Goopy Goodness! (Indoor Activities for toddlers)

This past long weekend we had grand plans of bringing Elliot to the zoo and to various outdoor playgrounds to enjoy time as a family. Alas, the dreaded haze returned to Singapore and clouded what was meant to be a wonderful weekend together, casting a shadow over our outdoor plans.

But no matter. We didn’t want to let a little haze get in the way of family time. Friday was spent roaming around Plaza Singapura super duper early. Let me share with you a little tip, that I noticed a few other families also seemed to do: Malls in Singapore are mostly empty before 11 am. Go to a mall early and you get the whole place to yourself. You can run like a crazy toddler (or woman) through an empty floor, sit for as long as you want on the coin-operated mechanical kiddy rides. Because Spotlight opens early as well, we enjoyed roaming the aisles looking at the colourful fabrics and home crafts. We left just before 12 noon and hardly encountered much crowd.

E having fun at Spotlight!

On Saturday, we got up early and spent the entire morning making goop.

I found the recipe on my favourite parenting channel on YouTube, What’s Up Moms – they called it Non-Newtonian Fluid, but I just call it goop!

Goop is incredibly easy to make. To me, DIY kids activities need to require as few ingredients / materials as possible, be as easy as possible to make and quick and easy to clean-up afterwards.

So after researching many, many, many DIY kids activities, I finally settled on making GOOP!

The result was SOOOO much fun, I really can’t wait to share it with everyone.

Ingredients
1) Corn starch
2) Food colouring
3) Water

Method
1) Measure out 1 cup of corn starch into a plastic bowl
2) Mix the food colouring with 1/3 cup of water
3) Pour the coloured water into the corn starch
4) Use a tablespoon to mix it up
5) PLAY!

I know it seems extremely easy. It really was! And it was so much fun. The end result is this gooey viscous liquid that “solidifies” when you touch it or hit it but then melts when it is left alone. Maybe some of you might have made this in school, unfortunately I didn’t!

E loved playing with it, because in his own words, he was “making cake”. But he didn’t like touching the goop with his hands. That’s why he decided to use a spoon and a measuring cup instead. I, on the other hand, was content to dig my fingers into the thick liquid – playing with the unique viscous texture! Needless to say, it was fun for everyone!

The viscous liquid took shape in my palm

E spent about 1.5 hours playing with it. He said he was “making a cake”.

It looks like a liquid, but it’s pretty thick!

Do let me know in the comments if you have tried this out!

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