Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Fun With Cornstarch


I have been pulling out some old favorites activities for the kids to do while the weather is getting colder.  Specifically, we have made several craft recipes from cornstarch that are quick, easy, and fairly simple to clean up.  Although not tasty, cornstarch is edible, which comes in handy when your toddler is playing with it. The first was making oobleck, although this time I just called it slime.  To make, mix 2 cups of cornstarch with one cup of water.  William wasn't so sure about this creation at first, but Laney was really excited.  It was all fun and games until she started putting the bowl on her head.  Then it was off to the bath.




Notice her licking it off of her face. Yuck!
The second recipe with cornstarch is "snow." I couldn't believe how long this kept the older two occupied!  They played quietly together at the kitchen table for over an hour.  I also realized that when they were done, I could just dump the snow in a ziploc baggie and we could play with it again another time.  The recipe is 2 cups cornstarch plus 1/3 to 1/2 cup oil.  Or in our case, the entire container of cornstarch plus just enough oil to get the right consistency.  They wanted a lot of snow!! Then they put some of their toys in the snow to go sledding or make "snow dinosaurs."  Laney missed out on this activity because she was sleeping.
Will was very curious about what would happen if we put this snow in the freezer.  He reasoned that since snow is usually cold, if we put this cornstarch snow in the freezer, it would change.  I explained that real snow is made out of water but that this "snow" was made out of cornstarch and oil, so it wouldn't be the same.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing.




Snow on his face!
You might notice in the above picture that William has a bandaid on his chin.  Strangely enough, both he and Eliana fell of the kitchen chairs (totally unrelated to the snow activity) and busted their chins open on the table.  Eliana must have really smacked her chin hard.  I was in the living room at the time, and heard a big crash.  I came running back in the kitchen and found Eliana on the floor.  She looked quite startled, but told me she had fallen on purpose.  That's what she says when an accident happens and she thinks she is going to get in trouble.  She said she was fine, but then went to the bathroom.  A minute later she comes running to tell me her chin is bleeding.  And boy, she wasn't kidding.  She had quite the gash and for a little bit I was afraid I was going to have to take her to urgent care for stitches.  The problem was she wouldn't let me touch her chin to hold pressure to get the bleeding to stop.  After bleeding through a few bandaids, she finally let me put a steri-strip on her chin.  I think she only let me touch it then because I threatened to call her father and have him come home from work to put in stitches himself.  She seemed quite surprised that he could do such a thing, but I assured her that, as a doctor, he most definitely could.  At that point, mom's "special bandage" didn't seem so bad.
Even though she didn't get stitches, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a little scar there on her chin.

Then, less than 24 hours later, Will did the same thing.  I said, "What happened? Did our kitchen chairs turn into ice? Why are you guys falling out of your chairs?!" He was just eating a snack at the table and, bloop, feel right out of his seat, banging his chin on the table.  Eliana was quick to check out his chin and declared that he had a boo-boo just like her.  Luckily, his wasn't quite as deep, so I was able to just put a regular bandaid on it without threats of stitches by daddy.  Both of their chins are on the mend and looking fine.

No comments:

Post a Comment