In The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Parenting (Green Books, 2016) author Kate Blincoe explains that it’s not about being perfect — it’s about giving it a try, feeling the benefits for your family, and having fun while you do it. This guide provides essential advice on food and eating, eco-buying, learning and playing, family-friendly foraging, growing plants and food with your family, green days out, activities and parties, green parenting in the city, and balancing your green ideals in a busy life. Kate’s pragmatic approach will inspire you to balance green living with the realities of raising children.This ooey-gooey squishy recipe for silly putty will thrill your preschooler.
Gooey Silly Putty for Preschoolers
This stuff is like Play-Doh but more moldable. You can alter the consistency by changing the amount of Epsom salts you add – less for a gunkier, stickier feel and more for a firmer pliable texture which will bounce if made into a ball, or copy newsprint off a newspaper.
(Older children may be interested to learn that this is a process called polymerisation, whereby small molecules join together to make long ones. Handy knowledge for GCSE science.)
You will need:
• 1/2 teaspoon Epsom salts
• 2 small cups or bowls
• food coloring
• 1 tablespoon white glue
• a craft stick for stirring
Instructions:
1. This makes an egg-sized portion of putty ideal for one child to play with. Simply multiply the recipe for more.
2. Stir the salts into the water in a small cup or bowl until it has mostly dissolved (it may not do so completely).
3. Add in a few drops of food coloring.
4. Now add this mixture to your glue in another bowl and stir with the craft stick until it becomes moldable.
5. Store in a sealed pot in the fridge – it should last for a few months. For easy tidying up, play with it on grease-proof paper.
More from The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Parenting:
• Tips for Choosing Environmentally Friendly Toys
• Sensory Bottles for Babies
• Making an Eco-Friendly Jump Rope
Reprinted with permission from The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Parenting by Kate Blincoe and published by Green Books, 2016.