How to Make Slime at Home

Whether it is Halloween time or a fun party, kids always love to play with slippery and drippy slime. But, you can make it more interesting for children by engaging them in slime making activity. Indeed, the steps for making slime at home are very easy. And homemade slime recipe calls for simple supplies that you already have in your cupboard. Thus, instead of purchasing this plaything, consider making slime at home with your kids. Surely, they will be surprised to see a mixture of ingredients turning into one of the most favorite playthings they can have.

Homemade Slime Recipes

The two prime components required to make slime are a polysaccharide base and a binding agent. Over here, the long chain polysaccharide molecules are cross linked by the binding compound, resulting in the formation of thick, highly viscous, gooey substance. There are other slime recipes as well, in which an alcohol containing polymer (e.g., polyvinyl alcohol) can be used instead of polysaccharide. To get a colorful goo, liquid food coloring is added in small amounts. The following info explains the two common methods of making slime at home.

How to Make Slime with Borax
Borax (chemically known as sodium tetraborate decahydrate) is a common household ingredient used for cleaning and pest control applications. Sold in the laundry section of groceries, you can purchase it in bulk. In this slime recipe, borax serves as the binding agent and white glue is the polysaccharide base.

Required Supplies

• ½ cup white glue
• 1 cup water
• 2 - 3 drops food coloring agent (optional)
• ½ teaspoon borax

Directions

In a tall plastic glass, combine together ½ cup each of white glue and water to make a diluted glue solution. If desired, stir in 3 drops of green food color in this glue water mixture. Take another cup, and mix ½ teaspoon borax and the remaining ½ cup water. Now, the final step is to blend the glue solution with borax mixture. To the tall glass containing glue solution, pour a small amount of borax mixture, and stir simultaneously with a wooden stirrer. Continue adding borax mixture and stirring, until you get slime of your desired thickness. The more borax is used, the firmer will be the slime consistency, and vice versa.

How to Make Slime without Borax
When it comes to making slime for kids, borax is not always a preferred choice. The reasons being risks of accidental ingestion, and associated medical problems. But, can you make slime without borax? Yes, the trick is to use a binding agent that has similar properties like borax. In the slime recipe with cornstarch, the starch serves as both polymer and binder after combining with water. Here is, how to make slime with cornstarch.

Required Supplies

• 1 cup cornstarch
• About ¼ cup water
• Food coloring

Directions

In a zip-lock plastic sandwich bag, instruct kids to add 1 cup cornstarch and pour ¼ cup water in it. Then allow them to put a few drops of food coloring (may be green or red) in the cornstarch mixture. One can also experiment to make a different shade slime by mixing two colors. Gently expel excess air from the bag, and seal it carefully. The next step for making slime is to knead the concoction continuously for 4 - 5 minutes, until well-blended. The end result is a smooth consistency slime without lumps. Add more water, if your kids prefer a runny slime.

So, this is how you can make slime at home, with and without borax. For getting satisfactory results, use correct amounts of ingredients as mentioned, and follow the directions properly. Though slime itself isn't poisonous, but ingesting this gooey substance can be harmful to health. As a precautionary measure, make sure kids wash their hands thoroughly before and after handling this viscous thing. To prevent this gooey substance from drying out, fill in a resealable bag and store in the refrigerator. For dried slime coating or slime that has molded already, soak it with water for easy removal.