The ultimate guide to making slime your child will love

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The ultimate guide to making slime your child will love

Slime is a big hit on the internet and in playrooms and kitchens across the world. Kids love the squishy feel of this amazing substance. Parents are impressed by the educational benefits it brings, especially when kids learn how to make their own slime. There are a lot of commercial products on the market, like on www.starwalkkids.com for example, but this guide helps you to work out how to make slime your child will love at home.

Slime’s basic ingredients can be found in every home

There are four main ingredients to slime. You will need water, glue, food coloring and borax. Borax is a chemical which comes in crystal or powdered form. Its main use is for cleaning laundry, but it has come into its own as a key ingredient in slime. If you don’t have it in your cupboard, borax is inexpensive and easily found in online shops.

Mix the ingredients together, and hey presto!

Take one part clear glue, and one part water, and mix them together in a bowl. You can make any quantity, but the trick is to ensure that you use the same amount of each. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir them in. You can use one or more colors to create the shade you want. Add one teaspoon of borax to a separate cup of water and stir. Mix this into your bowl and slime will form. You can experiment with the quantity of borax solution to vary the stretchiness of your slime.

Add glitter, beads, sequins, confetti, foam shapes and more!

The basic slime recipe can be refined with any number of different ingredients. If you want sparkle, add glitter. Use clear or opaque glue for different effects. Beads and foam shapes will change the texture. You can even add glowing green colouring and toy spiders for Halloween, snowflakes for Christmas, or perfumes to give your slime a delicious fragrance. Whatever the occasion, a slime recipe can be individually created to match.

Use environmentally-friendly products if possible

The idea of using borax and plastic ingredients raises concerns about the environment. It takes a long time for these substances to decay once they have been disposed of. Fortunately, there is an alternative. You can make slime using gelatin, cornflour and corn syrup instead of borax and glue. There are plenty of bio-degradable decorations, too, such as paper, eco-glitter and even small sweets or marshmallows.

Buy a slime construction kit or make up your own wild ideas!

Your child will enjoy experimenting with slime recipes. This is a great activity for a birthday party or sleepover. A kit will provide ample materials for children to mix and match. Once they have learned the basic procedure, they might even want to create their own recipes. There’s no limit to the imagination, and children will acquire useful skills in design, measurement, evaluation and basic chemistry.

A thousand ways to vary your slime, if you do a little research

The best way to make slime your child will love, is to do a little research online to find the commercial or home-made recipe that suits you best. Practice it until the basic consistency is right, and then adapt it to your heart’s content. Your child won’t be bored with this hobby, if you provide exciting ingredients and plenty of encouragement. After that, just let their imagination run free.