After going to the local discovery museum together and discovering Instant Snow my friend bought some Instant Snow and shared some with us (Thank you Devan!). I kept putting off making it as I wanted to save it for a time we really needed it (I’m so bad at saving stuff) and finally decided to take the plunge and have fun with it after seeing a video by What’s Up Moms about making snow slime. I did a quick google to check out other recipes for snow slime online and discovered one that called for pre-activated Instant Snow but I wanted Ada and Zoey to fully enjoy the Instant Snow in the morning, transform it into slime during Zoey’s nap for Ada, and then have the slime available for both girls.

I’ve made slime a few times at this point but am no means an expert. What’s Up Moms has several slime videos online if you’re interested in exploring more recipes. I also love Fun at Home with Kids’ book “150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids” and she has a lot of slime recipes on her website including a good troubleshooting article:  How to Fix Slime that Didn’t Work Out that we ended up using to fix our slime.

We opened two 10 gram packs of Instant Snow, one for each girl, added the water, watched it grow, and when they started getting bored added insects to the snow (they were more numerous, diverse, and available than the arctic animals we also have). Just a heads up the Instant Snow was messy, got all over the table, and dropped on the floor. When the kids were done with it I got them to gather the insects, moved the snow from the containers and table into a separate bowl, and then filled their container with soapy water (added some dish soap) so they can ‘clean’ or ‘bathe’ their insects. It was a perfect way to extend the play while also go through stages of cleaning and wiping up the floor. When Ada got bored with the soapy water I extended it again by having her gather her insects in her bowl again, rinsing out her container, and refilling it with plain water to clean the soapy bubbles off. They played awhile! If you aren’t in a rush (and aren’t afraid of the ‘snow’ being eaten or tracked around the house) I read online that after the Instant Snow dries it’s easy to sweep up.

I wasn’t sure how long Instant Snow was good for after being made so I decided to transform it into slime that afternoon while Zoey was napping. Ada and I started by making slime (with glue, baking soda, contact lens solution, and minor amount of silver glitter, shaving cream, and some peppermint flavor extract). Only the first three ingredients were required. The shaving cream was to make the slime fluffier, but as it was a cheap Dollar Tree purchase I wasn’t sure how well the smell worked with the peppermint flavor extract so next time I wouldn’t add the flavor extract. Once the slime was ready we added some Instant Snow and worked it in… our problem came when I decided to dump the rest of the snow in (the activated contents of two 10 gram pouches minus the stuff that landed on the floor). The slime became soup! I tried to recover it by adding more contact lens solution, and then baking soda, and then glue…. before looking up actual solutions through Fun at Home with Kids’ How to Fix Slime that Didn’t Work Out article and decided I just needed a lot of the activator. I started adding more contact lens solution before realizing I might not have enough…. and then kept adding liquid starch (Sta Flo) and stirring it repeatedly until our soup finally turned into slime again. I had made slime before with Sta Flo instead of contact lens solution so I knew it would work. The best part was when it came together the bowl ended up mostly clean!

If you’re wondering how safe the slime ingredients are I found this blog article that goes over what they learned: STEAM Powered Family – Slime Safety & Tips

Play with Instant Snow and then turn it into snowy slime to play with it in a different way!

Main slime ingredients

• 1/2 cup White Elmer's glue
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp contact lens solution

Optional slime ingredients

• food dye (optional) I left it out so I'd have white
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup shaving cream (optional) for fluffiness
• sprinkle silver glitter (optional) to preference
• splash peppermint flavor extract (optional) to preference

To make it extra 'snowy'

• Instant Snow activated with water
• liquid starch (Sta Flo) or more contact lens solution until it comes together

Make regular slime with optional glitter and smell

1. Leaving out the contact lens solution for now combine the rest of the main and optional slime ingredients together and mix well. This includes: glue, food dye (optional), baking soda, shaving cream (optional), glitter (optional), and flavor extract (optional).
2. Add your activator. In this case I used contact lens solution. Stir it and once it comes together you can use your hands to combine it better.

Make your slime extra 'snowy'

1. I started by mixing in some of my Instant Snow and then dumped it all in. At this point it turned into soup so after googling and adding more glue, contact lens solution, etc. I realized I should just keep pouring my activator and mixing (then repeat until it comes together). As I was concerned about the amount of contact lens solution I had left I decided to pour my liquid starch, stir, pour, stir, ... until it all came together.

Extending Play

You can add any washable toys to your slime to keep your kids interested. See how they decide to use the animals. As your kids get older they’ll ask (or get) any tools they think they’re missing. Frequent requests regardless of the material includes spoons and bowls. For younger kids a bowl or container is perfect for moving the insects/animals into and out off. Bonus fun if there’s a lid to add and remove.

After you’re done with the Instant Snow or slime the toys were all covered in Instant Snow and needed to be clean. I find it’s fun to extend the play and have the toys cleaned for you by filling your sensory container/bowl with soapy water (I added dish soap here) so they can play in the bubbles and give their toys a bath.

Then when they get bored again they can gather their toys in the bowl or container so you can switch out the soapy water for plain water (and heat it up a bit if they were playing for a while). Then they can clean the soap off their toys and/or watch the bubbles disperse when they add their toys into the water. Whole new kind of play and your toys aren’t hidden under the bubbles like before.

You can also extend the play by adding food dye or liquid watercolors to the water. Food dye is used for cooking so is safe if you have a kid that will taste the water although I pulled the liquid watercolors out this time as it seemed easier. Either way I just added a few drops as I didn’t want it strong enough to dye their hands. You could always add more if it isn’t dark enough. If you have older kids (or don’t mind them getting water all over if you’re outside) I could see doing color mixing.

And then you could lay a towel over your wet table and get them to ‘dry’ their toys. This was Ada’s idea the other day so this time when Zoey got bored I figured why not add the towel.

We also extended the slime by adding red food dye to half of the snow slime and blue food dye to the other half. It ended up not mixing very well and becoming stringy. When the kids were done with their stringy slime I put it all together in a Ziploc bag and it ended up re-sliming and the colors looked amazing through the bag.

I eventually made myself throw it out as the kids weren’t as interested in it anymore and I wasn’t sure how long it would still be good for on the counter.

I hope you had fun making your slime. I’d love to hear how you extended your play or see how your slime turned out. If you’d like to share you can use the comments below, post on my Facebook page, or tag me through Instagram.