Our DIY Kinetic Sand experiment

Every time I go into our local ACE Hardware store, I end up playing with the sample Kinetic Sand they have on display. I wanted to get some for my kids until I saw the $15 price tag for a tiny container. Sorry….I'm WAY to cheap for that!

So I gave a DIY recipe a chance. It turned into an experiment for the What Not To Do file. I used this recipe from gimmefreebies.com and it didn't go well. I think part of it had to do with measuring the sand, but it just didn't work. I added WAY more cornstarch and WAY more dish soap to get it sort of right but it never stuck together like the "real" stuff does.

This was in the process of adding, adding, adding more starch and soap…still too sticky.

Finally got it to stick together and be moldable!

The punks still had fun with it but it only survived one use and I'm still finding sand in my kitchen….

Yep…..she ate it…..

I decided to keep digging to find a good recipe for this, and came across this article that explains what the main ingredients in the "real" thing are. I found this excerpt interesting….

"We did a little digging into Delta of Sweden's product-specific medical fact sheet (the document you bring to the doctor after you notice all of the sand has disappeared and Junior's belly looks full). While the proportions are not revealed, there are only two ingredients listed: "silicon dioxid" [sic] and "polydimethyl siloxane."

Silicon dioxide, which is what we assume they meant, is basically sand and presumably the 98% part. Polydimethyl siloxane or PDMS, on the other hand, is a rubbery, viscoelastic material that's a key ingredient in Silly Putty.

So is it safe? It better be: PDMS, a silicone agent found in caulk, can also be used as an antifoaming agent—something that both McDonald's and Wendy's list in their ingredients for Chicken McNuggets and french fries!"

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Either Silly Putty (and Kinetic Sand) is completely safe for the punks to eat, which they inevitably will at some point in their play, or we REALLY need to stop eating at the Golden Arches!

I think we'll stick with our home made play dough!