Boys - 6/6 - The Idea Room

Make Glow-in-the-Dark Slime

Learn how to Make Glow-in-the-Dark Slime like we made the other day. My kids ranked this as one of their favorite of our summer projects so far. Even I was enjoying playing with it. It just feels so cool.

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We added a few drops of glow in the dark craft paint to get the glow-in-the-dark effect. The more borax solution you add, the stiffer your slime will become. If you want runny slime go easy on the borax solution. We wanted our a little stiffer so we added a bit more Borax solution. Ours turned out really nice.

You can roll it into a perfectly round sphere, that slowly flattens when left alone. It really does glow. But I was not smart enough to figure out how to take a picture of it. The version I made is “mom-friendly”. It will not stick in carpet because it is fairly solid. I cannot make any guarantees though if you choose to go with the runnier slime version.

**Thank you for all of your fun and kind comments as of late. You can just keep those coming :)! And just to set the record straight…I am a normal mom like the rest of you. I just choose to show you the best in our home. My kids would get a kick out of those “cool mom” comments. They would have no clue who you were talking about! Just so you know, I have those “bad mom days” like every one else. Days where I just might make and eat an entire rainbow cake for myself :)!
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July 17, 2009 · Filed under: Activities, Boys, Crafts, Recipes Tagged with

Make a Bouncy Ball

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My boys loved making these “bouncy” balls. They are not super bouncy like the plastic super balls that became popular when I was a kid, but they are pretty bouncy and fun to play with. We discovered that on the carpet, they have a lot more bounce then they do on the kitchen floor. I ended up with this recipe when I was teaching science and can not remember where I got it.

To make these, you will need:

Borax (found in laundry section)
warm water
corn starch
glue (clear glue makes a see transparent ball and white glue makes an opaque ball)
2 small mixing cups
a stirring stick (plastic spoon)
food coloring (optional)

Label one cup ‘Borax Solution’ and the other cup ‘Ball Mixture’.

Pour 2 tablespoons warm water and 1/2 teaspoon borax powder into the cup labeled ‘Borax Solution’. Stir the mixture to dissolve the borax. Add food coloring, if desired.

Pour 1 tablespoon of glue into the cup labeled ‘Ball Mixture’. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the borax solution you just made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Do not stir.

Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds and then stir them together to fully mix. Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, take it out of the cup and start molding the ball with your hands.

The ball will start out sticky and messy, but will solidify as you knead it.

Once the ball is less sticky, continue rolling between your hands until it is smooth and round!

You can store your plastic ball in a sealed ziploc bag when you are finished playing with it. (The ball tends to flatten out a bit when sitting and does not normally last longer than a couple of days before drying out).

July 8, 2009 · Filed under: Activities, Boys, Kids Tagged with

Make a Miniature Marshmallow Gun

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Finally…I have a fun project you can make for and with your boys. This blog has leaned a bit toward girls lately, so I am excited to have a fun idea for the other half of the population (although I know plenty of girls who would love these too).

These minature marshmallows guns are so much fun. If your boys are like mine EVERYTHING becomes a gun.

My SIL threw a birthday party for my nephew and they made all the boys their own marshmallow gun. My son loves it!

You place a mini marshmallow into the end of the gun, blow on the other end and shoot the marshmallow at your target. They are amazingly accurate!

It is ALWAYS a good idea to have your kids wear safety goggles when using these guns, because everyone knows that it is only fun until someone gets an eye shot out!

I did a little searching on the internet about making these marshmallow guns and found this great idea for making a pair of safety goggles out of a 2-liter soda pop bottle. I followed these directions but used duct tape to line the sharp edges and make the head strap.

To make the head strap, I simply folded about 20 inches of duct tape in half length-wise and then put another 20 inch peice on the folded peice and folded it in half also. So it was 2 layers thick. Then I just cut it to fit with a little extra on each end of the mask so it can be adjusted for different size heads, after I threaded it through the 2 slits I made on each side of the mask.

You will need:
a 12 inch length of 1/2 inch PVC pipe (sprinkler pipe)
1-1/2 inch end cap
2-1/2 inch elbows
1-1/2 inch T joint

Take your 12 inch length of pipe and with a hacksaw, cut off three peices of pipe that measure 2 inches each and then cut two peices of pipe that measure 3 inches in length.

Take your parts and use the above picture to put them together to make your gun. This is a very simple gun style. If you want a different style, all you would need to do is buy a longer length of PVC pipe and some more joints depending on what shape you are trying to achieve.

I ended up making a gun for my other boy and they spend a lot of time in the backyard having marshmallow wars. They played with them so often that I never had any marshmallows left when I needed them. They buy their own marshmallows now!

So if you have a birthday party coming up, these might be something you would like to make as a party favor, or as a gift for the birthday boy. I was also thinking how much fun these would be at your next family party with Grandma and Grandpa and that pesky brother-in-law!

May 18, 2009 · Filed under: Activities, Boys, Kids, Outdoors, Tutorials Tagged with