Gelatin is one of our favorite sensory materials over here.  We've done a baby sensory play with it, we've made it fizz like pop rocks, and we've frozen it.  So it was only natural that we'd make it glow.  :)

I originally tried this idea with floating ice stars, but they melted wayyyy too quickly.  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with these brightly glowing edible gelatin stars.  I was going to put them in a bin of water, but given X's penchant for getting INTO the sensory bins, I thought I might as well just make a pool in the bathtub and dump the stars in there.  I made the bath cooler than usual and the stars lasted quite some time.  S had a great time catching them.  They're slightly slippery in the water, so it takes a bit of doing to grab one.

Baby X loved grabbing for them, too, though he was much less successful in actually capturing them.

Here's S diving for another one!  As she'd catch them she'd smoosh them up in a big dramatic glowing star explosion.  Each smooshed star made the bath glow more and more brightly.

In the end, we just enjoyed a regular glowing bath.  X continues to be a big fan of the glowing activities.  :)

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To make Glowing Gelatin you will need:

Blacklight

Unflavored Knox Gelatin

Our Glowing Vitamin

Silicone Star Mold (optional)

Before I go any further, let me clarify that while these are not going to hurt your kids if they get an accidental taste, you do not want to feed them the glowing gelatin.  This activity is designed for children who are mostly through mouthing, but maybe have an occasional slip-up.  :)

I think this activity would be just as fun with glowing gelatin cubes, etc, but we happened to have a silicone star mold and I was hooked on the idea of glowing stars.  Unflavored Knox Gelatin usually calls for 4 packets of gelatin to 4 cups of water - to make sure these would stand up to being soaked in water, I made them in a ratio of 1.5 packets to each cup of hot water.  I added half of one of Our Glowing Vitamins  for each cup of hot water - but my kiddos do not taste things anymore.  If you do have a taster, I would suggest adding a much smaller amount of the vitamin to be extra safe (and again, please don't let them sit there eating huge amounts of glowing gelatin!).  Once the gelatin has set in the fridge, if it's in a silicone mold, you'll need to loosen it.  I took a butter knife and ran it around all the edges and used it to gently push the gelatin away from the sides and bottom before popping it out - it may help to lightly oil the mold before pouring in the gelatin (I forgot to try that this time!).

This is part of a series on Glowing; other posts in the series include:

Edible Glowing Oobleck

Safe and Edible Glow Water

Glowing Flowers

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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children.  As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family.  I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision.  Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies).  Observe caution and safety at all times.  The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.