For Hours of Entertainment, DIY Slime!

No matter how many times we make slime, my girls never get tired of this gooey, wacky activity. If you're stuck inside on this snow day, download the movie "Flubber" on Netflix and unleash this project. Your kids will be super-psyched. It's made with common ingredients you find around the house. Borax, a laundry additive, is available at most supermarkets and big box retailers.

Supplies: Water, White Glue, Plastic Cup, Stirring Stick, Food Coloring, Borax

How-To: Add Borax, spoonful at a time, to a cup of tap water, until the Borax collects at the bottom (super-saturated). Set aside. Fill plastic cup with 1-2" school glue (add food coloring now, for colored slime). Slowly add borax mixture, while stirring, until - voila - slime!

Science Behind It: The slime is viscous - it holds its shape like a solid but moves like a liquid. Test it by rolling your slime into a ball, putting it onto the counter, and watching it sink back into a puddle.

hobbies past

Miniatures have always delighted me. As a girl, I saved each bit of allowance for rare trips to the little store on Cheshire Bridge Road that housed every type of chair, rug, patio set, curio, lamp, wallpaper, grand piano, and so on - all at 1/12" scale. I sculpted holiday feasts from colored clay; dabbled in millinery with felt, ribbons, and a messy white-glue solution; wired Christmas trees and hall sconces; stitched rugs in intricate needlepoint patterns, and then backed them with muslin. After years of loving use, my dollhouses and their items were packed in newspaper scraps and stored in the basement of our weekend home.

On the few occasions that I have visited this house recently, my own girls have just as lovingly un-wrapped each worn item and spent hours on their knees, furnishing the rooms, yards and attics. Some of the pieces are home-made, some store-bought, and some inherited from my grandmother who was a talented miniatures artist. Now, these things are slowly making their way from Murphy, NC to Brooklyn, NY and taking up residence in our small apartment. I am very happy to have them back.

A friend and her daughters recently moved into a new brownstone and, when I visited, were in the process of setting up their dollhouse room. Oh - how wonderful - please give me a tour! The 4th grade daughter was still happy to show off the large dollhouses and various little items, but the 7th grade daughter - my friend confided - was now reluctant to express an interest in miniatures. Perhaps she thought it was time to outgrow this hobby. I understood. But who can resist that intimate peek into a tiny world, a diorama, a miniature stage so carefully set? Especially when it glows with beads of light.

I passed through the same thing myself - veering into adolescence and leaving dollhouses behind. But, in my mid-twenties, when I was working on my Masters thesis in Industrial Design, I stumbled upon the perfect chance to scour Manhattan for the best miniatures stores and create a backdrop for scale models of my work. At some point during that year's work, I had been caught by a spread in Metropolis magazine - photographs of a scale suburban landscape. These weren't strict architectural models; these were dollhouses in a very contemporary - very grown-up - style. I was inspired! I was enjoying my thesis work so much as it were, and now a chance to come back to a dear childhood pass time in a grown-up way. I spent a week holed up in our little apartment - husband and children away - listing to albums from start to finish, sanding models until my fingerpads were numb, and playing with a dollhouse.

The title of my thesis was Coming Home. Thirteen families across the country gave me a very close look into their family life, their comings and goings, and everything that they used, took and communicated about 'coming home' at the end of the day. The process was a coming home itself, for me, and an endeavor of which I enjoyed every single minute. Photographing the miniatures brought a whole new level of fun to the work, and - if I were ever to have an art barn out back (I have often thought) - my art would certainly take the form of tiny dioramas.

If so desired – there are many ways to re-imagine, re-invent, and re-visit hobbies that have been left behind, outgrown, or outdated. Allow them to change with you.

prompts

Talya wore Heelies and a pedometer every day to camp. The pedometer was lost twice and found once. The second loss was via priority mail, en route from my office to her house. She emailed inquiring about her pedometer, and she attached a story draft. I suggested her next story chronicle the paths of the pedometer, wherever it landed. Where would 1124 steps take a 37-year-old Chicagoan in the Great Depression? Where would 7085 carry a 14-year-old boy in Brooklyn... in 2045? Where do 2738 steps take you - in any direction - from your bedroom door?

In his book "On Writing Well," William Zinsser argues that the purpose of a book's opening line must be to compel the reader to the following line, the first paragraph to the second, and the first chapter to the next. There is no room for ho-hum. Words are chosen purposefully, sentences structured for their tone and rhythm, and paragraphs ordered for their pacing. Any piece, regardless of subject matter, becomes appealing and satisfying because it is written well.

For example, "Skill Display in Birding Groups" by Bert O. States (originally published in The North American Review and re-printed in Best American Essays 2005) is very funny. I know nothing about - and am generally uninterested in - birding, but this essay is a delight. In the same collection, David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster," plucked from Gourmet magazine, is a fantastic read, lobster-lover or no.

Eleanor and her 4th-grade classmates workshop their journal pieces using writing prompts. They employ the original cut-and-paste method to move paragraphs around, enter the story in an alternate way, and move to a different point of view. Story-starting prompts might include "people on your block" or "the contents of the purse of the woman sitting one table over at your favorite Chinese food restaurant." For young and novice writers, especially, it's helpful for the prompts to reflect something personal, something tangible in their own life.

The next time I write to a close friend, I'd like to open with the sentence "I took the bold step of..."
...answering the phone,
...using red,
...draining the pond,
...going in person,
...staying put?

We all should take bold steps. How would the sentence end?