OK so I decided that my kids needed some indoor fun time. It has been brutally cold here in Upstate NY (the unofficial motto is "if you don't like the weather today, move south"). It is difficult for me to say, "Go outside and play." when the wind chill factor makes Mount Washington in New Hampshire look tropical. I prefer my children with pink skin and all digits in tact. I have really been trying to limit the amount of TV and video games they are sucked into, as well. Don't get me wrong, I do love to park myself on the couch and not move for 2-3 hours at a time (hence my inability to lose weight, but I digress), but enough is enough already!On Saturday, I decided to make Oobleck.
For those of you who don't have kids, Oobleck is derived from the Dr. Suess book, "Bartholomew and the Oobleck." It is a simple recipe (see below) and it is by far the coolest stuff ever!RECIPE:
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water (you may need a little more)
Mix. It will get hard, but still liquidy at the same time (this is normal). We added food coloring; however, I would strongly urge you to keep it white.
After cleaning up, my son announced that he would now be auditioning as the newest member of the Blue Man Group.
Heather's was pink so it really didn't matter.Oobleck has both liquid and solid properties, which makes it such an oddity; you can roll it into a ball and when you set it down, it returns to liquid form.
My kids had blast with the Oobleck!!
They each had their own tray and they each created their own Oobleckland, complete with Oobleck Mountains, Oobleck cities, and Oobleckians (the residents of said cities). Oh, and since no true patriotic Oobleckland would be complete without national anthems, I was treated to both the Pink Oobleckland National Anthem and the Blue Oobleckland National Anthem, sweetly serenaded by none other than the President of Blue Oobleckland and the Queen of Pink Oobleckland, themselves. They carried on with all this falderal for more than an hour and half. They kept their messes contained to the foil trays (except for the boy and his blue arms) and played semi-quietly (except for the national anthems).Then the grossness really began.....
On Sunday, I made them Goop. Goop is a little sturdier than Oobleck, which cannot be stored for any length of time. Here's the recipe (to make a decent amount of Goop, I quadrupled this recipe and split it between the twins):1 T Elmer's Glue (yes, nothing else works as good as Elmer's)
1 T Water
Any amount of food coloring you desire (see below for my kids' favorite color)
Mix these in a medium container.
1 1/2 t Borax
4 T warm water
Mix these in a separate smaller container. Make sure the borax is well dissolved. Then slowly add to the glue mixture. A gooey blob will start to appear in the watery mixture. Use a spoon and stir around. There will be a lot of "water" surrounding the glob that will not mix....this is normal. Take the glob out and work it in your hands until most of the water has dripped off. I let the kids use a foil cookie sheet on the table....if it gets on your wooden table, it may stain.
To add a little extra fun to the mix, we made "snot" colored Goop. Here's a pretty close match: 2 drops of green, 6 drops of yellow, and 1 drop of red. 
I knew it was a pretty good match, when my daughter crinkled up her face and squealed with delight and my son gave me his best evil laugh, "MWAAHAHAHAH!"Today's sensory activities prompted "Grandma's Homemade Snot Cookies" straight from her nose and
the boy found some gross colored ear wax. 
They also discovered that if they slooooooooowwwwlyyyyyy stretched it, then loosely folded it over on itself several times then squeezed it, it made snap crackle and pop sounds like booger flavored Rice Krispies. What a day!
