Goo!!!

We're planning J's birthday party for this weekend. We decided to do a test-run on one of the activities, Goo! Seeing that J's friends are all 2-3 years old and J's first reaction to the playdough, I wanted to make sure whatever goo recipe we selected was non-toxic. There were quite a few out there with Borax and white glue, but this seems to be a consistent non-toxic recipe.

Non-Borax Goo Recipe:
2 parts corn starch
1 part water (varying reports of cool/warm water - we used warm, but not boiling)
As much food coloring as you want

For the amount shown in the pictures we used:
1 cup corn starch
1/2 cup water
5-6 drops blue food coloring

Recommendation:
Add food coloring to water, as it will be difficult to stir in if you wait until you have the right texture. We learned this the hard way.  You might need to mix the goo with your hands.

Hands-on science in progress!

Warning, this science fun is very messy.

Don't worry, it cleans up with some water - or even better, put down some plastic.

Storage:
Best if used right after you mix it, but you can store it in a plastic ziploc bag and massage it before you decide to use.  If it dries out, add a few drops of water and mix (best if you use your hands).

Warning:
This did dye our hands!!

Also note:
The corn starch + water has a very weird texture.  At first, it looks almost too liquidy and flows very nicely.  Touch it!  It seems like it has a high surface tension.

This video was taken after about 30 minutes of playing with the goo.  It definitely looks more liquidy when you first mix it.

J helped clean up too: