Thursday, July 25, 2013

Summer Fun Day 61 - Grab-A Bubbles, Bubbles You Can Touch



I was telling the store clerk (in Montana it's normal to have long conversations with the clerk and other customers in grocery store check-out lines) about our bubble stations, and that if I could find edible bubbles for sale (sadly they don't seem to sell those in the United States anymore) I would set up sensory bubble stations for the children with colored bubbles (bubbles you can see), scented bubbles (you can smell), and edible bubbles (you can taste).

She asked me if I'd seen the Grab-A Bubbles they'd just put out - for bubbles you can touch.  The Grab-A Bubbles turned out to be a Ja-Ru toy, which I was very happy to see, as that gives me hope for eventually finding more of their great fossil toys at the super market, too.

I picked up one tube's worth to give them a try.  They were fairly inexpensive for a supermarket toy - under two dollars, and they turned out to be lot of fun.

Since I never did locate edible bubbles, I saved the touchable bubbles for when the older children were away, as something special for the younger ones.  One 42 mL tube was more than enough to keep the four of us entertained for an evening.

They really are a different sort of bubble experience.  The bubble solution has a corn syrupy consistency, but the bubbles are more like drying glue.  They hang in the air, and sit on hands, grass, hair, or whatever they land on for an unusually long time.  Then, they gradually deflate, leaving behind a sort of sticky shell, that can be rolled, or brushed off exactly like dried glue.

If you have a child who does not like sticky things, or getting dirty, they might enjoy watching the bubbles in the air, but I wouldn't let any land on them, or have them try to blow the bubbles themselves.

In reality, they are not all that messy - though it seems like they are when you are playing with them, and I was a little worried when the wind picked up, and started carrying the bubbles over our fence, towards our neighbor's immaculately clean windows.  Happily they got caught in an updraft and swooped right on over their roof.

Our tube of bubbles came with a prism  on top, for viewing the bubbles with rainbow halos, as well.  Our hands were too sticky to make that practical while we were playing with the bubbles.  However, once we were all cleaned up, and back inside, the prism viewer did prove to be quite a bit of fun for looking through at our lights.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

5 comments:

Phyllis said...

I like your idea of sensory station bubbles. Too bad you couldn't find the ones you could taste.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Hmm... Sticky bubbles - I can see how much my husband would enjoy that :)

Ticia said...

Oh that would be cool. I agree, too bad you couldn't find them.

Christy Killoran said...

Funny, I placed an order on Amazon and needed to spend a couple more dollars and this was the item I found! Waiting for it to come in! I remember taking Tyler to a play group when he was one (15 years ago) and they had edible bubbles - now I wonder what happened that they don't make them anymore!!!

Unknown said...

Sooooooo pretty!