Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

 Our program experienced quite a bit of turnover this past fall as many of the children who had been with us for a number of years outgrew us!  So, we have been quite busy with a wonderful group of infants, toddlers, and young preschoolers. When you work with a younger crowd- your mindset changes to make sure that the activities are not only developmentally appropriate, but also safe. We need to worry more about mouthing, tasting, and eating than we have had to in a very long time. I have been inspired quite a bit by the creativity and ingenuity of Asia Citro over at Fun at Home with Kids . She has some great ideas for safe edible water beads , and a fantastic slime!  As I was reading her post about water beads, I thought about some of the slimes we have made (like the Kool-Aid slime ) and I thought- "hmmmnnn Tapioca, tapioca is a starch, corn starch is a starch... I wonder if boiling tapioca pearls will create a fun bumpy slime?"..... so of course, I had to experiment! Look ...

If you remember, awhile back we opted to test out a couple of slime recipes to determine which one we liked best. (If you missed it, you can read about it here: The Great Slime Off) . Today, we decided to test a few stove top slime recipes to decide which one makes the best slime. Contestant/Slime Number One: Fiber Slime 6 c water 6 tsp Metamucil Fiber Mix ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook on high heat, bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a bowl. Stir occasionally as the slime cools. Cool completely prior to children's use.  Contestant/Slime Number Two: Super Sweet Slime  I found this great recipe over at Habeebee Homeschooling. 1- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk 1 TBSP cornstarch 10-15 drops of food coloring Mix the sweetened condensed milk and cornstarch in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook on low heat. The mixture will thin as it is heated and then begin to thicken again. When it begins to thicken remove from heat. (...

If you haven't notice, I tend to get excited about messy things. Most often, the messier, the better. This is not, by far, the messiest thing we have tried.... but for those of you who thought our "slime off" was a mess.... don't tell me that I didn't warn you.... While I was looking for great recipes to test in our "Slime Off, " I ran across this recipe for floam. If you have never played with floam, it is a neat sculpting/sensory/all around fun/messy thing to play with. Prior to this experience, I had only played with store bought floam. It is made from polystyrene beads and a slimy substance. Please, please, please don't go out and buy any styrofoam beads to make this. Styrofoam is not good for the environment, so please reuse some that you have or can find. The children enjoyed the grating of the styrofoam the best anyway!!! We used a plastic cheese grater and some styrofoam packaging I saved because I figured that we could find ...

So, like most people, when I find something I like, I tend to stick with it. A great example of this is our "gloop" aka "slime" recipe. We have a great recipe, the children love it, it is fun and easy to make and we use it all the time. I have been told that I NEED to try another recipe even if it is just for the dramatic effect of making it and seeing the instant change when the chemical reaction happens. So, today.... we decided to have a slime off.... Today's contestants are: Blue Gloop. You can actually make this in any color you would like. We made our slimes in different colors for easy identification. You can find the recipe for this here. This is our tried and true, we use it every time recipe. In the other corner is "GAK" or "Slime" made with Borax. The recipe is all over the web. We followed the tutorial here. For this option, we decided to use green food coloring (with a drop of yellow to make it extra bright). ...