Our Story
It all started simply with a thought, in 2003, the week after Valentine’s day, to celebrate a young child’s birthday.
My oldest son and I were trying to think of something to bring to his kindergarten class for his birthday party. He wanted his classmates to enjoy some YUMMY brownies homemade by him. Of course, in this day and age, homemade brownies, cookies or cupcakes are not an acceptable food item in today’s schools due to numerous reasons but, mainly because children do have food allergies. This was a difficult conversation (you will understand why it was difficult further in the story) to have with my five year old who was soon to be six in two weeks. 
He was frustrated with me and not interested in buying or bringing in anything less than homemade. My son tried to explain another idea to me. So, attentively, I listened to my persistent son trying to explain what he wanted. It took some time and strength not to interrupt my son. I needed to continue on with my day, which included caring for his three younger siblings. Finally, I understood his vision. He had picked up a heart-shaped cookie cutter and laying it on the counter, (clearly from Valentine cookies made the previous week) and using his toy frog, he visually placed it in the center of the heart-shaped cutter making a lily pad for his tiny colorful frog. He said “soap”. He wanted to share those with his classmates. The frog soaps were a HUGE HIT!
WOW! My five year old son, who’s in kindergarten, wanted to use his little frogs and put them inside soap. From the indirect mouths of babes! How can this be happening? This is absolutely amazing! Within an hour, it started slowly as a simple thought, grew to an idea, and visually communicated across the kitchen counter into this great soap idea for kids. Unbelievable to me and quite a business adventure for my young Tot Entrepreneur!
This is the same five year old who couldn’t even utter 60 recognizable words at the age of 3 years old, received ear tubes at 3-1/2 years old and spoke the word “Mommy” a week later. Then at the age of four, he read “Go Dog! Go!” outloud to me! This small thought…idea…vision came from my five year old son, a kindergartner! I would find out almost a year later to the day that he was diagnosed with high functioning Autism, Aspberger Syndrome to be exact, with a communication disorder.
My world literally turned upside down, backwards and sideways when we were told of his diagnosis. Don’t get me wrong, I was also thoroughly relieved there was a name for the “it” he had. If it wasn’t for the support and guidance of the Autism Committee at the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indianapolis, Indiana; his teachers who are trained to recognize and work with these tendencies; the principals who knew how to get the wheels turning for evaluating these children; the persistent Speech Therapists and the Occupational Therapists; – I don’t know where my son would be today without their help. I certainly could not have done it all on my own without them. My son has certainly come a very LONG way since March 2004.
The signs of Autism were there very early for my son, as early as four months old. I could see them now, now that I knew what I was looking for. My husband and I were never at any point in denial, we knew our little boy approached/reacted to every situation differently than other children. We were looking for answers and help. When your oldest child is diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, Aspberger Syndrome, you truly don’t know what it is you are looking for even when you ask for help. It can be a very helpless situation when your child does or does not do something, because you do not have another child to compare it to. Luckily, my second oldest was only 12-1/2 months younger than my son and as she grew older (age 1-2), she was accomplishing tasks, speaking clearly, translating my son’s language for me, and doing things he could not do. That’s how we truly knew something was amiss. He would get very frustrated throwing tantrums he could not shake himself out of, he would walk on his tip toes, he would flap his arms when we was excited, he would walk around the room or the playground dozens of times just to get up the nerve to ask his friends if he could play with them, or he would try to answer a question asked by the teacher only to have another classmate interrupt with the answer because it would take my son some time “to”process” the information asked of him. The signs were there very early in his life and we were fortunate that we received intervention when he was in 1st grade. I wish it could have been earlier but these things take time.
Getting back to how the soap business all began. For many days our little family of six, four of which were 5 years old and younger, would sit down on the floor and/or at the dinner table discussing the name we were to give my son’s teeny, tiny business. Of course, we came up with some doozy company names, as any children ages 5 and under will do. After many days turned into weeks, we all finally agreed to the company name of CLEAN FUN SOAP! My four kids broke into a chant and eventually into random song and melody of my son’s new business name. He grinned from ear to ear. The kids started picking out toys they wanted in the soap, they talked about how they wanted it placed in the soap, what colors they would like for each soap to be, they also named the soaps and eventually put the labels on too. I was just so proud of my childrens enthusiasm and how my son was so “in tune and alive” with the development of his small company. This was when my son was the most ALIVE and AWAKE, interacting and communicating. This was OUR platform to help him.
I signed up for a few craft fairs the next Fall of 2004 to see if families would be interested in using the kid soaps in their bathrooms. We had more than our fair share of soap. Believe me, when I tell you, we were up to our armpits in soap! No pun intended. Our family was a true test market for the products we were offering for kids and small children, so we hoped for a good review. We received lots of positive feedback and other soap ideas customers were wanting to see too! From there, my son’s little soap company was becoming a reality.
Aunt Char, in Burbank, California, offered her services and used her PR skills to help us solidify the Clean Fun Soap name as CleanFunSoap.com in the web world. She also came up with a catchy little subtitle, “Kid-Sized Soap for Big-Time Fun!” along with key font choices and colors. Also, Uncle Bob, located in Chicago, Illinois, helped us (in 2005) use the already established web space on our server to start a website, a better way to take pictures of our soaps and recommended a higher quality camera. Today (2010) he has offered to upgrade our website to the next level to the cadillacs of websites. Our family was quite thrilled to have all the help since we were not as computer savvy as what we had liked but very thankful to Uncle Bob and his expertise.
My son was just so thrilled that his vision had come to life. He opted to give his Mom the title of Soap Designer and Owner of Clean Fun Soap for now. He’s letting me “run the show” until he decides to take it over later due the demands of Middle School, homework and all the after school activities. He still has the upper hand in the soap designs, picking out the toys for the soaps, naming most of the soaps, helping with the labeling and pricing of the soaps, assists with the website alterations and picture taking, and helps at the craft fairs when he can. Attending the craft fairs is his favorite part since he can “tell his story” and buy snacks from the food vendors. Believe it or not, he is one of the best kids I know of today….he’s considerate and kind, gentle and easy going, and has a heart of gold. He has adjusted very well these past couple months, he has been socializing in his middle school classes which is so HUGE for him, and during his 7th grade year he has obtained a GPA 3.6 and above. He is just starting to blossom with great things waiting to happen to him on the horizon.
By the way, the frog soap, was named “Leap Frog” by my son, the very first soap he designed at the age of 5, is hands down, my best-selling, single-item soap every single year. That’s got to tell you something!? Right? This, among other reasons, is why I have been donating 2% of the craft fair sales to the Autism Committee of MSD of Washington Township Schools. In the summer of 2007, Aunt Char sent to me a mold in the shape of puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces represent the complexity of Autism and, therefore, 100% of the sales from the ‘Puzzle Piece’ soaps or other Autism based soaps are also given to the Autism Committee of MSD of Washington Township.
It just goes to show that these special children are amazing thinkers and express outstanding ideas when we just take the time to listen to them and understand their world. They are all truly a blessing and are meant to be here to help our World.