A Super Easy & Gooey DIY Natural Slime Recipe For Kids

This DIY natural slime recipe is a great activity to keep your little one occupied! As a stay at home mom, the time after nap-time each day is killer for me. I have a two year old who naps from about 12pm to 2pm depending on the day, and from then until dinner I am usually struggling to figure out what we should do with ourselves.

I live in a somewhat developing neighborhood within the city limits of a major city known for it’s terrible rush hour traffic that begins promptly at 3pm, so we usually stay close to home in the afternoon. That means finding activities to keep the toddler entertained within the comfort of our own home. And so, that brings us to homemade slime.

If you’re looking for other activities, here are 5 easy homemade Fall activities.

When searching for a recipe, I wanted something that was totally non-toxic and potentially edible, should said two year old decide to stick his gooey fingers into his mouth. There are plenty of recipes that use glue or sticky candies, but I don’t consider glue edible and my son does not eat sugar so those were out for us.

Easy & Gooey DIY Natural Slime Recipe

I also did not have the time to run to the grocery store and didn’t want to spend extra money on exotic products I would never use again, so I was desperate for a recipe that included only the items that I already had in my pantry. I scoured Pinterest and Google alike and finally found the perfect recipe! It’s a DIY natural slime recipe, and all it requires is cornstarch, water, and spinach… and even the spinach is optional.

Making it was so easy. Seriously. My two year old practically made it, and I helped him with one hand while holding my newborn with the other hand. All that the spinach is for is to make it a fun color, so you can leave that out if you’re running even lower on ingredients than I was! But if you want to make the slime a fun green color, throw the spinach and water into a blender until it’s liquefied, then mix it with the cornstarch.

It’s that easy! Even a 2 year old can do it (with adult supervision, of course, because of the blender blades. Oh and because the 2 year old will probably completely miss the blender when attempting to dump in the cup of water…)

I decided to take the slime outside to our front porch in anticipation of a huge mess, but it really wasn’t bad and we would have been fine indoors, too. I put a couple of paper bags down to catch any of the extra mess while my son played.

At first he was a little apprehensive and wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do. He was a little confused since the water and spinach step is usually our first step in making green smoothies, but he could tell this wasn’t quite a smoothie. So, I stuck my fingers in and gave him a little demonstration. That did the trick, and right away he stuck his entire hand in and basked in the glory of the ooey gooey goodness.

Then he really got into it and shoved his other hand into the bowl, too! 

And then, as soon as the fun had started, it was over. You see, while I have a 2 year old boy who is adventurous, daring, and brave, he is also not super fond of getting dirty (much to his mother’s delight!). It was as if suddenly it hit him that he had a sticky green substance dripping from his small fingers, and he decided he couldn’t take the mess anymore.

I filled a bowl with water and brought it out so that he could wash off his hands. Then, of course, this turned into a whole new activity for him. I think he might have liked playing with water (turned slime water) even more than the actual slime.

All in all this DIY natural slime recipe was a fun activity, especially for how quick and easy it was to prepare. For my kid who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, we had a good time together though it probably wasn’t his most ideal option, but I can see many kids his age and older enjoying it.

Another idea could be to throw them in the bathtub with it and let them “paint” the tub. I’d also be interested to see if it was possible to make more colors by using other foods! It was exciting for him to mix things up this afternoon, and I loved seeing the joy on his face and hearing his squeals as he pushed his fingers into the muck.

And as always, I am proud of him for trying something new and out of his usual comfort zone. In the future, though, I think I might just stick to a bowl of water!