Gross, Gooey, Yucky Sensory Craft for Kids Who Live in the South and Don't Get Snow

Isn't that snowman the cutest? Who would've ever thought it was made of grated up Ivory Soap, some warm water, and 1/2 a roll of toilet paper.

See, Eli and Nandi are fascinated with Frosty the Snowman... courtesy of the inundation of Christmas cartoons that have been coming on since the day after Thanksgiving. And Eli just can't understand why it doesn't snow in Texas.

I can tell him why. Because Texas is God's Country and God knows that mama can't live anywhere where it dips below 75 degrees on a regular basis.

It's a fact.

So, anyway, I came across a post about Faux Snow on a blog and thought it would be perfect for the kids. Plus it promised to have a lot of sensory input for our kiddoes with SID and required all three to work on their fine motor skills by tearing up the TP into small pieces.

You know what? I never thought about how hard it is to tear up toilet paper if you have weak motor skills... which probably explains why I'm still wiping butts waaaaaaay past the age that kids should still need help doing that sort of thing. But, seriously, they could not do it. It was wild.

Here's how you do it... take one bar of Ivory Soap and grate it up into a cake pan or roasting dish - or something like that. You could have the kids do it, but I like my kids with all 10 fingers, so I decided to do it myself.

Plus, I found it oddly therapeutic.

Then you take 1/2 a roll of toilet paper and have the kids tear it into small pieces (or big pieces if that's all they can do) and mix it in the pan with the Ivory Soap. Then take some warm water and pour it into the bowl and have your kids mush it all around like this...

Yes, I'm aware that Nandi is wearing the same Superman costume in practically every picture that I've posted of her in the last 6 months.

It's her thing.

Then, just let the kids' imagination run wild. Eli made a dragon. He used buttons for the nose and rick-rack for the mouth. Up at the top, Frosty's sporting a funky rick-rack scarf... as is the creation that Nandi created below. It's meant to be a dog, but ummm, yeah.... we just nodded and smiled. Ohhhhh, yes, I see. It's a dog. Look, honey (nudge, nudge) Nandi made a doggy.

It went surprisingly well. The kids played with it daily for 4 days straight. It's pretty cool. Completely non-toxic. The only part that the kids didn't like was mushing it all up together.

"Eeeeeeeew, gross! It's nasty. Mommy, it's totally gross."

I, like, totally have no idea, you know, how my kids have ended up talking like, uh, you know, Valley Girls, you know? Like, that's totally freaky.

Eventually, though, the desire to make faux snow outweighed their sensory issues and bada bam bada bing they started sculpting away.

So, anyway, there you have it. A squishy, gooey, yucky phooey craft for kids who get to wear short-sleeves in December and think that snow is that fake stuff they decorate Six Flags' Holiday in the Park with...

Go on. All you friends up north. You hate me right? It's okay. I'd be jealous, too. ;-)