You might have read a previous post of mine about my 5 year old’s bee project. I wrote that post over 3 months ago now and the interest in bees is still going. I find that pretty amazing for a 5 year old. She is still interested, and learning so much. Recently we branched out from just learning about bees and how they make honey, to looking at the other products they make.

She has been watching a lot of videos on youtube and learning about how the wax is collected from the hive and processed.

We were recently lucky enough to be gifted some beeswax products from the lovely Lauren at Spiral Garden, which provided a perfect opportunity to really get a good look at what beeswax looks like and what kind of things can be made with it.

Firstly, don’t you just love receiving things from family businesses? The little details always make it special. Look at the little bee stamps Lauren has put on the package! Miss 5 was very excited to see what was inside.

Inside we found a beeswax candle making kit, some beeswax crayons, and a block of pure beeswax.

Don’t they look so inviting? You can see a little someone waiting not so patiently in the background there for me to hurry up and stop taking photos.

They couldn’t wait to get their hands on them. First they had a feel of the wax sheets and described what they felt like.

Then they wanted to smell them…

‘They even smell like honey Mum!’

Before we started with the candle making we decided to use the crayons and do some crayon rubbings. They girls created lovely hexagonal patterns.Time to make some candles. It was really very simple. We simply cut the sheets into the sizes we liked…

…measured and cut the wick…

…folded the wax over, pressing down to secure the wick…

…and then rolled the candle up!

The trickiest part was making sure to roll straight so that the candle would have a flat bottom. But with a little bit of practice and reminding, even Miss 3 was able to make them independently.

They continued until they had made 5 candles each.

Noticing a little scrap of wax, Miss 5 decided to decorate her candles. I was then instructed to cut up more strips for them to decorate them all. I thought this was a lovely touch, and they’re very unique.

Miss 3’s finished candles.

Miss 5’s candles. Aren’t they all beautiful?

While we were working, the baby girl got to use the crayons to make some marks on paper. It’s nice to have some crayons that I don’t need to worry about her putting in her mouth, as you can see they got the taste test!

We still have some of the wax sheets leftover so we’ll definitely be doing this again, the girls loved it. It was such a lovely sensory experience. We might also melt the block of beeswax to make more candles but for now Miss 5 wanted to keep it on her project shelf to look at and smell. The girls remembered last year when we made an advent wreath and plan to use some of the candles for that this year. I also thought they’d make lovely presents!

The beeswax products we used can be found at Spiral Garden. They also stock a lot of other beautiful products. And guess what? They even offer a 10% discount for home educators! All you need to do is contact them. Enjoy!