great introductory book for the beginner melt and pour soap crafter, but will teach soapmaking veterans some new tricks as well.

The first portion of the book has an overview of  basic melt and pour techniques and materials, such as preventing surface bubbles; adding colorants, micas, and fragrances; layering soaps; and cutting soap. The balance of the book is dedicated to projects and more detailed techniques.  Some of the skills taught are layering, embedding shapes, cutting out shapes, soap on a rope, marbling, and using transfer sheets to create designs.

There are 25 wonderful projects included in SoapyLove, and several of the projects also have other suggested ideas for the skills used in the project. Projects include cameo bars, checkered stars, heavenly bars (clouds and grass with a blue sky), marbled ice cream cones, soap tarts (toaster pastries), and soap candies.  A couple of my personal favorites include the flame bars and plaid soaps.

Each project has lots of full color pictures and step-by-step instructions. While some of the projects are better suited to more advanced melt and pour soapcrafters, beginners should have no problem with the majority of the projects included.

The only thing that I would like to have been included would be a short resource guide in the back as a reference.  While Chialtas does mention some brand names of items and the occasional store, it would be helpful, especially for beginners, to have a resource guide giving more specific information on where to find some of the items, such as fragrances and molds, from such a seasoned soapmaker.  All in all, this is definitely the best melt and pour soap crafting book that I have seen!  Pick it up for only $19.99 at your favorite bookstore.

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Apple Learning Activities

When apples are in season or at back to school time are great times to learn with apples. Whether you use real apples or just apple shapes, it adds a sweet dimension to your lessons. 

Reading and Writing with Apples

Because it’s the beginning of the school year, too, there are lots of apple crafts having to do with name recognition for the little kids. You can just take foam apple shapes and write letters or the children’s names on the apples, or make an apple tree name craft like this one from Simple Everyday Mom. The post includes a tree template and apple shapes to make the craft. 

Or practice individual letter recognition with this apple find the letter activity from PBS. You can also write letters on a tree shape and use paint or do a dot markers to cover the letters as you recognize them like in this idea from Growing Book by Book. The ABC apple tree from Stir the Wonder is another good one for recognizing individual letters.

Only Passionate Curiosity has a (paid) really cute read and writing mini book about apples, and DLTK has two printable mini books, one easier and one more challenging, about planting a seed and waiting for it to grow apples. Learn colors as you read the mini book I See Apples from Fun-A-Day.

And Look We’re Learning has cute printable apple shapes with common CVC words on them that you can play with in lots of different ways.

Apple Math

Fun-A-Day has a printable counting book featuring apples, so you can get a little math and literacy in at once. This one has the child add the apples, or you can use their 10 red apples book that already has the apples in the tree.

Natural Beach Living has printable counting apple cards as well as apple count and clip cards you can use for practicing one to one correspondence (you can also use beads or other manipulatives instead of clips if you want).

Use paper plate apples (and a real apple) to explain fractions to kids with this idea from Crafty Kids at Home.

Learn to count to ten and get some fine motor skill practice along the way with the golf tee ten frame from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

Apple Science 

Learn about the life cycle of the apple and much more with this set of (paid) printables from Simple Everyday Mom.

Creative Family Fun has a great set of apple science experiments. Make an apple volcano, try different ways to preserve apples, make apple boats and more. And of course you’ll want to have an apple taste test or explore what happens when you add heat to apples (apple pie or apple sauce!).

And check out this great apple investigation activity for little kids from Early Learning Ideas, which shows kids lots of different ways to measure and classify real apples based on their color, weight, size and more. (Includes paid resources)

More Apple Learning

Get a great apple unit study for preschoolers and kindergarten from Real Life at Home. Every Star is Different has a Montessori-inspired preschool apple unit with free printables (hers as well as links to others). 

You can find more unit studies and activity ideas from Natural Beach Living and How Wee Learn.

10 DIY Apple Scented Candles You Can Make At Home [Candle Making]

20 Apple Crafts for Fall [Felting]

19 Apple Activities And Crafts For Kids [Kids Crafts]