"Free Play" St. Patrick's Day Goop

I am always looking for things around the house that we can use or incorporate into our activity time and today was no different. 

Today I planned a play-dough activity (I was going to make it but decided to just use play-doh that we had around the house) and to make some green "St. Patricks Day" Goop to play with.

My two year old is always questionable when it comes to "messy" play so I try to make sure that I have two activities planned so that if he doesn't want to play with the "messy" items he can still participate.

We started with the play dough and brought out all of out play dough "tools" and some cookie cutters and let both boys play.

While the boys were playing with the play-dough we made the St Patricks Day Goop.  If you have never made Goop for you little ones it is super easy and so much fun. 

What you need:
1 box of cornstarch (I suggest picking it up at the dollar store or stocking up when there is a good sale)
2 cups of water
Food Coloring (as desired, we used green for St. Patricks Day)

What you do:
Mix the Cornstarch and water making sure to get all of the cornstarch mixed in.  It gets hard and clumpy in spots so just scrap the bottom of the bowl to make sure you have incorporated it all.  Then mix in food coloring (as desired).  Then let you little one go at it.

As I said, the 6 year old LOVES messy play so he went to town with this.  He had no problem getting it all over him (and all over the table).

The 2 year old was interested and wanted to try it, especially once it was all over the table, but once he got it on his hands he wasn't so happy.  He did end up using some of the play-dough tools to play with it and was fine as long as he didn't have to touch it.

Though I will admit that this activity wasn't completly "free", the play dough was something that we already had in the house and the Goop was only the cost of the cornstarch which you can find for a dollar or less (especially if you check out the dollar store).

I know that it may look really messy to you, but I promise it is really easy to clean up with just some soap and warm water.  Slightly more difficult to clean with the food coloring added but still an easy clean up.  If you have concerns about damaging your table just use a bigger bowl for the Goop and put it on a place mat or newspaper.
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