If your mini-me thinks baking muffins is a treat, she’ll love creating homemade soap, which requires much of the same mixing-and-pouring action. We chose watermelon-inspired soap because it makes every bath feel like a summer day, but—more important—it makes hand-washing fun. And we could all use a little germ-fighting help, especially during flu season.

Directions

1 Bring water to a boil using your double boiler. Drop a chunk of clear soap in the pan to melt it down and stir until it’s dissolved. Add a few drops of green food coloring and some glitter, just for kicks. Now pour this substance into the mold, filling each cup about a third of the way and working fast so it doesn’t cool and become ‘globular’ before you’ve had a chance to pour it all out. Let this first layer cool before moving onto the second.

2 Repeat step one using white soap instead, which requires no addition of food coloring. Add a few drops of watermelon fragrance to the melted substance and pour into the mold (on top of your first layer). Surprise! A spritz of hand sanitizer will eliminate any bubbles while enhancing our watermelon-wellness theme.

3 Melt down another chunk of clear soap and add red food coloring and poppy seeds for that final, fruity touch. It will look like raspberry jam and almost good enough to eat (but please don’t). Pour into the mold. Let sit until firm—the layers will adhere to each other and they should pop out as one piece fairly easily when the mold is turned upside down. Be careful not to add any weird or wildly strong fragrances to your soap if your kids have sensitive skin—we don’t want you to end up with fire-melon soap!