Shampoo-making fun

It’s June! Which means the school holidays are upon us. While that technically makes no difference to my kids who are on permanent school holiday, I’m happy because June means I’ve got lots of options to keep the kids occupied with fun and potentially educational activities.

After 5 months of home-schooling, I’m running out of ideas to make learning FUN AND EXCITING for the kids. Crayons? Boring! Chalk on the sidewalk? Huh, not again! Clay modeling? Don’t want. All they want to do is sit on the couch and watch Pixar animated movies all day. But no, I never agree to that because I’m a VERY RESPONSIBLE mother. Except when I’m busy. Or tired. Or feel like being a slug and watching Monsters, Inc for the 25th time.

Last weekend, we brought the kids for a shampoo-making class organized by Little Newtons at Forum, Orchard. It was great because 1) I’ve never made my own shampoo before, 2) the kids could learn something scientific for a change and 3) I could steal the recipe and never have to buy shampoo again.

The lesson was meant for kids above 4 but the prerequisite for joining was the ability to hold a beaker and stir, which my kids are fairly good at after all those cooking lessons.

Peruse Specimen A: stirring like champs.

In fact, Tru was stoning away like “um, you got something more challenging for me? I can stir without looking aight…”

I was surprised that they enjoyed it as much as they did because this is not what happens when I conduct lessons at home. They just sat there and listened to words like ammonium chloride and super-shampoo-strawberry-serumide (or it could have been some superlong sulphate word) with rapt attention.

I tried doing a science lesson at home once and they were climbing everywhere and stuffing toys in my nostrils. Not cool, guys.

They got to present their work to the class right at the end, which was a nice touch because it’s never too early for kids to learn public speaking.

BTW, if you’re into home-made shampoos and stuff, you probably want to check out Four Cow Farm, an organic range of home-made shampoos and baby creams. The kids have been using it for a couple of weeks and it’s really quite good. I love the Nappy Balm and the Calendula Remedy, which are like a miracle balms for eczema, rashes, bites, minor cuts, burns and grazes. I keep it in the fridge and now the kids know how to ask for the “cold cream” when they’re itching or injured.

According to company founder, Delphinia, all the ingredients are pure enough to eat and they’re all cooked in a huge pot in her mother-in-law’s kitchen in Australia. That’s pretty awesome.

PS. Update from Delphinia: These days, the products aren’t make in the kitchen anymore because it got too small so they converted one of the old dairy sheds into a production/kitchen room and her MIL makes the products there. So instead of a regular kitchen, it’s now made in a larger sort of kitchen that’s just dedicated to cooking creams.