Water-Bead Slime

I really must admit that making slime is not enjoyable for me at all, but my kids love playing with slime. So I make it, but I always try to switch it up and make the slime different each time. Sometimes I add colour, sometimes scent. Other times I add fun objects or textures. Our most recent slime recipe used water beads.

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Now if you haven't played with water beads before, they are so incredibly cool! They are wonderful in sensory bins because of their wet and kind of slimy texture. The kids love them because they're bouncy, and they also love to squish and break them.

So, combining the water beads with our favourite slime recipe was a definite hit.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 bottle of white glue
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• Contact solution — I use Opti-Free Replenish No Rub and add it bit by bit
• water beads

If your water beads are dry, then first you'll have to follow the instructions on the packaging to make them into the squishable water beads you see pictured in the photos. Usually you just have to soak them in water for a few hours, so I suggest doing them overnight or the day before you intend to make this slime. However, if you bought pre-soaked water beads and they're already squishy and bouncy little balls, then you're good to go!

First, pour the bottle of glue into a bowl and add the baking soda. Next, add some generous squirts of contact solution and mix. Keep adding the contact solution until the mixture starts to ball up and stick to itself. You will use quite a bit, just not sure on the exact measurements as I prefer to add it a little bit at a time.

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Once the slime is well-formed and starts to stick to itself, add the water beads and start kneading the slime for a bit. I like to wet my fingers with contact solution first so I can reduce the amount of glue that gets stuck to me (in theory anyway, because let's be realistic, I get gluey bits stuck everywhere).

I love the water beads in the slime because they stay semi-contained. They're not necessarily bouncing all over the floor like they used to when we did water bead sensory bins. The occasional one will escape from the slime, but not many.

I also love when the water beads get mixed and smashed that the slime starts to look like it has confetti in it. So neat!