Life in Lape Haven

Tag - parenting

My Kids’ New Favorite Fun App

March 8, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: My Kids' New Favorite Fun App. While we limit our boys' screen time, we do like it when we find good, educational children's apps that they love to play. There are some they enjoy a lot and a new one that is their favorite.

(Shhh! It’s Educational!)

By the way, this post contains affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, I may receive a small commission when you make a purchase through the links.

This Christmas my hubby really, really wanted to get our boys a tablet so they could play their ABCMouse.com and other learning apps and games without risking Daddy’s Surface or draining Mommy’s phone. When he found a good deal on a Kindle Fire, I acquiesced, even though I didn’t think my boys’ needed access to yet another screen.

However, with parental controls for when they can play, what they can play, and how long they can play, the tablet has actually been a very good tool for our boys. (Yes, Brad was right.) My favorite parental control setting is the one that requires the boys to spend at least a certain amount of time playing the educational apps before they can even see the icons for the “fun only” games.

This meant, though, that we needed to find some really good educational app options for them. We definitely included ABCMouse, but we wanted them to have more to choose from. I also preferred they be inexpensive, or better yet, FREE. Some of the good ones we found are totally free, while others are free but have more with the paid upgrade, and still others are, at most, a few dollars.

Since the boys each have their own profile, we can customize who gets what apps, so Josiah’s educational apps are the counting, colors, shapes, and ABC ones. Ones that he seems to really enjoy are Toddler Counting 123, Phonics Island by 2 2Learn (we upgraded from the free), and Monkey Preschool Fix It! (I really like that one)

For Elijah, some of the apps we included were Phonics Island (even though he’s reading well), Sight Words & Flash Cards Volume 1 by 2 2Learn (also upgraded), and Monkey Word School Adventure, plus some free Kindle books that he can read.

They have been doing well with using their learning apps, and I can definitely tell that the boys are learning, especially Josiah, who has been counting things and trying to identify letter sounds.

Life in Lape Haven: My Kids' New Favorite Fun App. While we limit our boys' screen time, we do like it when we find good, educational children's apps that they love to play. There are some they enjoy a lot and a new one that is their favorite.

However, the other day, Elijah asked if we could find him a new game or app for the tablet and offered to pay for it with his own money from his piggy bank.

We did a quick search on Amazon for apps for kids, and I sorted the results by the highest customer rating. That’s how we found ThinkRolls 2. This app had a 5-star rating from 97-percent of the reviewers, with the remaining 3-percent giving it 4 stars.

If you’ve never heard of the app (we hadn’t), here is some of the game description:

“Thinkrolls 2 is an enlightening logic puzzler for kids 3-9…Children must use all their wits to navigate 28 spunky characters through 235 levels of increasingly complex mazes (117 for ages 3-5 and 118 for ages 5-9)… This clever game of logic keeps kids on their toes as they use properties of matter and basic physics to make their Thinkrolls not only roll, but float, glide, and teleport through a series of themed chapters. Each gradually introduces a new scientific concept in an accessible, easy to understand way. As kids explore and master, through trial and error, how to navigate the twists, turns and many pitfalls, they gain confidence in their deductive reasoning and ability to problem solve.”

It intrigued me, so I looked for reviews outside of Amazon and found this YouTube video, which shows you how the app is played.

Elijah watched along with me, and just a little way into it, he was saying, “Yes, I want that one.”

Not only does Elijah LOVE it, but so does Josiah, and I have been very surprised and impressed to watch them figure out how to move their character through the maze and the obstacles. They are learning how to think through steps to solve a problem, and when they make a mistake, the character doesn’t die. They just hit the do-over button at the top corner, and they can try again. Plus, the game lets them keep trying and trying until they get it. It isn’t timed, there’s no limit on do-overs, and no help prompts, unless you, as the parent, give them a nudge.

Life in Lape Haven: My Kids' New Favorite Fun App. While we limit our boys' screen time, we do like it when we find good, educational children's apps that they love to play. There are some they enjoy a lot and a new one that is their favorite.

