The Many Benefits of Slime

Kids love playing with and making slime.  So, of course we had to add it to our Mindful Art Camp! Creating slime has many benefits, It promotes being in the moment, making it a way to practice mindfulness.  With all the different kinds of slime kids can be creative with color and texture.  Exploring comes naturally to children and adding exploration with the senses (smell, touch, see and hear) can improve well-being and much more.  When a child engages multiple sensory areas, more areas of the brain are activated as well.  Slime may be messy, but it can also be a relaxation tools that promotes mindfulness.

Here are a few benefits of slime:

• Focus. Adding ingredients, colors and textures helps children to focus on the task at hand. Slime is engaging and can be a great brain break during academics.
• Sensory Input. Kneading, pulling, and squishing slime provides tactile and proprioception input.
• Stress Relief. Children deal with stress daily due to COVID, school, and social pressure. Repeated patterns of squeezing and releasing a stress ball or slime, provides tactile input that is calming.  Add in deep breaths, while your child squeezes and releases for extra calm.
• Strength. Playing with slime can improve hand strength and mobility. Have your child place the slime in one hand and squeeze it using all five of the fingers. Next relax the fingers, roll into a ball, and repeat. Don’t forget to switch hands.

Slime may be messy, but it has many redeeming qualities as well

Playing with slime tends to be calming due to the proprioceptive input it provides hands. It also strengthens hands and fingers, which prepares hands for school tasks, such as handwriting. Having strong hands is also helpful when playing on playground equipment or doing aerial yoga poses.  Want to learn other fun ways to be mindful?  Fall classes start August 24th.  Come hang out with us!