September is in full swing and we thought we’d celebrate by doing Back-to-School week! My oldest kiddo just started pre-school and Kate is now the mother to an official kindergartner. This week we’re going to have *five* posts. Hear that? A post every single day of the week you lucky duckies. So make sure to check in! Kate is going to be sharing some great breakfast and school lunch foods (something we’ve gotten tons of requests for) and I’m going to do some really fun kitchen crafts/science projects that are great for entertaining young hands and minds. Which brings me to today’s post.
Do you guys remember this??
I was so obsessed with that stuff and I totally remember the commercials. When I made this homemade version I couldn’t believe that it had the exact same smell. Took me right back to 6th grade!
If you’ve ventured into science fun like this before then you already know that 97% of home projects require the same 2 ingredients. Elmer’s glue and borax. In fact, I’m convinced if I combine them in enough different ways I’m sure to come up with then next earth-shattering invention like velcro, post-it notes or spray cheese.
Start by dissolving a teaspoon of Borax in one cup of water and set it aside.
Now pour the Elmer’s glue in a separate bowl. You can use either clear glue or white glue for this. For this first batch I’m using clear.
Add some water to that glue
and then stir in some food coloring. I think green is quite fitting for slime, don’t you?
Once that’s all stirred up, just pour your Borax mix into the bowl. You will instantly see masses forming in there. Straight out of an alien movie I tell ya. Or a science book. I know there’s some science-y explanation for the magical formation of slime, but I couldn’t tell ya. Something about polymers…man I used to be really awesome at chemistry. Now I just make really awesome cookies. I think cookies are way more useful as an overall life skill.
See? Say it with me: ewwwww! You just want to use your hands at this point and just kind of stir and smoosh and try to get all of the solids.
It will be wet and soft at first but you just have to keep kneading it. The moisture will knead out or absorb (just toss the liquid left in the bowl) and soon you’ll have a nice blob. Normally a finished product resulting in a “blob” is not a good thing, but this is an exception. Love your blob.
I have to say I actually prefer the white glue. I don’t know why, it just seemed to have a nice texture (you know, because I’m such a connoisseur of slimy blobs). This time I enlisted my only favorite helpers. This is a fun project for kids, just supervise and make sure they’re old enough to understand it’s not something to eat.
Older kids can help measure and stir and younger ones can stand and protest that they don’t get to. And then try to eat the science experiment. It’s all about the family fun.
This is their favorite part. Both of my kids said in unison, “Ahhhhh!! There’s something in there!”
This is a good picture of what you’ll get when you first try to grab it. You might think you messed up because it’s so loose. Just keep smooshing!
And soon it will look like this. Nice and smooth and dry to the touch.
It only takes minutes to make and your kids will think you’re awesome. And it will totally keep them busy for at least 3.5 minutes. Hopefully even more if your kids have longer attention spans than mine do.
What kid doesn’t like to squish slimy things?? Even *I* love playing with this stuff!
Homemade Slime
Your kids will have so much fun in the kitchen with this homemade slime!
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon borax powder
- 1 1/2 C water divided
- 4 oz 1/2 C Elmer's glue, clear or white
- food coloring
Instructions
- Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth.
- Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet.
- Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.
Notes
- *Note: that this is not a recipe for human consumption. It is for play purposes only. Make sure to supervise young children.
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
A big hit this morning with my preschoolers! Super easy to make and easy to clean up the project mess too. It’s look like it will hold their attention for about 20min.
Hey, 20 minutes for preschoolers is like 4 hours in real time, haha. Awesome!
I was thinking the same thing lol
I made this and had the same problem Kate did, my fingers ended up stained blue from the food coloring.. I ended up having to make a plain boring white batch because my stepson’s mom would have flipped had I sent him home with blue hands!! Any tips on coloring the putty and not your hands?
That’s so weird! it’s never happened to me. Maybe a little too much was added, or it is the brand you used? I’ve never had it dye my hands; I just use a drop or two, which just simply isn’t enough to do anything but color the putty.
Hi all,just hopped across this website and am so excited.I have 2 boys age 6 and 5 and a little girl age 3.They would love this but i am in Ireland and have never heard of Borax! Can anybody tell me what it is? Thanks x
Julie, it’s a type of soap sold here in the states. It’s the exact composition that makes it work for a lot of science projects like this so I don’t know of a substitute. But you could certainly find it online. It’s just a product used for home cleaning.
You can use an eye wash solution instead of borax if you can’t find it (I believe it’s banned in the UK,) as long as it contains boric acid and sodium borate. So optrex is a good one.
.. I really would like to try it.. can someone please report what is written on the label of this elmer’s glue? I am in Italy and not very talented in science matters… I would like to be sure of what I am mixing.. thankyou!
LOVE IT! Thanks I can’t wait to make this for the kids 🙂
I LOVED THIS…..made a practice batch this afternoon and will be making it with my grandchildren(ages 3 and 4) when they come to visit next weekend. We will probably make green for him and pink for her!! I can’t wait. I think even Papa will get into making this with us.
Just have to tell you what a success this has been!! I bought the glue for 20 cents per bottle at the back to school sale, already had the borax. We’ve made 5 different colors and it has kept them occupied for going on 2 hours and they’re still having fun! Where else can you get 2 hours of fun for a buck? THANK YOU!!
I was so excited to make this! The directions looked so simple,however, I must have done something wrong because mine came out like very thick soup. I must have kneaded it for a good 30 minutes and still couldn’t get it thicker. I couldn’t even let my son play with it as it was to watery and caused a huge mess..I think I am going to try again though and make sure I am following the directions step for step!
Wow! I first found this on Pinterest and it caught my eye. I’m a mom to 2 boys aged 4 & 5 who absolutely love anything ‘gross’. I’m also a daycare provider and we love ideas that break up the routine a little – especially towards the end of a very long summer! Thanks! We made 2 batches – one was overly gooey, one was a little tough – but regardless, it’s been keeping the crew entertained for a good half hour and they’re still giggling over the mess! (Just a note, I always throw paint shirts on the kids when we’re working with anything messy – including food colouring.)
I don’t want to be a downer (and I’m truly thinking of doing this with my toddler) but I keep reading conflicting information on the safety of borax. The info is so conflicting I’ve decided against making our own laundry detergent with it.
Does anyone have any better info than the mess of confusion on google?
I just looked on wikipedia. It says that it takes a large amount of borax to cause severe symptoms or death, and that amout varies from person to person. Infants are usually the most sensitive to the effects of it.
I think that as long as you don’t let an infant play with it, and as long as your children don’t get into a HUGE box of it and play around with it, it will be just fine. And for this you are only using a teaspoon, so it’s not going to cause any problems. Just keep an eye out for “beefy red” (that’s what the article called it) rashes…if you see that then take it away. The rashes just mean that your child is sensitive to borax.
I have used this for years. My sons are now in college. One of the best “tools” to add to slime is STRAWS!! Put the slime on a tray, pat the slime around the bottom of the slime and then blow!!! It’s makes fabulous slime bubbles.