The Chaos and the Clutter -

Textured Butter Slime

There are so many types of slime. Every time I think we’ve tried them all, we discover another type to make! This textured butter slime was a cool experiment that turned out so well. This sensory play activity engages the tactile, visual, and proprioception sensory systems.

How to make butter slime

Well, first of all, I guess we should start with “what is butter slime?” Contrary to what it sounds like, butter slime doesn’t actually use butter as an ingredient. It gets its name from the buttery texture. Most butter slimes have a non-toxic clay such as Model Magic clay in the recipe. This type of slime moulds well, but it’s not very stretchy.

How to make butter slime without clay

While most butter slime recipes, call for using clay, you can make it without clay. In fact, in our recipe, we didn’t use clay at all. We instead used playdough that had seen better days. If you’re a family or school that uses playdough regularly, chances are, you’ve got some that’s seen better days and needs to be thrown out. The great thing about this recipe is that instead of throwing that dried out playdough out, you can repurpose it into slime!

You can also make butter slime without clay by mixing cornstarch and shampoo. Or it can be made by adding about 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch into a typical liquid starch slime recipe.

Textured Butter Slime Recipe:

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp. dish soap
foam beads
3 oz. dried out playdough (store bought or homemade)
optional: cornstarch

Directions:

Pour about 2 Tablespoons of dish soap into a 3 oz. container of old playdough. If you’ve thrown out the container or are using homemade playdough, do this in a bowl.
Begin mixing. The texture will determine your next step.
If the dough is getting softer and is not at all sticky, you can add an additional Tablespoon of dish soap and continue mixing. If the dough takes on a sticky texture, a sprinkling of cornstarch can be added.
Next, add as many foam beads as you like. This will be what adds the texture.
Mix the beads and the dough together well.

Invite your children to play, stretch and mold the textured doh. The dough can now be stretched, moulded, and played with. It is soft and can also be cut with a craft stick or plastic knife, just like butter.

Play-Doh 24-Pack Case of Colors, 3 oz. Cans Styrofoam Balls for Slime Dishwashing Liquid

Adding the foam beads offers a great twist on the texture. This provides additional tactile sensory feedback.

Are you looking for more easy sensory play recipes? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Other popular slime recipes:

Unicorn Fluffy Slime

Minnie Mouse Slime

Glow in the Dark Slime

Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime

How to Make Slime – A Comprehensive Guide

By Sharla Kostelyk

Have you ever wondered how to make slime or are you looking for new ways to make it? Making slime is one of my kids’ favourite things to do. They could sit at the table for hours and play with it. If you think there is just one way to make slime, you’re wrong. There are multiple ways to make it and just as many ways to play with it!

How to Make Slime Not Sticky

Once you’ve made your slime, you don’t want it to be sticky. You don’t want it sticking to your table, hands, and everything else. Once slime sticks, it certainly is hard to unstick!

Knead the Slime

One way to get rid of the stickiness is to knead it. Think about flour and how when you knead it, it makes it less sticky. The same thing goes with slime.

Small Amount of Baby Oil

If you’re looking to unstick the slime, then a tiny bit of baby oil will do the trick. You don’t want it slime to get super oily though. Keep this in mind as you add the baby oil to the slime. One drop at a time.

Drop or two of Contact Solution

If you’re using a recipe that uses contact solution and it’s still too sticky, you can add a drop or two more of contact solution.

How to Make Slime Stretchy

Has your slime become a blob that just sits there and doesn’t do anything? Slime is a lot more fun when it’s stretchy! If you’re wondering how to make your slime stretchy again, it’s time to follow these tips.

Hot top water

When it comes to making slime stretchy, hot tap water can do the trick. Just soak the slime in the hot tap water if it’s become too hard. This will breathe new life into it.

Small amount of lotion

Have hard slime that doesn’t stretch? Consider a small amount of lotion in the slime. A really small amount of lotion does the trick, so don’t add much more than that.

Take the time to move it around and see if it stretches.

