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More Messy Fun

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Have you ever wondered what a bar of Ivory soap looks like after it’s been microwaved? Yeah, me neither…but my curiousity was peaked after reading about it here.  I can’t remember the last time I held or smelled a bar of Ivory soap, but doing so sent my memory sailing right back to my grandparents’ tiny bathroom that smelled like hairspray and aftershave…and Ivory soap.  Anyways, while running errands one day, I decided to pick up a 3-pack for the sole purpose of having my 4-year old watch it explode in the microwave. Good thing it’s cheap! It was pretty neat, I have to say. I could not explain why or how it does what it does, nor did Levi really care.  He loved to watch it puff up and pop out and sizzle while being “waved” and then he got to hold the puffy, stinky little clouds in his hands when they cooled down and mold them into different shapes.  This of course kept him occupied for a while as I crocheted and giggled by his side. Rockets are a new obsession in our household, thanks to a Daddy who has a passion for all things that go REALLY fast and is passing that love affair onto his sons. Levi tries to turn everything he can into a rocket.  Toilet paper rolls and plastic Easter egg tops make great rockets, by the way…just make sure to use lots of masking tape and rubber bands and decorate it with the colors of your choice.

And then we discovered Oobleck.  Oh, the joy and curiousity of the simple combination of cornstarch and water (and food coloring to make it look cool.) There are a million other blog posts on how to make this…really it’s just 1 cup of water and 2 cups of cornstarch mixed together.  What makes this combination so much fun and interesting? Something called a non-Newtonian fluid…it acts like a liquid when being poured, but like a solid when a force is acting on it (i.e. your hand slapping against it in the bowl.)

The boys and I had a blast making a mess of this in the backyard one afternoon. Oobleck was EVERYWHERE!  Try this awesome sensory activity for yourself and you will be amazed.  Just make sure not to put it down your drain. Let it dry up first and then you can sweep or vaccum it up.Levi and I made some homemade crayons recently, too…although they didn’t turn out that great.  I should’ve remembered a basic rule of coloring: don’t mix a bunch of unlike colors together or you’ll just end up with a muddy, messy color called, “blah.”  Best to stick with similar hues if you want your final result to be a more vibrant type of homemade crayon.  Oh, and if you’re using an old metal muffin tin, you should really spray it with cooking spray before melting crayons in it.  It felt like a Homer Simpson kind of crafting day…lots of slapping my forehead and grumbling, “DOH!”In the end, it didn’t really matter.  We had fun doing another project together and if there is one thing I remember from art school…it’s this: “Art is in the process, not the end result.”


Filed under: brothers, crafting, family, kids, kitchen, studio Tagged: art, brothers, cornstarch and water, crafting, crayons, ivory soap, outdoors, projects, studio, toilet paper rolls

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