Monday 15 February 2010

The 1900 House and Making Toothpaste


Safiya is enamoured of The 1900 House. I took the DVD's out of the library one day, intending them for myself, and one day when I wasn't feeling particularly well, I popped it in. In general Safiya is adverse to unfamiliar media, but when they started talking about not having electricity and having to use the outhouse outside, she peaked around the corner and said "watcha' watchin'?"

And so starts Homeschooling History 101 :-)

One of the things which I do on-and-off but which Safiya now helps with with increased fervor after watching the show (a gazillion times) is making toothpaste. She likes to raise her eyebrows at the idea of having to brush your teeth with just baking soda - yucccch!, and thinks our recipe is greatly improved over what they did in the 1900's (after having tried the plain baking soda :-) She actually prefers it to the fruity kids' toothpaste that she had.


Here's the recipe, adapted from my well-worn copy of Jackie French's Natural Solutions:

3 parts baking soda
2 parts calcium carbonate (which I easily ordered from the pharmacy)
1 part vegetable glycerin
drops of peppermint essential oil, as desired

Mix well. Store in whatever way is easiest for you.

The first time she made it with me we decided to use an old, well-cleaned toothpaste tube and then duct-tape the end, which worked o.k. at the beginning, but then it leaked a bit at the end.


This time we wracked our brains and found a better solution. We increased the amount of glycerin to make it a bit more runny and reused old honey bears! Perfect!


Oh, and we're well on our way with the reality-tv-show based history curriculum. We've gone through Frontier House (she's trying to convince Mr. S. to keep chickens for eggs in our backyard) and are starting Manor House (originally The Edwardian Country House). This is proper education, right? ;-)

6 comments:

Jill O. Miles said...

I adore your honey bear tooth paste. Great idea.

sweetie pie press said...

this is very inspiring.

also, did you know that library cards expire? apparently, mine has. 1900 house will have to wait for me.

Kelly Dee said...

How did it taste? I went shopping for natural toothpaste sometime ago and couldn't find any........very excited about this recipe!

I thoroughly enjoy Arm & Hammer as my regular toothpaste although anyone who stays over complains about it. I have a feeling I will like this stuff.

Unknown said...

thanks, Jill, and thanks Becky - hope your library adventures start up again soon!

And Kelly - it's kind of baking soda-y, but the surprising thing is that the glycerin has a slightly sweet taste which masks the baking soda. You can make it as minty as you want, which is great, and which is definitely the stongest taste of any of the ingedients.

Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Ahh! I remember the former days of homeschooling! Toothpaste looks interesting and you were so creative in using a honey bear!

Rush'd Lady said...

Oops! I'm not anonymous. I'm getting the hang of this blogging thing and leaving comments. Moderation is a great thing! LOL!