How to Ensure Your Slime is Not Runny

If your slime is runny, that is no fun! There are actually ways in which you can make slime not so runny. One of those tips is to add in a thickening agent.

For example, runny slime may need liquid glue to be added to it or a small amount of borax. Depending on what slime recipe you used, this will determine what you add to it to make it not runny.

Also, keep in mind that it does take some trial and error. Start with small amounts to see if this helps.

Classic Slime Recipe

What is considered a classic slime recipe is one that uses borax and glue. There are many ways to make the recipes more exciting by adding in glitter, confetti, or like the instant snow in the unique recipe below.

Slime Without Borax

Don’t have borax on hand? No worries! You can totally make slime without borax, you just need to know how. Borax is a thickening agent. So in order to create a slime without it, you’ll need to use another thickening agent.

Thickening agents out there are things that contain boric acid, sodium borate, or borax. Some of these products are liquid starch and eye drops! You’ll need to check the ingredient list to be sure they have one of those materials listed. They both work great for helping to make slime.

Other ways to make slime without borax include making it with shampoo or making edible slime.

Making Slime with Shampoo

If you have shampoo on hand, it can be the magic ingredient. Here are the steps for making slime with shampoo:

You will need a ½ cup of shampoo and a ¼ of a cup of cornstarch in a bowl.
You will want to mix this mixture up very well.
From there, you’ll add a teaspoon of water and stir. Slowly add in five more teaspoons of water.
To make the slime usable, you’ll want to knead the slime for about 5 minutes.

If the slime is too hard, you’ll want to add a little bit of water. If it’s too runny, you’ll want to add a little more cornstarch.

Making Slime with Contact Solution

Do you have contact solution on hand? It can be a perfect ingredient in making slime. You can look at contact solution as a slime activator.

To make contact solution slime, you’ll need a bottle of Elmer’s glue, baking soda, and contact solution, plus water if you like the slime a little stretcher. You can find an exact recipe for it here.

Not everyone wants to use their contact solution for this, but if you do, this recipe works great.

How to Make Fluffy Slime

Making your own fluffy slime isn’t as hard as it may seem. Who doesn’t love playing with beautiful and big fluffy slime?! The secret?

FOAM SHAVING CREAM!

YUP. I love that shaving cream is so cheap too! You can easily add foam shaving cream to the recipe and from there you can have some fun slime on your hands. I pick mine up from the dollar store. You can buy it in different scents which then results in a scented slime.

Making it scented is a great way to incorporate the olfactory sense into this sensory play.

Edible Slime

One of the latest trends is slime that is taste safe or edible. This Edible Shark Fluffy Slime is our favourite. There are many other edible slime recipes you can make that use ingredients such as pudding, candy, marshmallow fluff, icing, and Jello.

Ensuring that Slime is Safe

When you’re making sensory play recipes with your kids, you need to make sure that they are safe. One of the rules to making slime safe is to make sure your kids don’t eat it.

There are ingredients in typical slime that don’t make it safe to eat. Kids who have sensitive skin can also react to it when it comes in contact with their skin. You can instead use an edible recipe which will be safer for the skin and takes away the worry of toxicity.

If your kids have sensitive skin, they can also wear clothes and gloves while they make it and play with it.

Slime Ingredients

There are many different ingredients that can be used to make slime. These are some of the most common:

Styrofoam Balls for Slime Liquid Starch Elmer’s Liquid School Glue, Clear Elmer’s Liquid School Glue, White Saline Solution Shaving Cream Holographic Chunky Glitter Sequins

Why make slime?

Not only is slime a cool science lesson in chemistry, it is great for providing sensory input and it is good as a calming tool. For kids (or adults) who are struggling with anxiety, it provides a stress reducing effect. It can be used like a stress ball, but that’s not the only way that it is calming.

Slime engages both the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems. Proprioception (also sometimes called heavy work) is very effective in calming as it provides much needed feedback to the body.

