Want to do sensory play without the mess with added educational benefits? This review is for you...

If you have children like mine who are totally disgusting and love everything gross, then this is right up their street. A range of slime and gelli baths products that are suitable for kids to bath in, which just shower away afterwards. Both products manufactured by Zimpli Kids that can be purchased from most toy shops. I will add some links down below where you can purchase the products along with my activity ideas!

What is it?

The gelli bath is more than just a messy sensory product, but more like a science activity you can fully submerge yourself into. Especially when you break it down into stages like we did, exploring the process thoroughly. You can totally mix it up, you don't need to use it all within a bath, you could let the child independently use a smaller proportion to carry out their own little experiment in a tray. The activity can be enhanced by adding resources such as jugs, spoons or cups to develop mathematical skills like weight, measure and volume. I have created an additional list at the bottom of different activities and the areas of development it can aid.

Sound appealing? Carry on reading to see exactly how we got on, we had both slime and gelli baff products with the helps of my 2 testers , Lucas (8) and Leo (4).

How we got on...

First up the slime, it was simple to make by just sprinkling it into the bath with running water. Each packet is enough to create a 3in bath of slime. I thought at first it wasn't going to be enough, but actually when you have multiple kids in the bath sliding around it's plenty. You wouldn't want it spilling over the sides really. The boys loved it from what I could tell with all their gross talk, and the most common word they used being 'eww', so I'll take that as a hit.

Whilst they were in the bath we thought we would experiment so we add another packet of blue slime and a bit more water. They loved the feeling of it turning into slime and watching it change colour. I probably wouldn't recommend this, but they became all excited and began chucking it over each other and submerging their heads under the slime! Both boys were in the bath for around 20 minutes, so not too bad.

I showered both the bath and the boys off, after feeling how slimy they were it washed of pretty easily. Even my wilko's shampoo could de-slime them 😂. However instant regret as they wanted to do the gelli bath straight away. I debated it for about 30 seconds but thought why not, we are here in the moment all set up.

This time we took it slow so we emptied the pack with a only a small amount of water. On an Instagram post I saw someone else who used the gelli baff with less water than instructed. It resulted in a play-doh like consistently that was more malleable, so we decided to give that a go. Wow, wow, wow they boys immediately loved it, the texture was so therapeutic even I was squeezing it between my fingers repeatedly. The texture was divine, they molded it into a heap, pretending it was volcano erupting. There little imaginations were running wild and you could see the enjoyment sparkling in their eyes.

Every so often I gradually added more water. It was interesting seeing how the consistency changed, using their hands to mix it up. Mid mess (mainly by myself by leaning over the bath to play then spilling it over the sides to take photos), the baby wakes up, right on cue! She must have wanted to join in the fun. So that's just what she did, joining the boys for a sensory play. What a strange feeling that must be being submerged in pool of gelli, her little face though! She watched the boys as they continued to play, throwing it at the side of the bath saying splat. Eventually she gained confidence to touch it herself, hitting it, using her pincer grip to pick little bits of the side, grasping and then releasing her hand. Doing wonders for her fine motor skills, of course being supervised to ensure she doesn't put it in her mouth.

We continued to dilute the gelli by adding more water. It was amazing that just by adding water the consistency and texture varied drastically. This really engaged the boys. It wasn't long before Isabel was getting ratty ready for the lunch. The gelli was much easier to wash off and rinsed of with such ease. The boys continued to explore the gelli bath whilst I was sorting Isabel out. I couldn't believe the time , I had to literally bribe these boys out of the bath to have lunch. I was amazed at time, they had been in the gelli bath for around 40 minutes. We sprinkled the dissolver over the bath and just by magic is turned to liquid. As It turned to pink water it easily just drained away. Top marks for the gelli baff!

To summarise, I think I can vouch for both myself and the boys when we say we highly recommend the products. We thoroughly enjoy the gelli bath and thought this was the better product of the two. I have to say I was slightly apprehensive about using the products as I thought they were going to be super messy, but they weren't especially the gelli which didn't leave a residue and instantly washes away.

Activity ideas

Here's a few ideas I have brainstormed linked to development areas:

* Add small world figures such as farm animals, sea creatures, a construction site to develop imagination skills.

* Use jugs, scales, bowls, spoons and other cookery instruments to develop mathematics skills.

* In a thicker solution use cars, animals or stamps to create marks within the slime or gelli for mark making.

* Share a tray between a few children to allow them to engage with each other for a bit of socialisation, sharing and problem solving.

* Hide letters within the slime or gelli for the children to find, get them to sound out the sounds or put them together to create a word to aid speech and phonics development.

* Add less water to make a thicker solution to practice writing letters or their name to develop literacy and fine motor skills. You can also use paintbrushes, lolly sticks or glue spreaders.