Slime is one of the most popular creations to make at home and play with your kids. It can trigger their creativity, as it is completely malleable and it can take whatever shape you want it to behave.
You can stretch it, squeeze it, cut it and many more! Even the process to make it can be entertaining for your kids. So, how to play with slime and what games can you create with it?
Making the slime
The first thing we need to start this article is (drums playing): slime! You can get store bought slime from any toy store or you can make your own and make the preparation part of the game.
There are several ways to make your own slime. Unfortunately, the best recipes contain some ingredients you might not have at home, but they are easy to get, though.
The elements we are going to need for the different recipes are:
- Glue
- Food coloring
- Water
- Borax
- Dish soap
- Contact lens solution
How to make slime with borax activator
There is a key element all slime recipes contain, and it’s glue. You can either use regular white glue or the clear one.
The best you can use is Elmer’s glue, as it gives the best results, and this brand has even created a type of glue specially made for slime.
They make it in colors and with glitter. Together with the glue you will need an “activator”, which will neutralize the stickiness in the glue and make it denser.
Based on the different recipes you may want to try, the activator can be made of different ingredients. The most popular recipe contains borax.
Mix a teaspoon of borax in 200 ml of warm water. You probably won’t use all this preparation for one batch of slime, but you can keep it in a bottle for future uses.
Pour as much glue as you want in a bowl, add a few drops of food coloring (of course, this is optional), and slowly add the borax solution into the mix.
Don’t add too much at once, as your slime can be “over-activated” and get too hard to play with. Add as much as you need to make the glue not sticky, but still malleable.
Ready! Now you play with slime!
Making slime with other recipes
As we said before, playing with slime can also include the making process, so you can take the time to try different recipes and see which is the one you like the most. The slime activities you can enjoy are unlimited!
Another option to activate the glue is using contact lens solution. You can buy this at pharmacies or drugstores. However, you have to make sure the version you buy contains boric acid or sodium borate.
It’s a chemical product similar to borax and that’s why both work for this purpose. Again, add the solution into the mix slowly until you have achieved the right consistency.
Another option you can try is dish soap. This recipe might be the most convenient of you don’t use borax at home or if you don’t wear contact lenses, as you are more likely to have dish soap at home.
However, this combination will result in a quite sticky slime that is not as smooth as the previous options.
How to play with slime and keep your kids entertained
There are several slime activities you can keep your kids entertained with:
- Slime is super malleable, and you can play with it stretching or squeezing it. Organize a tournament with your kids to see who can stretch their slime the furthest without breaking or touching the floor.
- If you have made slime with white glue (either colors or not), you will see that you cannot see through it easily. Using this to your advantage, put a big batch of slime in a plastic container and hide little toys and stuff in it.
Challenge your kids to find as many things as possible in a set time. Always remember to put in stuff that do not contain batteries and that are fully made of plastic. You won’t want to wash the slime off a plushie toy, we assure you! - You can also turn slime into a different kind of play dough! The ideal slime consistency won’t allow you to make any shape, as it will melt in a short time and turn into a shapeless putty.
But remember you can over-activate slime if you add too much borax into the mix? Sometimes this can be useful. Make several over-activated batches with different colors of slime. - Give your kids cookie cutters and let them play with it to make “cookies” or other shapes. One day I even saw a guy making a fake burger with ingredients made of slime! You can later mix all of them together to make a colorful ball of slime.
Make your slime textured with different ingredients
What to do with slime once you are tired of playing with it? Keep on trying new things! You might get bored of your old pink slime after some days of playing with it, but you can refurbish it by adding extra ingredients.
You can make your slime more visually pleasing by adding some glitter! If you are making the slime from scratch, we recommend adding the glitter to the glue before adding the activator, but you can add it later with no problem. You can also try adding styrofoam beads for a crunchy texture!
We hope we have given you some ideas about how to play with slime and you and your kids can have tons of fun! We are sure you can think of more great ways to enjoy playing with your family.
We also have an article about “melting crayons in oven” to reuse those broken crayons and make them more interesting for your kids.