Low Energy Play: Gloop

This month's low energy play seems like a very messy play on the outside. Stick with it though, as looks can be deceiving.

My friend Leyla at This Day I Love suggested I give this a try ages ago. However I was very unsure as it looked like a lot of clean up afterwards. She assured me this was not the case so one day when I was feeling a bit better I decided to give it a go.

The first thing I realised about this play is that it was so easy to set up. All you need is cornflour, water and some food colouring. I used yellow, although would prefer the colour to be a bit stronger next time.

As the weather was quite nice I set this up in the garden on my oilcloth tablecloth. This made clean up a lot easier as it was just a matter of picking the cloth up and shaking the remnants into the bin. If it's raining you could try this in the kitchen or how about in the bath? That way the mess is contained and your children have a lot more chance to make as much mess as they want.

I put the gloop into a bowl and let the children go wild. They were both really unsure at first and it took the a bit of encouragement to really get stuck in, but once they realised how much fun it was I couldn't keep them away.

H loved picking it up and letting it drip from her hands and J painted himself in the stuff!

After some time the gloop started to dry up and formed lots of little balls. The children started scraping it all up and I gave them a bun tray and some cases and they spent ages making little cakes. Honestly this play kept them busy for well over an hour!

The fantastic thing about gloop is that eventually it dries out and you are left with dry cornflour, so all you do is wipe it away. So easy! This children just needed a quick wipe down, and once I'd emptied the bits into the bin so did the cloth. And that's all!

So there you are - a seemingly messy play with tons of fun and little cleanup.