The Ivory Soap Experiment {Create Memories with Kids}

I am an interior designer turned craft/diy blogger!  My passion for interior design grew into a love of creating and one day I just decided to start blogging about it!  From home decor, DIY projects, crafts and even some food, I create and show off things that are both fabulous and SIMPLE on my blog!

Now I have two young children and both of them are used to having a schedule and a routine, so this summer I have made a plan!  My children honestly do better on a schedule so I came up with a plan to help ensure that we all have fun and all have a little down time too.Our schedule is filled with various field trips, outings, science experiments, arts and crafts.  And the other day I decided to try out an experiment that I had seen all over the internet:  The Ivory Soap Experiment!

I have no idea the original source for this project because it is literally everywhere but here is how we did it:

For this experiment, all you need is:

• 1 bar of Ivory soap (this will NOT work with other brands of soap 🙂
• large microwave safe dish
• microwave

1.  Place Ivory soap into your large microwave dish

2.  Microwave soap on high for 90-120 seconds.  (Please note that all microwaves are different, so you might need to add more time.)

The soap will grow and grow and grow.  Be sure your children have a good view of the microwave because watching the soap grow is truly the magic in this experiment!

After the soap has grown, allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Then let your children have fun playing with it!

Here are my only hints:

• It creates a HUGE mess.  And while is is cleanable….soap + wet rag = soapy mess…so…it can actually take a bit of work to clean up.  SO, let your kids play with this outside, or in the bathtub.  But maybe not on the kitchen counter where it will also drop all over your kitchen floor…just sayin’
• Your soap will only grow so big, so more time in the microwave is better then too little time.
• Only Ivory soap will work.  Seriously.

But mostly just let your kids have fun with this!

The texture of the soap, once it expands, is a bit dry and crumbly but also a little foamy so it will stick together a little bit.  Which makes this is a great sensory experience as well as a cool science experiment!  

And, honestly, it’s also a great way to spend about an hour of your summer afternoon playing with your kids!