Invitation to play: Salt, foodcolor and toothpick and the resulting art

 Ok, this was sort of spread over a couple of days and was motivated mostly because patti went ballistic each time the girls came near glitter or sand owing to the Coats condition.

I could still give them sand, but making our own seemed a totally fun activity. I guess it will also be a great (cheap, eco-friendly) substitute for rangoli flour when Diwali rolls around.

Confession. i tried the self same activity a few months ago and the girls hated it, because the resulting mixture was clumpy (see photo below) and didnt glue properly at all. Stay tuned to see how to fix it.

  

 

The girls were up early yesterday morning and while the soup of cooking (my original plan was to make chick pea stew, but Anjali said that she wanted minestrone soup ("I like the veggies in it and it goes well with rice" - How could I refuse). So while the soup was coming to a boil, I emptied out the last of the playsalt and divided into three containers. The girls chose foodcoloring and I added enough for them to mix it up evenly. 

We have two kinds of salt at home. The 20 cent one which is used for play - for making playdough, salt dough and the like- and sea salt which we use for cooking. 

 Once it was done, we put the whole thing in the over at 160 degrees C for ten minutes

This morning, I set up an invitation for art: A long strip of paper taped on the floor, crayons and colored sand. I should make more colors next time, this was just an experiment, and besides i had run out of salt.

 See how nicely the salt had baked in the oven?

 Here is Anjali already starting to create befor I left for school. Happy children' day

And since it is salt, it can be easily mopped off the floor - unlike sand and glitter

And patti wont have anything to say about it :P