Buckets-O-Fun; a TOS Crew Review

YUCK.

We've been playing with it. Yes, Yuck. Playing with Yuck. Chunky Yuck. Snowy Yuck. Sticky Yuck. Saucy Yuck.
From Buckets-O-Fun.

I detest messy stuff and avoid it when possible. After experimenting with Yuck, I still don't like messy stuff, but I appreciate the learning value of it. My homeschooler was quite engaged as we experiment with Yuck, particularly the Chunky Yuck, which we played experimented with over a 24-hour period. (We made snowy, saucy, and sticky Yuck on the second day.)

For a student with special learning needs, Yuck is a gold mine for shared attention, shifting attention, checking out one another's reactions to the Yuck when we add more water, when we touch it. We're getting some science, some vocab, some measuring with a measuring cup, some practice recording steps and making observations, too.

If you're an RDI(r) family, any variety of Yuck is *very* RDI-able for quite a large number of relationship objectives.

One of my school-building-schoolers joined us in our Yuck experiments after school.

Yuck from Buckets-O-Fun is non-toxic, sensory-stimulating, kinesthetic and tactile learning at its best. You put some crumbs, flakes, or powder into a bowl, add water, and watch what happens next. Depending upon which product you use, you wind up with gel in the shape of ice cubes or the consistency of slime (snot) or something like snow.

My husband came home from work after we'd been adding cups of water to the chunky Yuck for 24 hours and asked why I had a bucket of ice on the dining room table. It looks exactly like ice. It feels like gelatin.

One of my twins wanted to touch and handle all of it; the other thought it was gross and kept grimacing when trying to feel any of it.

The notes warning me not to pour the product down the sink or into the toilet had me concerned. I used disposable containers and utensils, items that I could toss in the garbage, items that didn't need to be washed. If you're taking photos, the photographer may choose not to touch the stuff in order to keep his/her hands clean for photographer duties. And the person recording the information will need clean hands, too.

For my child w/ autism, Yuck is a wonderful background activity for relationship building. We had a lot of dialogue with Yuck as our conversation starter. Using all of the Yuck in the same lesson gave us opportunities to make appraisals, describe textures and make comparisons.

The saucy Yuck gave us more opportunities to appraise and discuss consistency; the first half-cup of water we added was not enough to create a consistency of applesauce and we kept adding little bits of water and stirring and discussing the consistency. For a child on the autism spectrum, these are valuable learning opportunities disguised within a really fun activity.

You may choose to add food coloring; we chose not to. We could have tinted the sticky Yuck to make it look exactly like snot. YUCK.

I can imagine Yuck being a fun activity for a homeschool co-op, for a Sunday School or church activity, for a social skills or play group, for a school-building-school classroom. Summer camp programs, extended school year programs and Vacation Bible School or Buddy Break programs would be fun places to use Yuck outdoors where the product can be desposed of easily and children can be hosed off with a garden hose.

We were given small samples; Yuck is available for purchase beginning in one-pound packages that range from $16-$20, depending upon which type of Yuck is chosen.

I would consider ordering a pound of each for a unit study to use over time, preparing one at a time, using hot water, cold water, ice, food coloring, etc. There are many variables we could use for some experiments. The part of me who detests the mess would do them all outdoors in warm weather.

I was given samples of Yuck so that I could review it for TOS Crew. I was not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.