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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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Learning about Chad for Kids – Lesson Plan

Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked Central African nation bordered by Lybia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. It is the fifth largest country in Africa and is one of the poorest and most corrupt nations in the world.

Chad Basics

  • Chad is about 500,000 square miles, or 1.3 million square kilometers and has a population around 16 million. Its capital and largest city is N’Djamena.
  • Part of the Sahara Desert is in Chad, as well as an arid zone and a more fertile area. Lake Chad, for which the country is named, is the second-largest wetland area in Africa.
  • The official languages are Arabic and French, but more than 200 ethnic and linguistic groups call Chad home.
  • The land of Chad became part of French Equatorial Africa in 1920 and gained its independence in 1960, but the nation has faced civil war, coups and strife most of the time since. It has also been affected by the crisis in the neighboring Darfur region of Sudan.
  • Chad has a parliamentary system with a president and prime minister. After the president was killed by rebels in 2021, his son took over.

Chad National Symbols

The Republic of Chad’s flag features three vertical stripes of blue, yellow and red. The intent was for the colors to be a combination of the French flag and the Pan-African colors.

It was adopted in 1959 when the country was given autonomous status and has been retained ever since, though there has been concern that the flag is nearly identical to Romania’s, which sometimes causes confusion.

The national anthem is “La Tchadienne” or “Song of the Chadian.” The music was written by a Jesuit father, Paul Villard, while the lyrics were composed by another Jesuit father and his students.

 

The country has two national animals, which represent the northern and southern parts of the country: the goat and the lion. These animals are both found on the coat of arms of Chad.

The violet turaco is considered the national bird of Chad (according to some guy on X, anyway). Click through to see this pretty bird’s colorful head! The peregrine falcon is also associated with the country.

Chad Learning Activities

When learning about Chad would be a fine time to pull out your lion and goat activities. Emma Owl has some fun lion crafts, and 3 Boys and a Dog has some goat crafts and activities that may be a little bit more about farm goats, but we’ll take what we can get.

I’m not finding a lot of stuff specific to Chad, but you can find Africa activities that include Chad at Teachers Pay Teachers (and if you find a better way to search for them let me know!).

Learn about Lake Chad and see images from space to see how it has shrunk in recent decades. With older kids you can talk about why the lake is getting smaller and what people can do about it.

Listen to some traditional music from Chad and learn about common instruments like the kakaki, a long tin horn.

To try food from Chad, eat some millet! The Afrikan Store has a recipe for millet porridge that some consider the national dish of Chad, or you can try these fried millet balls from Gormandize.