Floam!

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Remember the HUGE success that was homemade gak?

Well, after that, I went out and bought up a whole bunch of white glue when it went on sale.

I adored all those Nickelodeon slime, gak, moonsand products as a kid. (And, oh yes, I rocked the moon shoes.)

Floam was no acception and it is, for all intensive purposes, gak with foam balls. I was in need of making something fast to keep the Toddler busy for a while. Perfect.

So here is what you will need:

2tsp (ish) of Borax
1 small container of white glue (6oz? I should buy this stuff in a bigger container.)
water
foam balls... I stole about 1/4c from the beanbag chair and nobody is none the wiser.

First, pour the glue in a jar, bowl, or baggie. If you want to add color, put some food coloring in now. I was really pleased that the finished Floam didn't leak color (even though I did strip my daughter, just incase), so don't be afraid of adding a good deal of it! 

Next, pour in the foam balls. I didn't do this at this point, but we kneaded them in later and it was fine.

Add 1/4c water to the glue. (I'm not sure why this is necessary, or if it even is, really.)

Then, dissolve the Borax in 1/2c. water.

Slowly add the Borax to the glue. The Borax is what stops the glue from being runny and sticky, so the more you add, the stiffer the Floam will become. Keep adding it until you are happy with the consistency, being sure to mix them well. (Glue Pockets will spring up on you! Don't get yourself all gluey.)

Like before, it weirded her out at first. She wanted nothing to do with this.

Then she decided it was awesome, and played with it for 45 minutes!

Just like the gak, the floam is great for practicing toddler knife skills (we have those Gerber sets - she loves using the knife on this!), cutting with cookie cutters, pressing into molds, and bouncing! It may be tough to knead back together at first, but we store ours in a baggie (any air-tight container will do) and it always "self-heals" into a huge blob within minutes, so don't worry about chopping it into a million pieces.

Enjoy!