Each time they finish a level, they unlock a new little character, which Elijah said is his favorite part. Once he completes the “easy” levels, we can bump him up to the harder levels and see how he does, so the game can kind of grow with them. You can also have up to 6 player profiles on the game with different difficulty settings, so you can have your preschooler and elementary kids playing at their own levels. The game automatically starts wherever you leave off.

By the way, this game isn’t only for kids. When I had Brad play it the other night, I later had to suggest that he quit playing and get ready for bed. Haha. It IS really fun.

It is a purchased app, but the few dollars have already been more than worth it for my boys…all three of them. 🙂

Why Our Child Goes to Public School

March 3, 2016
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Why Our Child Goes to Public School, Life in Lape Haven. When we prayed for direction about our child's education, God's answer was public school and trusting Him.

Toward the end of Elijah’s kindergarten year, as I dropped him off at school, I noticed the message on the school marquee sign for the next year’s kindergarten registration. I could hardly believe that it had been almost a year since that same announcement had made my heart sad.

The previous year at that time, Brad and I were still debating somewhat about what God wanted us to do about Elijah and school. Should we home school him, look into the cost of private schools, or enroll him in public school? Elijah was more than ready to start school, so waiting another year wasn’t an option.

Life in Lape Haven: Why Our Child Goes to Public School. When we prayed for direction about our child's education, God's answer was public school and trusting Him.

Public school really wasn’t my first choice, even though I received most of my education in public schools. My time in school was several years ago, though, and with all the changes in our culture and our world, I wasn’t sure about registering my 4-year-old little boy to attend public school.

Of course, sending him anywhere else, even a private Christian school, would have been hard for me. I loved having him home with me every day, and he did well on ABCMouse.com and learned easily, so I did consider homeschooling him. I would have enjoyed it, at least most of the time, I think. I just wasn’t ready to send my child out into the world.

However, my husband and I prayed about it and waited for God’s leading.

God’s answer? “Nope,” to both homeschooling and private school.

When that March came around, I walked into our local elementary school and registered our little boy for kindergarten. And while registration was the first step, the hardest was going to be his first day.

However, God was already ready to prove to me that He was in control. (He is gracious enough to remind us of what we should already know).

A few days before Elijah’s first day was the school open house where Elijah and I got to go through the school, explore his classroom, and most importantly, meet his teacher. Elijah was a bit shy since he was both nervous and excited, but all it took was a short conversation about her room theme of bees. Elijah found out that his teacher was a beekeeper just like my dad. Then they talked about all kinds of bugs, and Elijah was sold. His teacher was ready for Elijah’s curiosity and energy, and I knew that it was going to be a good year for my little boy.

Life in Lape Haven: Why Our Child Goes to Public School. When we prayed for direction about our child's education, God's answer was public school and trusting Him.

It was like God just put His arm around me, giving me peace.

In prepping Elijah for his first day, I felt compelled to share with him about how Brad and I had prayed for God’s direction. I told him, “Since this is where God wants you to go, then God has a plan and purpose for you here in this specific school, in this particular class, and with this exact teacher.”

I reminded myself of that a few days later as my hubby and I watched our little boy follow his teacher down the hall to his classroom on his very first day of school. Then I went home and cried and wrote about it.

My baby was out in the world without me for the first time. I couldn’t filter what others would say or do, couldn’t protect him, or comfort him. He was completely out of my hands, and I was placing him in God’s.

Even though I can trust God to be with me in difficult times, it’s harder to trust Him with my children, which seems silly. Either I trust Him with everything, even my children, or I don’t.

It’s important that I do.

Life in Lape Haven: Why Our Child Goes to Public School. When we prayed for direction about our child's education, God's answer was public school and trusting Him.

How is Elijah going to learn to put his trust in God in every situation if he never has to? 

Slowly the days passed, and it got easier to walk away from the school gate every morning. Elijah loved school, and he was thriving.

Confirmation of God’s design in it all started to trickle in.

First and foremost was Elijah’s teacher. She was the exact teacher that he needed. She loved science (including bugs), appreciated Elijah’s thought processes, and enjoyed hearing how he thinks things through. She encouraged his curiosity and challenged him to do his best and learn more. Elijah is a very bright boy, and thankfully his teacher kept him interested and engaged. She applauded his creativity, allowed him to read “books” he’d written (mostly pictures) to the class, and enthusiastically accepted all the drawing and “creations” he took to her almost daily.

