I remember when chia seeds first became a thing as a superfood years ago, thinking that chia seed pudding looked more like chia seed slime. It was a funny idea then, but it stuck with me and as a result I never really fell into a love of chia seeds. The texture was just too off-putting. However as a sensory activity, chia seed slime is perfect and super easy to put together and enjoy for a little person, not to mention totally taste safe.
For this activity, I made my chia slime ocean coloured with a little food dye, and if Oscar had been slightly older I probably would have added some little plastic animals as well but we don’t own any and it’s not the easiest thing these days to just pop to the shop and buy some. So we just embraced playing with the slime as is with nothing but our hands and a few spoons in the mix.
Oscar’s verdict on the chia seed slime was primarily uncertainty. He didn’t seem to like the texture either, and he definitely didn’t like the flavour (which was just chia seed flavour as I didn’t add anything to it). I think in retrospect I probably should have warmed the chia seeds before giving it to him to play with as it was quite cold from the fridge and that probably didn’t help his enthusiasm for the activity. Oh well, you live and learn!
Check out the pictures and you’ll find a recipe below. Maybe you’ll try your own Ocean Chia Seed Slime sensory play!
Ocean Chia Seed Slime Recipe
I used a basic chia seed recipe to make my slime slime, except I added a little more liquid than a normal would. Usually the ratio of liquid to chia seeds is around 6:1, and for this amount of chia seed slime 2-3 cup total was more than sufficient.
So, I used 0.5 cup of chia seeds and 2.5 cups of water, along with 0.5 cups of milk to add a little bit of opaque milkiness to the slime for when I added the dye. You could use any kind of milk for this, including coconut.
The chia seed slime needs to be made the night before as the chia seeds need several hours to absorb the water and become a gel that your kid will enjoy playing with. I left mine overnight and then the next morning split it into three bowls, added a few drops of food colouring to each bowl, stirred well and then added to my trofast trays which fit inside my flisat table (both from ikea). The colours I used were green, teal and blue.
That’s basically it! Give your kid a spoon or some other fun utensils and let them at it! This is a messy activity, so I definitely recommend doing it outside if possible so you can just hose everything off afterwards.
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