Homemade Easy Slime

Spiriteds, school starts today. A summer full of shenanigans comes to a close, and Twinkle and I are back to our dynamic duo status. It’s our last year at home together before she heads off to kindergarten. I am ALL UP IN MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS. Excited for new beginnings and weepy over the end of an era. For ten years, every day will have been “take your daughter to work day.” It wasn’t easy but it was my normal. Melodramatic much? Ooh, and dear Spiriteds, you only have an entire calendar year to listen to me glom on about this. Saddle up with some wine and send prayers. Or chocolate. Twinkle and I will just be in the kitchen making this Homemade Easy Slime recipe. It is one of my favorite craft activities ever, and it’s part of an earlier post, Sensory Play Ideas for Preschoolers.

But how did we come across this strange magic? Grandmas to the rescue!!!! The girls got an Elmer’s Glue slime kit from K-Hubs’ mom for Christmas last year, and we’ve been sliming it up ever since! Today’s slime recipe is an offshoot of several Elmer’s Glue recipes, which you can find here. We finagle the ingredients to get the consistency we want. Variations in glue container size, type/consistency (think glitter vs. clear vs. school glue), and room temperature (especially when storing) may impact the amount of each ingredient needed and how long each batch will last.

Once you’ve made your batches, then settle in for hours of fun! Because, and please feel free to be forewarned, I feel about slime the same way I feel about glitter. I LOVE IT. Do not ask me why. I have no logical answer. Slime is so slimey and gooey and weird. And I think that’s why I love it. Also, slime doesn’t drive with its turn signal permanently set to ON. Nor does it put an empty milk carton back in the fridge. Furthermore, slime doesn’t start sentences with “No offense, but…” And it doesn’t interrupt me when I’m talking, nor do I have to repeat myself…unless I’m talking out a problem and I need to re-reiterate my issues to myself irregardless and for all intensive purposes eckcetera. But slime doesn’t mind. Slime is a good listener. Also, slime doesn’t use those words.

Please excuse my digression. I feel strongly about Homemade Easy Slime and also words.

As for the kids, well, I am not an occupational therapist, nor do I play one on tv or on this blog. But what I have observed in my own two girlies is that not only is playing with slime good for fine motor skills and hand strength, but so too is making the slime in the first place. That stuff needs to be stretched and kneaded and stretched and kneaded some more to get the right consistency. It takes some serious muscles. I broke out into a sweat the first few times. “Mom, are you done making that batch yet?” No, Toodle, and please get a rag to wipe my brow and a glass of water for my parched mouth.

That story is only partially exaggerated.

Here’s what is totally true. We:

• Take turns kneading and stretching our batches of Homemade Easy Slime. I encourage the girls to do the work as much as they can, but I definitely help out in tight spots or if a batch just won’t cooperate.
• Talk A LOT about consistency, texture, and measurement (especially when we start the finagling process of getting just the right mixture).
• Add in different colors to clear or school glue to see what happens when the colors mix.
• Use random loose parts for extended Homemade Easy Slime play. Favorites include cookie cutters, wood sticks, kitchen utensils, and even plastic figurines that aren’t terribly important or expensive (think dollar stores or dollar bins).

As for storage, I keep our Homemade Easy Slime in a plastic baggie in a cool, dark place. I’ve had batches last for weeks on end while others only lasted a few days. So I go into this experience with fluid expectations for each batch’s shelf life. But just a few minutes of prep turns into hours of fun, which is all kinds of priceless!

Homemade Easy Slime

Print Recipe

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 10 mins
• Yield: 1 batch 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 bottle glue
• Baking soda
• Contact lens solution
• Liquid watercolors or food coloring, optional

Instructions

1. Pour the glue into a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 tablespoon baking soda. Stir together with a spoon until the ingredients are as blended as possible. Add food coloring or liquid watercolors until desired color is achieved.
2. Add 1 1/4 tablespoons contact lens solution and mix again until as blended as possible. You might have a few pockets of ingredients that clump together. This is okay. You’re trying to get the mixture to blend into one large mass.
3. Once you have a mass of slime, then start kneading it and stretching it by hand. This will help evenly distribute the ingredients. If the mixture is too sticky, add a little extra contact lens solution in increments of 1/4 teaspoons. If the slime is too runny, then add more baking soda in increments of 1/4-1/2 teaspoons. Continue to knead, stretch, and fold the slime until desired consistency is reached.
4. Store in an airtight container for several days.

Notes

The more you knead and stretch the mixture, the more it will form into slime. If adding extra baking soda or contact lens solution, do so in small increments as a little bit will go a long way, and you may be closer to achieving play-ready slime than you think. ALSO, if you end up with a little glue stuck in the bottle, prop it upside down on the counter for a few minutes. You’d be surprised how much glue you can eke out of those last drops.

Today’s Homemade Easy Slime recipe is inspired by Elmer’s Glue slime recipes, which can be found here.

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