Elijah was always excited about his day and anxious to learn.

However, the other big thing that reiterated God’s plan was seeing how confidently Elijah lived out his faith on his own and the witness he was to those around him in school. He had some issues earlier that year with a little girl who was being mean to others and acting like a bully. Despite that, Elijah showed such compassion and patience for her over the months of school, trying to help her, sharing pencils when she needed them, being her friend as much as he could, and praying for her.

He also peppered his schoolwork with Bible story references and Jesus, and he wrote several journal entries that talked about God.

 

He invited his teacher to his Christmas program, and sure enough, she attended and sat with my family that Sunday at our church.

Then there was the day he came home from school and nonchalantly told me about how he’d spent his recess PRAYING ON THE PLAYGROUND, kneeling down off to the side of the slides, and just talking to God.

None of those things are things we had told him to do, besides being nice to everyone and praying for others. It was his own light shining from his own love for God, not in a noisy, flaunting way, but naturally and gently and authentically.

Those moments wouldn’t have happened if he’d been homeschooled, and it might not have seemed as genuine had he been in a Christian school setting.

Because we trusted God and allowed our child a chance to trust Him, Elijah had (and continues to have) the opportunity to make an impact right where God wanted him to.

Trusting God and sharing His love with others – that’s one of the most important lessons any of us can ever learn.

 

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YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Trusting God Through Kindergarten

For Such a Time As This

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Choosing the Good Part

February 18, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Choosing the Good Part - Embracing the extra time with my children that comes with a snow day, and remembering that I can choose to be distracted like Martha or I can choose the good part like Mary did. I'll take time with my boys over my to-do list.

Here in Ohio, our winter has been incredibly mild this year, and we were all really happy with that, minus not having a white Christmas. However, the last few weeks have brought the cold, snowy weather that we are more familiar with for this time of year.

Only this year, we’ve got a little boy in school. Once the real winter weather arrived, Elijah quickly figured out that snowy weather could not only potentially mean fun outside, but if you’re lucky, it might mean a day off school, too!

He began looking forward to a snowy forecast in hopes of a snow day, and in all honesty, so did I. Not only because I like having Elijah at home, but also because a snow day MIGHT mean we all get to sleep in a little bit. 🙂

Then came last week’s winter storm, a stomach bug, and another winter storm this past weekend.  Elijah had three snow days in a row, followed by a sick day, and then two more snow days the beginning of this week. Wednesday was his first day back to school since last Monday!

Normally, Josiah and I have a pretty good routine during the day while Elijah is at school. He helps me do things around the house, we play, he naps, we go get Elijah.

So, what did I do when two little boys were begging for my attention all day?  

Either I could let the boys entertain each other while I got some housework done, or I could embrace the extra time with my big boy at home and set aside some time to enjoy my children.

Life in Lape Haven: Choosing the Good Part - Embracing the extra time with my children that comes with a snow day, and remembering that I can choose to be distracted like Martha or I can choose the good part like Mary did. I'll take time with my boys over my to-do list.

While I did my best to maintain our home, do some laundry, and load the dishwasher, for the most part, I spent time with Elijah and Josiah. Just looking at how quickly they have both grown and changed in the past year, I know it’s important not to miss any opportunities to be with them.

It can be hard for me, though, to step away from my to-do lists. I want an orderly home with clean floors and tidy rooms for my boys to play in. (Of course, once my boys have played in them, they’ll need to be cleaned up again)

There are so many things that I could be doing FOR my family that I sometimes have to remind myself to let it go so that I can be WITH my family.

It’s kind of like Mary and Martha in the Bible, where Martha spends so much time making everything nice for Jesus while Mary spends that same time enjoying Jesus.

Luke 10: 38-42 tells us, “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’

And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’”

It says that Martha was “distracted” – that means she wasn’t focused on the right thing. She was missing out. I know there have been days where I’ve been distracted from interacting with my boys, focusing instead on the housework (there’s never an end to it), working on my blog (writing, planning, sharing on social media), or something else that can wait.

My boys are growing up every day. If I spend my days with them distracted by other things, I’ll miss out, and there’s no getting those days back.

Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the good part, the one thing that is needed. In the New Living Translation, verse 42 says, “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it…”

Of all the things in my home, what’s the ONE thing worth being concerned about over anything else? My family.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I should neglect our home and never take care of it. Nor does it mean that I need to be at my children’s beck and call every minute of the day as their constant source of entertainment and diversion. They NEED to be able to play on their own.

However, I don’t want to be so distracted with my to-dos that I’m missing the good part. I want to spend time with my boys, making memories that “will not be taken away from” me or them.

So with these snow days, that’s what I did.

With the first storm, the wind chills were in the single digits at points, so our outdoor time was limited to a very short adventure in some very fine, powdery snow. Stuck inside, Elijah and I taught Josiah how to play “Go Fish,” we did paint with water projects, and Elijah practiced his reading by doing story time for us each morning. One day we spent several hours making rocket ships out of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, foil, bubble wrap, lots of tape, and tons of imagination.

With this last snow, it was a bit warmer, so we braved the slushy roads and spent an entire day at a snow day playdate with my nephews, where the boys all worked together to make a snowman.

Since Elijah was so good at rolling snowballs and since the boys hadn’t had time with Daddy out in the snow, on Wednesday when he got home from school, Brad and I took the boys outside, and we created the biggest (and heaviest!) Lape family snowman to date.

Sure, I could have stayed inside to work on dinner while my hubby supervised the boys, but these last few snow days have been a sweet reminder to me: Just like the snow, my boys’ childhoods will pass quickly.

I want to focus on what’s worth being concerned with, so I chose the good part, put down my to-dos, and put on my boots and gloves.


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Our “Vision Verse” for Our Children

February 8, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Our Vision Verse for Our Children. This Bible scripture pretty well sums up everything we want to teach our boys about following God and His will for their lives.

Several years ago, I began leading the children’s ministry at the church where my hubby and I attended at the time. We were in a small church, so I usually only had a handful of students. However, no matter the size of my class, it was important to me to give them all a solid foundation in the Word and a realization that God not only wanted a real and personal relationship with them right now, but He could also use them no matter their age and had great plans for their futures as well.

Part of instilling that message was the “Vision Verse” that God gave me for the children’s ministry, which was Daniel 11:32b: “The people who know their God will be strong and take action.”

For the first month or so after I started teaching them, we learned this verse, complete with motions (kids always learn stuff better with movement), and we talked about what it meant.

Lately I’ve been thinking about that verse again, and how it’s the same vision my husband and I have for our own children now. Over the next few weeks, I plan to introduce this vision verse to our boys and share with them the same things that I taught my students about how it applies to them.

Life in Lape Haven: Our Vision Verse for Our Children. This Bible scripture pretty well sums up everything we want to teach our boys about following God and His will for their lives.

The People who KNOW THEIR GOD

Since we are “the people” who should know our God, Brad and I want our children to understand how we can know God, how we spend time with Him, and how having a relationship with Him and truly knowing Him is different than just knowing ABOUT Him. It’s easy for children who are always in church and surrounded by Christian family members, Christian music, and Bible stories to know a lot ABOUT God.

The crucial point, though, is KNOWING HIM personally. And they can start that NOW, even at very young ages.

We want our boys to love God with all their hearts, to be able to pray and talk to Him on their own (and WANT to), to know His voice and recognize His leading, and to understand the importance of reading their Bibles. We want them to know what the Bible says about God and His character – His love, His goodness, His mercy, His holiness, and His justice.

Will BE STRONG

As children of God who know Him well, we should be strong. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, the same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11). Because of this, we can be bold and courageous in our faith, and we are empowered to face temptation and choose obedience to God.

Both of our boys are strong-willed, like their mommy, and they are all about being strong, like super heroes, so this part shouldn’t be too hard for them to grasp. We want our boys to know that since God is with us, we can be powerful, tenacious, determined, and tough warriors who can live a life of no compromise, one that is holy and different from the world.

Life in Lape Haven: Our Vision Verse for Our Children. This Bible scripture pretty well sums up everything we want to teach our boys about following God and His will for their lives.
And TAKE ACTION

Once we truly know Him Whom we have believed, we are bold and courageous to take action, whatever that might be. It could be as simple (and difficult) as being kind to someone who isn’t nice to us or going wherever God asks us to go to reach the world with His love.

