Fine motor skill development through play!!! Magic metallic slime!!!

While out with my girls yesterday I decided to hit the dollar store. It just happened to be in the shopping centre I was at and I never miss an opportunity to go in and see what they have available.

When shopping for therapy toys and equipment I have found that as soon as you put the words sensory, therapy or development in front of something the cost seems to triple. So I always search the online therapy sites for ideas and then go and source the items from a cheaper store.

Don’t get me wrong, you get what you pay for and in some cases I do shell out the extra money for a better product, but when making sensory tables or DIY activities it is often the case that you can get the exact same product much cheaper.

Today’s bargain was slime. This stuff can be used for a range of different things. It makes a great fidget toy, it’s excellent for fine motor skill development and it is also great for children to use during imaginative play. I was lucky enough to grab these little tubs from our local store while they were on sale so they also only cost $2 a tub. Now that is a huge difference compared to the $24 price tag I found online for almost the exact same thing.

These little tubs are amazing. Some of them have were heat activated and changed colour the more that you played with them. This was a big incentive for Master 7 to get involved as he really wanted the orange slime to turn yellow. I also liked that it took ages which meant he really had to work at it.

Then a couple of them came with little plastic accessories so that you could get creative and make little men out of them. Of course Miss 3 loves this and created her own little guy whom no one else was allowed to play with. She was most upset this morning when he had melted into a little puddle of gloop!

I had Master 7 do a couple of little activities with his slime including winding it and pulling it apart as far as he could without tearing it. He seemed a little more interested in sticking it up his nose, although I quickly put a stop to that.

Master 5 had a rough day and was a little to exhausted to participate in this afternoons activities however he did inform me that he wanted to play with it later, so I’m counting that as a win.

Miss 1 didn’t quite posses the strength in her little fingers to manipulate the slime, it was actually rather firm considering it’s called slime, but she did enjoy playing with it and trying to mix the colours together, unsuccessfully.

Master 7 definitely got the most out of today’s activity and I think he has finally found something he likes playing with almost as much as his iPad. Here he even made a necklace out of it, unfortunately it slowly melted off.

The kids all enjoyed playing with it and spent ages making little men and trying to change the colour of the slime. It was a great fine motor skill development activity and they got to use their imaginations while having sensory play at the same time. Tomorrow Master 7 wants to make the little slime men a house out of LEGO.

It was an absolute bargain and I’m sure we will have many fun afternoons playing with it. As always thank you for reading.

@mumofmany.