My 3.5 year old daughter is at the stage where she will take an afternoon nap about 50% of the time. This means that some days I have kid-free time and other days I need to think of something to do with or for her that will keep her entertained so I can have some semi-kid-free time. A while back I had seen a recipe for how to make a bouncy ball. This sounded like something that my daughter would be interested in and I thought it seemed easy enough to do. I did have to do a little planning ahead for this activity since it calls for Borax and white glue, which I didn’t have on hand. I didn’t mind buying the items since I’ve seen other activities call for Borax and white glue is dirt cheap. I already had corn starch and food coloring so when nap time didn’t happen, I was ready.
I had to be the one to actually make the bouncy balls since my daughter isn’t quite old enough, but she watched the whole process and asked questions about what I was doing. She also chose the colors for the balls. I would say that a child ages 5+ could do this (with adult supervision).
After 10 seconds, use a fork to get the glue mixture out. It will have formed a soft shell, but the inside is still gluey, so squish it in your hands and then put it back in the water.
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp Borax
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp White Liquid Glue
- Food coloring
- Disposable rubber gloves (optional)
- In a cup, mix the warm water and the borax.
- In another cup, mix the glue, cornstarch and food coloring.
- Pour the glue mixture into the water-borax cup.
- The glue mixture will form a soft shell after 10 seconds. Use a fork to take it out of the water. If it is still sticky, squish it with your hands and put it back in the water.
- Roll the mixture in your hands to make a ball. The more you handle the mixture, the more firm it becomes.
- Play with your new bouncy balls!
Find 7 other colorful hands on kid activities HERE!