We don’t want our children to be content sitting back and doing nothing for God. We want to encourage them to use their gifts and talents in whatever ways He leads them. Our desire is for them to be active in their church, active in sharing their faith with others, and active in pursuing God and His purpose for their lives.

As parents we have the honor and responsibility of laying the spiritual foundation for our children. And while I have always aimed to give my all in teaching my students in the past and my preschool Sunday school class now, my biggest, most important ministry is to our little boys. Brad and I want to make certain that they truly KNOW their GOD, so they can BE STRONG in Him and TAKE ACTION whenever He calls them to.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL VERSE FOR YOUR FAMILY?

I also have a verse that has become my “Mommy Motto.”

*Note: I chose an easier translation of the verse for the children to learn. In the King James, the entire verse is this: “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Exploits is a cool word, but a little harder for young children to understand and remember compared to “take action.”

 

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For Such a Time As This: Placing Our Children’s Future in God’s Hands

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Pausing to Be Grateful

January 28, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Pausing to Be Grateful. My recent participation in an Instagram photo challenge reminded me of the importance of daily counting my blessings and being thankful.

This post contains an affiliate link for the book. At no additional cost to you, I may receive a small commission if you use the link.

Over the last couple weeks, as part of the Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World launch team, I have been participating in an Instagram Daily Photo Challenge with the theme of “What are you grateful for?”

The challenge was inspired by the Gratitude Bracelet we received from the book’s author, Kristen Welch (We are THAT Family). The bracelet is made by women at the Mercy House, the maternity home in Kenya that Kristen founded. (For more on Mercy House, check out this short video.)

It’s a white-bead bracelet with three copper beads. Each copper bead is for a different question that will remind you to be grateful every day.

  1. Who do I appreciate today?
  2. Today, what made me smile?
  3. How was God good today?

Life in Lape Haven: Pausing to Be Grateful. My recent participation in an Instagram photo challenge reminded me of the importance of daily counting my blessings and being thankful.

WHO DO I APPRECIATE TODAY?

So, for the first five days, the challenge was to share “a different person each day who you appreciate.”  I’m pretty sure this was the easiest one for all of us. There were pictures of everyone’s husbands, children, best friends, parents, pastors, and so on.  However, even though we generally KNOW that we’re thankful for our families and friends, it’s something else entirely to pause in our day and really think about why we are so thankful for them and to truly take time to appreciate them. I could probably have filled all two weeks of the photo challenge on this question alone.

 

TODAY, WHAT MADE YOU SMILE?

The next five days, though, were devoted to “something that made you smile.”

To quote Buddy the Elf, “I like smiling. Smiling’s my favorite.”

I’m usually a “pretty positive, find the silver-lining, there’s always something to be thankful for, let’s play the Glad game with Pollyanna” kind of girl. Even when I have those tough days in motherhood, I don’t stay in the yucky too long. I’ll soon be looking for the good, the giggles, and the grins.

Therefore, Question Two was, again, another easy way to count my blessings.

HOW WAS GOD GOOD TODAY?

Then we got to the five days of God’s goodness, and I was stumped.

It was not because God hasn’t been good, but rather because He is SO good that it was hard to narrow it down.

After some pondering, my first photo of “How God was good today,” I took a picture of the Bible I’ve had since 10th grade, opened to a scripture that I’d circled at some point during my youth group years: Psalm 71:17 & 18: “O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is come.”

Life in Lape Haven: Pausing to Be Grateful. My recent participation in an Instagram photo challenge reminded me of the importance of daily counting my blessings and being thankful.

Having followed God since early childhood, my life has been full of God proving His goodness and faithfulness to me over and over again.

Loving me, saving me, knowing me, keeping me. That kind of goodness is hard to capture in one little Instagram picture. It would be hard to capture with a million.

The rest of my photos for the challenge were maybe less serious, but they still celebrated God’s goodness with joy:

A side-by-side of a cherry pie bar dessert I made and one of Josiah’s recent selfies.  Elijah’s to-do list for Sunday. A glimpse into my preschool Sunday school class. Homemade chicken and dumplings. My Mercy House gratitude bracelet.

