Our first time with... Gloop!

I've spent most of the weekend trying to come up with ways to keep my little monsters entertained over the half term. Finding something to coax N away from his beloved Minecraft is becoming quite the issue!

Because C has not started school yet, I'm regularly on the look out for some fun crafts and stuff for her. Almost every list of messy play ideas has gloop on it somewhere.

For anyone that doesn't know what gloop is, it's a mixture of cornflour and water, and it's the weirdest shit ever.

I've never actually done this with the kids before, but actually saw someone mention it on twitter this morning and just thought right, I think we'll give it a go today.
C was buzzing when I said what we were doing, jumping up and down, wooping and doing a little victory dance, before turning and asking "er mum, what is gwoop?"

My wee man N has some Sensory needs. He's constantly seeking tactile input, feeling & touching things, causing some upset at school because he likes to touch and feel other peoples faces and clothes. I was really hoping he'd be in to this, but as soon as he heard what this was, he refused to have any part in it.

N:"Will it get my hands dirty?"
Me: "maybe a little but it will feel lovely and you can wash it off when you are done"
N: "I think I'll just play Minecraft"

Despite liking to touch things and feel things, he seems to hate the feeling of things on his hands, he refuses to finger paint or get his hands dirty in any way.

We decided to go on ahead anyway, in hopes that he might come come over and have a look and maybe get involved

I'd read about how messy it gets, so I was prepared and put C in a little messy play apron.


C waiting patiently to get going.

So basically, you just mix a little bit of water in to some cornflower, the recipe I saw asked for a cup of cornflour and half a cup of water. I just winged it, and ended up with a bowl full of milky substance. Oops. I also happened to have used the last of the cornflour, double oops.

C stood at the table looking both sad and puzzled, wondering why I'd brought her out to play with a bowl of milk. I had to improvise and throw in some self raising flour, which worked, and we had gloop! We also added some glitter, because C loves everything to sparkle.


I really don't know what I was expecting, but this stuff is weird! How can something be firm and runny at the same time? I don't know who was more fascinated, C or me. We must have sat for about half an hour just prodding at it and squeezing at it and making 'urrrg' noises. It feels both nice, and utterly disgusting at the same time. We did not manage to get N involved in anyway. I called him out to have a look, but he screamed and ran away when I tried to show him my hands.

I honestly didn't think something so simple could take up so much time but we were out in the kitchen for about an hour before C finally decided she was done.
Clean freaks beware, the aftermath is pretty messy!


Have to say, we had great fun messing about with this stuff. I think next time I would add food colouring and make it on a larger scale, but our first experience with gloop gets a thumbs up!

I'd love to hear about your messy play ideas, please leave a comment! xx