Depending on the type of recipe you use, there may also be other sensory systems such as olfactory (smell) engaged with this type of sensory play as well. You can find some fun ways to play with your slime here.

Our Favourite Slime Recipes

Bug Slime without Borax

Easy to make Chocolate Milk Slime from The Chaos and The Clutter

Milky Slime Recipe

Spider Slime Recipe: Just Like A Spider Web

Dino-riffic Dinosaur Slime

Edible Shark Fluffy Slime

Fall Leaves Slime

Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime

Glow in the Dark Slime with Glitter

Hallowe’en Sensory Game

Holiday Scented Christmas Tree Slime

Mardi Gras Slime

Minnie Mouse Slime

Peppermint Scented Slime Recipe

Rainbow Confetti Party Slime

Simple Hallowe’en Slime

an almost opaque white slime with red round confetti and bright green tree shaped confetti is seen held in a hand with only the thumb visible

How To Make Stretchy Slime

Textured Butter Slime

Timon Inspired Lion King Slime

Unicorn Fluffy Slime

Do you enjoy making slime? What’s your favourite thing about it?

Looking for more great sensory play recipes? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Rainbow Playdough Colour and Counting Game

By Sharla Kostelyk

Kids learn best through play. The simplest things can sometimes be the most effective. This rainbow playdough colour and counting game is an example of just that. $a rainbow made of playdough on a pink wood background with coloured buttons and red and white dice on it. The text reads "Rainbow Playdough Math and Colours Game"$ This is easy to set up, inexpensive, and yet covers several important concepts for preschoolers. It’s fun and engaging, so they don’t even realize that they’re learning as they play. Using some of the same supplies, you can also create the Rainbow Playdough Fine Motor Activity.

By participating in this sensory activity, children can practise counting and colour sorting. They can also learn the order of the colours in the rainbow. This may expand into them exploring the science of how rainbows are formed.

Rainbow Playdough Colour and Counting Game:

Supplies:

playdough in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple*
assorted colours of buttons
dice
colour block dice

*You can purchase Play Doh in the assorted colours or make your own. If you can’t find indigo coloured playdough, you can mix blue and purple in equal proportions.

Directions:

Invite your child to roll each colour of the playdough into long ropes.
After the ropes have been formed, encourage your child to arrange them in the order of the colours of the rainbow.
Set out a colour block dice and a regular dice along with buttons of assorted colours.
Have them roll both dice.
Invite your child to press the number and colour of buttons indicated by the dice into the rainbow. For example, if your child rolls a red on the colour block dice and a number 3, they should add 3 red buttons to the red section of the rainbow.
If playing with two players, take turns.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Sensory – The game provides visual, tactile, and proprioception sensory input.

Communication – As children discuss their rolls, talk about colours, and ask about the colour placement in the rainbow, they expand their vocabulary and their communication skills.

Fine motor – Rolling out the playdough and placing it into order, picking up the small buttons and placing them on the proper colour, and picking up the dice all require fine motor skills, particularly placing the buttons on the corresponding colour.

Math – Kids can practise their counting skills using both the dice and the math manipulatives (buttons).

Science – You can use this activity as part of a rainbow unit study in a preschool or homeschool. If children want to expand their interest in how rainbows are made, they can explore using books or watching videos online.

Light: Shadows, Mirrors, and Rainbows Chasing Rainbows Rainbow In My Room Night Light Projector Grimm’s Rainbow Wooden Nesting Puzzle Rainbow How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow

You may be interested in these other preschool activities:

Rainbow Playdough Fine Motor Activity

Texture Balloon Match Up

Printable Pirate Emotion Mats

Why Kids Need Positive Affirmations

By Sharla Kostelyk

Kids need positive affirmations. As parents and teachers, we know the importance of children getting the nutrition, hydration, sleep, and exercise that they need. While those things are crucial for their physical survival, positive affirmations are just as important for their emotional and mental well being.

What you put into your child is what you’re going to get out of your child. If they only hear negative comments about themselves, they will actually begin to display more and more of those negative traits.