 

While the challenge was for fun and to help promote gratefulness and Kristen’s new book, it also served its most meaningful purpose when it reminded me of how important it is to stop in the busyness of every day and appreciate each little detail and blessing that God has placed in our lives and His wonderful lovingkindness, mercy, and goodness in doing so.

Let me challenge you today to pause, take a minute, and think about what you would share: five people you appreciate, five things that make you smile, and five ways that God has been good to you.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  ~ James 1:17

How has God been good to you this week?

If you’d like, you can purchase your own gratitude bracelet from Mercy House, and you’ll be supporting young mothers and their children. That’s one more thing to be thankful for. 🙂

—

If you haven’t yet entered the giveaway to win a copy of Kristen Welch’s newest book,

Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World,

ENTER TODAY!

Life in Lape Haven: Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World Giveaway - You can win a copy of Kristen Welch's wonderful new book.

Giveaway is open until Friday, January 29, at 11:59p.m. US residents only.

See giveaway terms for more details.

A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get Silly Putty Out of Fabric

January 26, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get Silly Putty Out of Fabric. When I ended up with a pocketful of putty from my 2-year-old, I found a very easy solution for getting silly putty out of the fabric.

Remember that day not too long ago where my day was so epically bad that I had to post about it? Yeah, the day with not one, but two potty-training accidents in an hour, spilled milk and flour, scorched dinner, and general chaos?

Remember how I ended that night with such a sweet surprise of silly putty in my back jean pocket?

Well, good news!

I got all that silly putty out, even the deeply smashed in parts, and it was ridiculously simple.

Life in Lape Haven: A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get Silly Putty Out of Fabric. When I ended up with a pocketful of putty from my 2-year-old, I found a very easy solution for getting silly putty out of the fabric.

First off, as soon as I discovered the silly putty, I pulled out as much as I could. But of course, since I’d sat on it for a while before I found it, it was stuck pretty well.

There was a good bit of silly putty left smooshed into the fabric, and I had no idea how to get it off. I actually waited a day or two before even trying to tackle the mess because I was a little worried that it would require a lot of effort.

Life in Lape Haven: A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get Silly Putty Out of Fabric. When I ended up with a pocketful of putty from my 2-year-old, I found a very easy solution for getting silly putty out of the fabric.

After I pulled out as much silly putty as I could by hand.

However, I also had a few pairs of Elijah’s jeans marked up with dry erase marker, so I decided to experiment on both problems at the same time.

I investigated silly putty remedies on Pinterest and Google, and I found that many solutions called for ice cubes or freezing the silly putty and/or rubbing alcohol and WD40.

*SPOILER ALERT* – None of those are the easy solution that I found!

I did try stuffing the pocket with ice cubes, and I managed to pick a few tiny pieces off after the ice froze the putty, but glancing around at my table, I spotted something else that I decided to try.

Hand sanitizer.

With its alcohol-base but thicker consistency, I had just seen it help somewhat to get dry erase markers out of Elijah’s jeans, and since so many silly putty solutions suggestion rubbing alcohol, the hand sanitizer was worth a try.

I turned the pocket inside out, with the putty-iest parts showing and squirted some sanitizer on it.

Life in Lape Haven: A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get Silly Putty Out of Fabric. When I ended up with a pocketful of putty from my 2-year-old, I found a very easy solution for getting silly putty out of the fabric.

Hand sanitizer on the pocket.

All I did was massage the gel into the putty and use my nails to scrub it in a bit. A few seconds of working it in, and the putty dissolved, leaving the jeans clean.

That was it. A few more squirts of the sanitizer and rubbing it in, and the pocket was done. All the silly putty was gone without a whole lot of effort.

After that, I just washed the jeans as I normally would.*

It was amazingly simple.

*Note: Since hand sanitizer is alcohol-based, it might stain some fabrics, such as silk. As with all cleaners, test an inconspicuous spot of the fabric first.

With boys, I’ve learned how to handle all kinds of stains:

How to Get Dry Erase Marker Out of Clothing

How to Get Grease Stains (even set-in ones) Out of Clothing

How to Get Grass Stains Out of Clothes


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