Bath Crayons

What is it about kids and water?  It's like they have some 6th sense and know where all the puddles are and can't resist to splash and jump in them.

Because of this draw to water, the bathtub has become my go to spot for the kids.  When I am in need of a break I throw them in the tub and sit on the floor with a book  They will spend at least 30 minutes playing with the few toys they have in there.  If I throw in some bubbles then and I can add on another 15 minutes.

A few months ago this magical go to spot was losing it's magic and they were getting tired of the toys in the tub.  I saw a pin for making your bath crayons and thought that this would be a great way to get them excited again.

Homemade Bath Crayons
Buy some glycerin soap at a craft store. Melt it in the microwave, add food coloring, and pour into a mold. I used an ice cube tray. You can also add essential oils if you go for scents, though I find that a bit unnecessary for bath crayons. Takes about an hour to cool completely, then pop out of the mold and you have crayons!

I grabbed some glycerin (you can buy it at almost any craft store) and melted it in a pot on the stove.  It's easier for me to melt things on the stove then in the microwave.  I feel like I have more control, plus things don't explode. For some reason the picture on the bag makes me giggle.  The lady in the tub is so glamorous, and she is posing with a rubber ducky.

I poured the melted glycerin in an ice cube tray and added about 3 drops of food coloring.  

Using a toothpick, I mixed the food coloring into the ice cube tray and left it to cool.  It hardened up within an hour.  

The Verdict: Nothing.  Didn't even leave a hint of a color.  My son tried it on the tile, the grout and in the tub and it just left white soapy trails. 

 I got online and found a few comments on other websites about people having the same problem I had.   One person said they melt regular soap and add food coloring to that to make bath crayons.

So I grabbed a bar of Dove and melted it on the stove. This time I used half the amount of soap and double the amount of food coloring. I mixed it all together and left it to harden.

The Verdict: Still nothing.  If you look in the grout in the photo you can see little blue flakes.  That was all I could get after rubbing the soap really hard onto the grout. 

 Even though the crayons didn't work, my kids still had fun playing with the "colorful cubes" in the bathtub that night, so it wasn't a total waste. Plus they were very clean after playing with all that soap.