Homemade Pat Mat

I made Geekling a pat mat once before following a bathroom clean out - Hubby had a jar of hair gel that he had only used once years ago.  Rather than throw it out, I tipped it into a zip-lock bag and watered it down to the perfect consistency and added some red food dye.  Sadly, the only zip-lock bags I had at the time that were large enough were vege steamer bags and had instructions and branding all over them.

Now that we have some nice big plain zip-lock again, last night I snipped a corner off the old one and squeezed the contents into a new plain zip-lock bag, added a little more water and dye, and some glitter.  I taped it to Geekling's highchair tray.

Then the agonising wait til morning to see if he liked it.

Success!  Geekling loved it.  He was fascinated by pressing it and having the thick liquid content move about to reveal the white of the high chair tray underneath.  When he is a bit older a homemade mat like this will be great Montessori style aid for teaching him letters as the large letter can be drawn on the underside of the mat in permanent marker or on a piece of paper under the mat for him to trace.

I think the same thing could be achieved using shampoo, conditioner or any number of bathroom lotions (the latter two of which would be more opaque).  You'd probably need little or no water added if you used these substitutes.