Candle Making For Kids: How To Keep It Safe

venturist | Mar 31, 2010 |

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The process of candle making is one that can be a lot of fun. It is amazingly simple to make candles right at home and you can find all the supplies you need at a nearby crafts or candle making store. There are more people than ever before who are actually starting up their own candle making business and most are quite successful with it. Candle making for kids is possible you will just have to make sure you are there to take care of all the dangerous steps and just have them there to enjoy it with you.

Getting the kids to help you pick out the supplies can be a lot of fun and you do not have to worry about them getting hurt. Each candle making recipe can vary but the basic supplies you will need are wicks, containers and fragrance if you want to make an aromatherapy candle. Paraffin wax candles are the oldest type of candle, but also the soy and gel candles which burn longer and cleaner and they are therefore more preferred by most. Now that you have your supplies you can put some aprons on the kids and get started with heating the wax or gel you have purchased.

Never allow the temperature to get any higher than 180 as this can end up burning the mixture. The fragrance needs to be added next and remember to keep the kids away from the heating element while you are doing this, although they can drip the fragrance oil in from above if you are watching carefully. You can get the kids to do this part and you can decide how potent you want the candle to be, but you typically only have to use a few drops of any essential oil. You can pretty much tell by your nose how much fragrance to put it, just enough that it smells nice but is not overpowering.

As you are melting this mixture together, you can get a child to glue one end of the wick down onto the bottom of the candle container. You only need a dab of glue to hold the end of the wick onto the bottom of the container and the length of the wick should be an inch longer than the container. Do not let the child help with this part because even just a drop of the hot liquid on their skin will hurt. Keep the wick held out of the way to make sure it does not get wet, because you will not be able to light the candle once it is finished if the wick is covered in wax.

To hold the wick up while the wax is drying, use a clothespin. There are also some handy little devices you can find at candle making stores that will work just as well. You can find something fun to do with the kids for the rest of the day and in about five hours the candle will be dry. The kids are going to love being involved in something like this and they will be so proud of what they helped work to create.