Easy Slime Recipes for Kids
My kids love slime! And all their friends love slime. And so, we've been making variations of these easy slime recipes for the kids many evenings lately.
What I especially love about making slime with the kids is that it teaches them some basic chemistry and encourages creativity.
We've made slime with borax, slime with glue and contact lens solution, fluffy slime with shaving gel, and some edible slime (basically melted candy).
Our absolute favourite is the glue and contact lens solution recipe. It is by far the easiest. It doesn't involve handling borax. And it can be customized to no end.
Below you'll find our basic slime recipe and some modifications to make glitter slime, cotton ball slime, smelly slime, and monster slime.
You can also make your own easy slime recipes by swapping out the white glue (for clear glue, glow in the dark glue, etc.) and by adding just about anything (glitter, food coloring, paint, confetti, cotton balls...). This is a really easy activity to let the kids modify too.
Basic Slime Recipe
This basic slime recipe is the starting point for most slime that you can make.
At it's most basic, slime is composed of glue, baking soda, sometimes water, and an active agent - in this case it's contact lens solution, which contains a very mild form of boric acid. That's what makes your slime into slime.
Ingredients
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2/3 cup craft glue (white glue or clear glue)
- 4 to 5 tsp contact lens solution (make sure it contains boric acid as the active ingredient)
- optional: glitter, food coloring, pom poms, etc. to add into your slime
How to Make Slime
- Mix the baking soda and water together until baking soda is dissolved.
- Add the glue and mix thoroughly.
- Add any colors if you're using them (food coloring, paint, etc.).
- Add contact lens solution and mix thoroughly. This requires some vigorous mixing. This is the step where your slime turns into slime (and not just a puddle of liquid).
- Add any extras, like glitter, poms poms, etc. if you're using them.
Tada! Slime complete.
Note: the more contact lens solution you use, the more solid your slime will be.
If you want a stickier, goopier slime, use a little bit lens contact solution. You will have a liquid-y slime that becomes more solid when you squeeze and roll it.
If you want a slime that doesn't ooze everywhere and get stuck in your carpet, add a little bit more contact solution. This will make it more like a solid and it won't goop all over your hands, or your couch.
Warning: If you use too much contact solution, your slime will turn into a rock.
How to Modify Your Basic Slime: 4 Easy Slime Recipes for Kids
You can easily make so many different kinds of slime just by adding some ingredients to your basic slime recipe.
Below you'll find a few suggestions for making different kinds of slime. You can also experiment and make your own slime recipe.
We've done cotton ball slime, monster slime, smelly slime, Skylander slime (by adding some blue glitter and Skylander confetti that we found at the party supply store), glitter slime, glow in the dark slime....
Glitter Slime
Use clear glue instead of white glue to make this slime. Add glitter at the end.
Cotton Ball Slime
Use clear glue instead of white glue to make this slime. Add cotton balls at the end.
Smelly Slime
Add some scented paint to the water, baking soda, and glue stage.
Monster Slime
Add some food coloring or paint to the water, baking soda, and glue stage. Then add googly eyes at the end.
Rebecca is a chaplain at a girls’ school, a mom to boys, and a crafter of all things. She crochets in every free moment she has, and she spends much of her time gluing cotton balls to toilet paper rolls and mopping up glitter.
