Are you looking to up your child’s slime game with a fun, safe and educational slime kit?
Pre-made kits let you create all kinds of slime beyond what you can make from home.
In this guide we’ll show you the best slime kits for kids, along with a complete slime guide and fun activities you can try at home!
Let’s go – it’s slime time!
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10 Best Slime Kits for Kids
Frequently Asked Questions about Slime Kits
Slime has been around for many decades. It’s first appearance in pop culture was in 1979 when a Canadian show called “You Can’t Do That on Television” used slime on its show. It was ever present on the show which aired on the Nickelodeon network. Since then the network have used it on a number of other TV shows and it appears annually on Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards which also featured celebrities getting slimed.
It was also made famous in the 1984 Hollywood classic, Ghostbusters. You may remember the ghost ‘Slimer’ and the famous line ‘He slimed me’.
More recently there has been a huge increase in YouTube videos featuring kids playing with slime. Children love to watch them!
Image Credit : mstefano80
The key ingredient in slime is usuallt Elmer’s Glue. You then add things like saline drops, contact lens solution or liquid starch. In scientific terms slime is essentially watered-down glue with an ‘activator’ that crosses chains of polymer molecules.
This recipe produces an oozing liquid that at first will be very sticky. As you knead the ingredients together, it will solidify and turn pleasantly stretchy and squidgy. Children (and many adults) find it very satisfying to play with and sink their little fingers into.
If left out in the open air with oxygen, homemade slime tends to dry up after a few days and break. If it’s only a little bit dry you can usually give it a proper knead back into life and back to its slimey texture. If you are able to store the slime in a plastic bag this will help increase its lifespan to a few weeks.
Slime kits or home made slime should be non toxic. All the kits we have featured here are safe and pass stringent quality checks needed in order to sell toys in the European Union or the United States of America.
Saying this there is good reason to be concerned with Borax, a common ingredient in both homemade DIY recipes or kits themselves. Borax can cause harm if ingested, even in small quantities. Slime should never be eaten. Children should only play with slime when they are old enough to understand that it should never be put in the their mouth.
With younger children, it’s understandable they may try to put in their mouths as it’s soft and sometimes sweet smelling. Some kits or DIY recipes claim to be borax-free but instead include solutions that contain a chemical similar to Borax, Boric Acid.
It’s recommended that you instill the behaviour, once they start playing ith slime, they’re not allowed to touch anything else or anyone. No petting the cat, no snacking with their hands and so on. When they’re done they should wash their hands thoroughly.
Another approach is to put some slime in a ziploc bag – this way your little one can still get the benefit of squishing slime without handling it directly.