Think of how awesome you feel when someone gives you a compliment. Your children also feel that in their soul. When they’re young, they derive so much of their own identity from their parents. They are watching and listening to you even when you don’t realize it. They need you to be their biggest cheerleader.

Kids Need Positive Affirmations to Gain Confidence

A child with confidence feels as though they can take on the world. When the adults in their life are speaking powerful words into them, they feel more capable and will be more willing to take on new challenges.

Positive affirmations are more than just a trendy idea. They contribute to growth mindset and help form who your child believes they can be.

You are your child’s inner dialogue. This means they are going to believe what you have to say about them. If you say they are big, strong, and amazing, then they are going to believe just that.

Repeated Positive Affirmations Help Kids with Their Inner Dialogue

Children need to hear over and over again what makes them unique and how thankful you are that they are in the world. You are competing against a world where social media and media in general is sending them the message that they aren’t good enough. They don’t measure up.

For that reason, you need to be speaking the opposite of that often enough and powerfully enough to drown out the lies.

Our children, whether they know it or not, are looking to us to be their cheerleaders. Are you using your words to build your child up?

“The way we talk to our children becomes their inner dialogue.” ~ Peggy O’Mara

You’ve probably heard this quote before, but I’d ask you to read it again and really let it sink in. Are the words that you are speaking into your child now the ones that you want them to be speaking to themselves in twenty years? It’s a sobering thought.

On the one hand, it’s daunting to consider how harmful our words can be and the pressure that is on us not to mess our kids up. The truth is, no parent is perfect. We’re all going to say things we shouldn’t. But you can counteract some of the effect of the regretful things you’ve said to your child by pouring in the positive.

It’s never too late to start.

With that, I’ll leave you with one more quote:

“Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become.” ~ Brooke Hampton

Speak encouraging, life giving words into your child each day. Inspire them to speak to themselves and others using similar language.

These unicorn affirmation colouring pages are an adorable and fun way to reenforce these concepts for your child. They include the following positive affirmations:

I am confident.
I am happy.
I am kind.
I am brave.
I am patient.
I am loved.
I am a good friend.
I am proud of myself.
I am safe.
I am awesome.

You can download your printable unicorn affirmation pages for kids to colour by submitting your email below.

Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime

By Sharla Kostelyk

This Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime is an interesting slime because of the textures and colours. With the addition of all the add-ins, it becomes a crunchy slime. This is particularly good for kids who are sensory seekers.

When you think about the movie Frozen, a certain song may come to mind. If you want to give the full Elsa effect, you can sing the song while you make this slime.

Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime Recipe:

Supplies:

5 oz. of Elmers school clear glue
1/2 cup water
blue colorant (you can also use food colouring, paint or pigment)
blue glitter
blue sequins
faux snow (confetti)
beads
‘diamond’ beads
snowflake charms
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. contact solution

Directions:

In a bowl, pour 5 oz. clear glue.
Add 1/2 cup water. Mix until the glue has broken up and is incorporated into the water.
Add a few drops of blue colorant, mixing until you get the perfect blue.
Sprinkle in your glitter. Stir.
Add in all of your mix-ins (snow, snowflakes, sequins, etc.).
Mix in 1/2 cup baking soda. Baking soda will help determine your slime’s thickness.
Add 1 Tbsp. of contact solution. Mix in. The slime will be ready to knead when the slime pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Knead the slime. It will be sticky at first, but as you continue to knead it, it should become more the consistency that you’re looking for. If it’s still too sticky, you can add a drop or two more of the contact solution, but be careful not to over activate.
Store in an airtight container when not in use.

Sensory play:

This slime provides visual, tactile, and proprioceptive feedback. Because of all the textures and crunch incorporated in this, it has more tactile input than most slimes. By stretching, pushing, kneading, pulling, and pressing, kids will get proprioceptive feedback as well.You can expand the sensory play value of this by adding in Frozen mini figurines. This allows kids to use their imagination and create different storylines. You could also make a Frozen Inspired Sensory Bin.

