Bouncing Polymer Balls

This post was actually scheduled for yesterday, however I forgot to hit publish so it is a day late.

We are half way through this weeks post of science related projects. Today we are actually redoing a project we attempted a few months ago that didn't work out so great, and you can read about it here. TIP: It actually helps if you read ALL of the directions BEFORE starting. Just saying :)

So today we will be making bouncing polymer balls. First you will need to gather all of your materials:

• borax (found in the laundry section of the store)
• cornstarch (found in the baking section of the store)
• white glue (e.g., Elmer's glue - makes an opaque ball) or blue or clear school glue (makes a translucent ball)
• warm water
• food coloring (optional)
• measuring spoons
• spoon or craft stick to stir the mixture
• 2 small plastic cups or other containers for mixing
• marking pen
• watch with a second hand
• metric ruler
• zip-lock plastic baggie

 I used 2 different types of cups so I knew which cup would have the borax solution in it and which one would have the ball mixture in it. It is best to use shorter cups with a wider mouth if possible. If you are doing this with multiple children, each child will need 2 cups. These instructions will only make one ball.

In the first cup add 2 tablespoons of warm water and 1/2 teaspoon borax. Stir until the borax has dissolved and add food coloring at this time if you wish.



In the second cup pour 1 tablespoon glue, 1/2 a teaspoon of the borax mixture from the first cup and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. DO NOT STIR THEM TOGETHER. Instead allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds before stirring. Make sure you stir the mixture well until it becomes impossible to stir it anymore. Take it out of the cup and start molding it into a ball in your hands. The ball will start out sticky but will solidify as you continue to work with it.

Once the ball is no longer sticky go ahead and bounce it! You can store the bag in the ziplock baggie to prevent it from drying out once you are done playing with it.

Santa Hat Pizza & Gingerbread Baby Lapbook

This weekend Poppy, Yang, and I went "out of town" (a 45 minutes drive) to spend a few days at my best friend, Tamara's house. Poppy and her oldest daughter LouLou are "sisters". Yang and her youngest son, J-Bug are "boyfriend/girlfriend" (Yang is 7 years old & J-Bug is 4 years old).

J-Bug & Yang

Saturday we had J-Bug & Nut's (her middle son) birthday party at McDonald's Play Place. I am fairly certain people left the Play Place traumatized! I never knew kids could be so loud!! There where 5 kids between the 2 of us, plus our other best friend had her 2 nieces, her nephew, her son and her 3 foster girls. The kids had a blast & where wore out by the time we got home.

Yang

Sunday night we made one of the kids favorites, homemade pizza. Thanks to an idea I found from Make the Best of Everything, we put a spin on it. We cut the pepperoni's into triangles, add a circle of string cheese to the top of the triangle and a strip of the string cheese to the bottom. Unfortunately, once we cooked the pizza you couldn't see the Santa hats.

Nut

LouLou & Poppy

Since my best friend and I are both homeschool our children we decided to make bouncing polymer balls with the kids on Monday. First of all, it helps to read ALL of the directions before starting! Next time we will use smaller bowls, add more food coloring (we used 2 drops) and possibly add food coloring once we combine the two bowls as there was very little coloring to the balls. I'm not sure what we did or didn't do but our balls where not translucent like they are in the original post and they didn't really bounce either. I wouldn't say this project was a failure, nor was it a success. However, the kids enjoyed it so I suppose that is all the really matters sometimes!! :) 

Yang
Definitely having some sensory issues with this project.

J-Bug

Tuesday we read Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and then worked on our lapbook to go along with the book, from Homeschool Share. This was LouLou's first lapbook and she said it was AWESOME! J-Bug had a blast coloring the gingerbread cut-outs and even practiced some cutting. Poppy & Yang are no stranger to lapbooks and did great helping out where they could.

Poppy &LouLou

Tamara & Yang

I will have to say, I thought I had my hands full, but WHEW! I don't know how families do it with toddlers/pre-schoolers in tow. What is your best advice for homeschooling families that have Pre-K children? What has worked for you? What have you tried that hasn't worked for you, and why do you think it didn't work?