Creativity in Your Homeschool: A Review of Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit

I received a FREE copy of this product from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Our homeschooled children are very creative. They love arts and crafts, writing stories, and creating new games. When presented with the opportunity to review the Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit from Timberdoodle, I was very excited to see what creative colors they would design. We had already purchased our daughter a container of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty previously, so I knew that when she saw this kit, she would be SO thrilled!

The Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit is rated for ages 3+, which makes it perfect for many homeschooling families. It can be used as a separate activity or included as part of your science homeschool lessons.

What Do You Get?

In the colorful box, you will receive everything you need to make at least 5 different Thinking Putty® concoctions. (You can make more color and special effect combinations if your children subdivide the small tins of clear putty into smaller parts as our own did.)

• 5 tins of clear putty 
• 3 color concentrates - red, yellow, blue 
• 3 special effects - sparkle-izer, glow-ifier, shimmer-izer 

• 6 colored pencils 
• 5 customizable tin labels (we had labels on our tins and a set of 5 stickers) 

• 1 mixing mat with ideas for color formulas 

How Did We Use Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® in Our Homeschool?

One evening, shortly after the arrival of the Mixed by Me Thinking Putty® Kit, our children had exhausted their imaginations and toys. So, I took out the box and we started looking at the mixing mat. As our children had already played with a tin of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty® previously, they knew to a small extent what to expect. We looked at the bags of three colors and the three special effects options and talked about what colors they might like to make. We took a look at the sample formulas to decide whether or not we wanted to use any of the suggestions.

In the beginning, we rolled out the Thinking Putty® using the Measuring Bar, but by the time we had been creating our own creations for a bit, we just grabbed out how much we thought we would want or need of each color or special effect to add to the clear putty.

Because our children wanted to mix small amounts, we ended up storing some of the creations in sandwich bags inside of the tins. I think perhaps because they did not use large quantities of the colors and the special effects, the impact of them was not as pronounced as it would have been if they used 'a glob,' 'a blob,' or 'a heap' as indicated in the Measuring Bar. For example, the glow-in-the-dark special effect putty did not really glow but in the end, we were not really disappointed.

We have about five bags of small amounts of different colored Thinking Putty®

Our second grader is not a fan of other products of a similar nature. In fact, he does not even like to be the same room when his sister plays with those products but he has not had any sensory issues with the Thinking Putty® at all. I am very happy that he was able to join in the creation process to design a really stunning orange-colored tin of Thinking Putty®.

You can just see the sparkles in this orange-colored putty. When it settles, it will often stick to the lid.

I like that the more you play with the putty, the more it mixes and your color combination and special effect choices become more clear. In the beginning, our daughter did not want to really mix her combinations but the more she did, the more you could see the teal-blue of one of her creations.

The top is the clear putty, the middle is our daughter's teal-blue creation, and the bottom is the orange tin. 

How Can You Use This in Your Homeschool? 

I think there are a variety of ways you can use the Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit in your homeschool. You will be able to discuss the mixing of colors (and special effects), the need to measure (or not measure) when creating something, as well as cooperate if you have more than one homeschooled child using the kit. The putty also gives the child something they can play with during read-alouds or while they work on difficult assignments or projects. (Do be careful though because it can stick to things.)

While the children were picking their colors and special effects options, I thought about how perfect this would be for a children's birthday party. It would be the perfect activity for our children and their cousins to do together where every child would get to take home their own small tin of Thinking Putty®.

I would recommend Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit. The putty itself is fun to play with, and the idea of creating your own colors and designs is a lot of fun. While some may find the tins too small, I think they are a perfect size. I also love the fact that Thinking Putty® is produced in the United States.

If you want to read more reviews of products from Timberdoodle, please check out my reviews of the Tenzi Game and the Zig Zag Puzzler.