Glow in the dark activities and facing fears

The Black-
light torch we used

My greatest discovery so far... tonic water glows under a black light! Over the past few weeks we have been doing some glow in the dark activities. Here I will show the ones that have worked and let you know the ones that have failed! I wasn't very interested in chemistry at school but I sure am now. Learning with the boys is amazing.

I was so thrilled to find out that something so simple could bring a new edge to our activities. And, even more so as it would be something that helped my youngest feel more comfortable in the dark. My eldest has always voiced his fears loud and overcome them quickly but my youngest seems more concerned about things and not so quick to adapt (poor guy hardly has a chance with his big brother around)! The dark was starting to be an issue I was going to have to address and these activities have helped my son to feel confident and enjoy the dark. At first he was quite reluctant but once his brother was set up I was able to work slowly encouraging him to enjoy the moment - and now - no stopping him!

Here are our activities:

First we tried just pouring and enjoying the glow! This was a great starting point as it glows brightly and the boys were able to splash it about in the bath with little concern for cleaning up. They had a variety of containers, jugs and funnels and spent quite a while transferring the liquid from one place to another. And yes, a few drops were consumed but neither were keen on the taste!

Next we tried cornflour and tonic water. This was another super glowey one. The white in the cornflour helped to keep the vivid glow and the boys had a great if messy time playing with this old favorite!

Then, I tried to be a bit more adventurous and made playdough. Big fail! I think the flour and salt are too dense to allow the tonic water to glow so we had to turn the lights on for this one! I also tried letting them draw white crayon pictures and letters but again these didn't really glow. Perhaps a white marker pen on black paper would work but we haven't tried that yet. 

So back to something that worked. Cornflour and tonic water in food bags to do drawing and writing (thick consistency and strong food bags)! We made up some sensory bottles using cooking oil, food colouring and tonic water. I made up several to explore colour and the reaction between the oil and water then decided to try with tonic water to see if it worked under the black light. It did and it was nice clean fun watching the bubbles go back and fourth in the bottle. 

Finally, and probably the most impressive, was Tapioca or Sagu seeds and tonic water. Tapioca is a popular food here and these are known as sagu here. But I see they are available from health food shops. I soaked the sagu in the tonic water for a couple of hours then added more water so they were 'swimming' around. They glowed so bright and they got quite sticky so the boys could press handfuls together. The next night I didn't add extra tonic water and the stickiness intensified so they could make really big 'snowballs'. Then I left the tapioca pearls to dry out. The next day they were able to have  dry play session in the dark and this was really great too as they threw up handfuls and searched to see where it landed!

Sagu seeds

This has been such a brilliant discovery, made even better as it helped my youngest son overcome a fear. We have had so much fun with it and will definitely be repeating these activities in the future. As always I will add a quick conscience note on food use and let you know that the quantities we use are minimal and all in the name of safe play for the littlies. 

If you have any ideas of ways to use our black light further please let us know as we just love it :) 



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