One thing that most kids agree on is the fact that they find anything that looks and feels gross, yucky, or disgusting, appealing. While most adults find it less than attractive, kids especially like slime, and they like to make it themselves, especially during the Halloween season.
There are several slime recipes around, but the most popular one seems to include Borax, Elmer’s glue, and water. If you want to make colored slime, you will need food coloring, however, with smaller children especially, the food coloring can become messy. In any case, it’s a good idea to set up an area in the kitchen that is well protected from staining by newspapers, or cardboard.
If your children want to keep their slime for further use, you will also need to supply them with some airtight plastic bags, since it will dry out.
The secret to how slimy your slime becomes is in the Borax. If you want a soft, slimy slime you will need to add less Borax, and a firmer slime will require more. Generally the ratio is one teaspoon of Borax to one cup of water. Stir well.
In another bowl, you will add about ½ cup of water with an equal amount of glue. If you are adding food coloring, you add it to this solution. This will require only a couple of drops. Mix well.
In a large container, add both of the bowls together and stir well. The slime can now be taken out of the water, where it has formed, and be put to any use that your kids have for this slimy concoction. Of course, slime is interesting in look, feel and how it seems to have movement all its own.
With very small children, the attraction will be in playing with their slime, and they have very little interest in the actual ingredients, or why they create this valuable, fun product. Older kids may be a little more interested in the process, but are probably more intent on finding scary Halloween ideas for theirs, or a way to scare their siblings. Slime will harden, and eventually, regardless of how slimy you made it in the first place, it will turn into the consistency of putty, which is also fun. So, once the kids are done playing with it, if they want to keep their particular slime, they do need to place it in an airtight container or bag.
Regardless of what they do with their slime, the kids will no doubt be impressed that their parent knows how to make it.
