Ooey, Gooey Fun

What is it about things that are gooey or slimy or feel like cold eyeballs that make kids like it?! (Some of it gives me goosebumps…which, of course, makes it all the more appealing to my grand kids!) Take water beads, for example. They start out as these tiny little balls about the size of a pin head. BUT add them to water and wait an hour or two…or 24…and they grow! They grow bigger and bigger the longer you let them sit in water…up to the 24 hours or so says the package. If you take them out of the water, they will get smaller but you can simply add more water to have them swell up again.

We “grew” some a while back when the grand boys were spending some time with us. I have to say it was pretty cool how those tiny little innocent balls got bigger and bigger.

But what our grandson seemed to think was even cooler was playing with them. Like immersing his hands all the way into the bowl full of them. I was obligated to “feel them, Grandma!”, but I didn’t leave my hands in there any longer than was absolutely necessary. According to Pinterest, there are all kinds of activities you can do with the beads. Like have the child sort them into other small containers by color. Or push some golf tees into Styrofoam and let them balance the balls on the top of the tees. Some people have frozen them for another version of sensory play, but it sounds like that should be the last activity you do with that batch because they don’t survive the freezing and thawing too well. But hey, they are inexpensive fun and just a teaspoon of them goes a long way!

Also on our day of ooey, gooey fun we had a batch of “things” that kinda looked like cubes after they sat in water and swelled up. Or sorta like someone had chopped Jello into very small pieces. They were equally as “cool” as the water beads, according to my little scientist.

But the crowning glory of our fun was the slime. The package made 3 different colors.

Notice the ornery grin on his face that says, “So, is this grossing you out, Grandma?” Not only was it fun to make the slime, but then he enjoyed mixing some of the colors together.

Yep, that smile says it all! So fun and so slimy! While I can’t say I really understand the attraction, my little buddy enjoyed himself. Oh, the things we grandmas do for our kiddos! 😉