The weather in Brisbane has been pretty dang wet and soggy for far too long lately. And rainy indoor days with children are kind of like dog years - they feel like they are seven times as long as they really are.
So what to do? Well I'm as much a fan of Jimmy Giggle as the next mum (seriously, I mean the man is good with kids and easy on the eye - win!). But even I can't stand too many more Peppa Pig episodes. Enter Gak.
What is Gak you say? It is the cheap, slightly messy (but not too messy), fun sanity saver that we have all been looking for. And I'm here to tell you how to turn a few household ingredients into at least one afternoon of fun.
What you need:
- PVA glue - the brand we bought was 236ml (as were all the others at the newsagent)
- 2 tsp borax
- food colouring
- warm water
Empty the entire bottle of glue into a bowl. This in itself should buy you a few minutes of kid-tertainment.
Refill the empty bottle with warm water. Give it a good shake to get the rest of the glue out and then empty it all into the bowl.
Now it is time for a a good stir to combine it and then you can add your food colouring. Personally I think Gak should be green to give it that real Mad Scientist feel but any colour will do.
Pour 1 cup of warm water into a cup. Then add 2 tsp of borax and stir it until it dissolves
Now for the fun!! Add your dissolved borax mixture to the bowl and look out - instant stringiness. Keep stirring for a bit then get your hands involved to squish it around and combine the liquid to the ever increasing gelatinous mass.
And just keep on playing. Chuck it on a nice clean surface and grab a few cookie cutters or dinosaurs and give yourself a pat on the back for keeping the kiddos amused without the TV.
A word of warning. You might be wondering from the pics if we are a bunch of nudists. Thankfully not. But this stuff is not the friend of fabric. If you don't live somewhere toasty warm you might want to pop on some old clothes. And definitely keep it away from your lovely white shag rug. It wouldn't be fun cutting a big chunk of gak out of that. Trust me.
