Gak has an unusual smooth texture and is made for squishing, twisting, squashing, rolling, flattening, twisting and all around hands-on fun! It's available in Blue It, Yakkity Yellow, Goo Green, Tickled Pink, Purple Panic, in addition to the Rebel Red version we're playing with in our pictures.
Guess what Gak also does? When you squeeze it, makes little cracking and popping noises. Twisting and poking your fingers into it, will also get it to make cool sounds. When we pushed our Gak back into it's container, ER couldn't stop giggling over the noises it made. So if you kids get a kick out of that sort of thing, let's just say, they'll love Gak!
Have I mentioned you can also stretch it? Stretch it, into really, really, long ropes? You can also hold it up in the air and let a little drip out of your fingers and watch it stretch out into a thinner and thinner line of Gak all the way down to the floor.
Gak easily passed the kid test, ER thought it was just the coolest thing. So did it pass the mom test? Yes but with the warning that it's for play with parent supervision. The good news, it was pretty easy to clean up any bits of Gak left on our play mat with a damp paper towel. It washed off hands easily too.
The downside is there is no way ER would've been able to clean up by herself. Gak is sticky and slightly tacky. If all the Gak wasn't wiped up right away, I would be worried it wouldn't come off at all. I don't know what would happen in that case, and with the bright colors I don't want to find out! ER was so excited to play with the Gak, blowing bubbles til the burst, slapping it from hand to hand, etc. I could see bits flying around and getting stuck in odd places if I wasn't there to oversee the play and keep it from getting crazy.
Also, no matter how hard we tried we just couldn't get that darn Gak to bounce for us. Whenever we tried it would just hit the play mat or ground with a thud and spread out. This actually wasn't a problem for me. I could just see bits of dirt getting suck in the Gak whenever it hit the floor...and it bouncing places it shouldn't, like onto the carpet. My advice is have fun, go crazy, but wear play clothes and use a play mat like plastic place mat or a sheet of aluminum foil. And always, clean up right away!
Bottom line, ER loved making stuff with Floam. She can't wait to shape more things! I liked it a lot too, it was definitely something different and unique from the other molding compounds we've used. I also felt more comfortable letting her play with this indpendently. I could set out the Floam and let her keep busy with molding, shaping, and sculpting while I get some cleaning done without worries.
Gak and Floam are non-toxic, non-staining, phthalete-, latex- and BPA - free and are available at Target, Toys R Us, ToysRUs.com, Bed Bath and Beyond, A.C. Moore and Walgreens. Both have a suggested retail price of $6.99.
Disclosure: Complimentary samples of both Gak and Floam were provided for review via Team Mom. The opinions and experiences expressed are personal and unbiased. No other compensation was received.
