Bouncy balls

My daughter has loved playing with basketballs, soccer balls, toy balls, plastic balls, etc. ever since she was very little. One of her first words was "ball!" Often I would take her to Target and as we would walk down an isle I would hear her little voice "ball! ball!" Sure enough, I'd turn around and there would be a whole display of them in those metal cages to keep them contained.

I saw this recipe for making your own bouncy balls at home. It seemed like a project for a child a little older than my daughter but I thought she might like it anyway. I was right. She loved this.

What you need:

Borax (you can find this in the laundry section of the store)
Warm water
Food coloring
Cornstarch
Glue
2 paper or plastic cups
Something to stir with

In one cup combine 2 tablespoons warm water with 1/2 teaspoon borax. Add a few drops of food coloring in what ever color you choose. I chose red.

In the other cup add 1 tablespoon glue, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon of the borax mixture from the other cup. Let the mixture sit for about 15-20 seconds before stirring.

Stir until the mixture becomes stiff and difficult to mix. It may take a few minutes.

From this point, knead and mold in your hands. Form the mixture into a ball with your hands. It's pretty sticky at first. As time goes on it will harden.

There you go! It seems to work better on our carpet than on our tile floor but it did work on both. We waited until it was not sticky to try it out on the carpet.

Some troubleshooting tips:

I wanted to make another one so I repeated the process. For some reason the mixture came out a little different the second time. I had trouble getting the mixture to harden. I ended up adding more cornstarch and that seemed to do the trick. However, I left the ball on the counter and came back about 15 minutes later and found it gooey and stuck to the counter. So my best suggestion if it seems to turn out funny is to throw it away and start over. Luckily when I decided to make a third bouncy ball, it turned out great.

To store, just put it in an air tight container. These balls don't hold their shape well so you will have to reshape it the next time you play with them. Unlike store bought bouncy balls, it will only last a few days before drying out.