Check out our other slime recipes:

Unicorn Fluffy Slime Minnie Mouse Slime Lion King Slime

14 Things Your Special Needs Teen Needs to Hear You Say

By Sharla Kostelyk

Parenting a teen through the teen years can be challenging. Our responsibility as their parent is to encourage them as much as possible. Every child needs to hear they are special as much as possible. However, your special needs teen needs to hear you say positive things more often than anyone else.

As a mom of special needs teens, it’s HARD to always be upbeat enough to want to say something positive. I’m tired. Sometimes quite frankly, it’s hard to find positive things to say.

But our teens are depending on us to help them build their confidence and self worth. It’s amazing the power a few short words can hold. While all teens need to hear these words, teens facing additional challenges need to hear them even more.

What to Say to Your Special Needs Teen

#1. You inspire me.

If your child inspires you, then you need to let them know. Your special needs teen is inspiring and it’s time that they know that! Maybe it’s the way they face the challenges they have or what they have overcome. Maybe it’s their determination or their fighting spirit. Whatever it is that inspires you about them, tell them.

#2. It’s okay to have bad days.

Some teenagers don’t realize that their parents have bad days. Talk to your teenager and let them know that everyone has bad days, even you. Hearing this from you will help them in more ways than you can even imagine.

#3. You are brave.

Getting up every day is hard. Getting up every day when you are facing additional challenges is even harder. Let your special needs teenager know that they are brave. They are so brave and they inspire you!

#4. The world is a better place because you’re in it.

What does your child bring to the world? Your special needs teenager needs to know that they make the world a better place.

#5. You are valued.

When someone tells you that you are valued, it makes you shine inside. Your special needs teen needs to know that they are valued! They need to know that what they bring to the table is so important.

#6. I love you, but I also really like you.

Who doesn’t want to be not only loved, but also liked? Liking our children is important and believe it or not, they need to know they are liked.

Liking our children isn’t always easy because kids can be a challenge. Your kiddo may have challenging behaviours or teenage mood swings. However, our kids need to know that their parents love and like them unconditionally.

#7. You are wanted.

In a world that tells a lot of children that they aren’t wanted, I want my kids to know that they are wanted. If you’re the parent of a special needs teen, then they need to know they are wanted. This simple statement can go so far.

A few weeks ago, I took my middle daughter out on a mommy-daughter date and I was telling her about the day we got the phone call she had been born and how deeply she was wanted. As I recounted details like how one of her grandmas came to our house 4 times before she arrived “is she here yet?” and other moments from that special day, she was just beaming.

#8. Our family is better for having you in it.

A family is only a family because of who is in it. Your special needs teen needs to hear that your family is BETTER for having them in it. It wouldn’t be the same without them.

#9. I love the way you look at the world.

Your special needs teenager has a unique way of looking at the world. Let them know that you see it and appreciate it!

#10. I believe in you.

Everyone wants someone to believe in them. Tell your special needs teen that you do believe in them. You believe in who they are and what they can achieve.

#11. I really like how you helped your brother or sister.

Even a teen who is non-verbal or who has limited mobility can help siblings with their smile. It can be easy to look past how helpful a child with special needs can be.

#12. You did a great job with that!

Parents are their child’s biggest cheerleader. When you see your special needs teen doing a good job, tell them how wonderful they are doing.

#13. Can I give you a hug?

Your special needs teen may need a hug, but not know how to tell you. They may feel that they are too old to ask for physical affection, but still want it. Always tell them you are up for a hug anytime!

For kids who are sensory sensitive, you can change this to a high five.

#14. I’m so proud of the young lady or young man you are growing into.

Every teenager is going to grow up, whether we choose to believe it or not. If a teen is going to grow up and be successful, then they need to have all the support they can get. Be sure they know how proud you are of who they are becoming.

Join me for a free 5 part email series, Little Hearts, Big Worries offering resources and hope for parents.

You may also be interested in reading:

The Waves of Grief in Special Needs Parenting