Not long ago, my 6-year-old son (The Precocious One, as I call him here) came home from school with a suspicious-looking brochure. I knew this glossy foldout meant trouble the moment he brought it from his backpack, and I needed only one quick glance to see that I was right. His school was having a fundraiser, and this brochure outlined the available prizes for motivated students. Or, should I say, motivated parents.

He had his eye on something the brochure called Fancy Flubber, which you probably know by its generic name: slime. To get a pack of this slime, my son would have to sell approximately 27,962 bags of caramel popcorn. This would entitle him to a product I could buy from Target for less than the cost of Starbucks. I told him gently that I would be glad to do just that, but I felt bad when I saw the light go out of his eyes. He wanted to EARN the Fancy Flubber through his hard work.

Sorry, I did it again. I meant to say, he wanted to earn the Fancy Flubber by sending his father to the office with the popcorn bags and by having me sell the rest to my friends around the neighborhood. The emerging joy of the Protestant work ethic, this was not.

I haven’t quite decided whether or not I’m going to indulge this exploitation, but it did inspire me to write a blog about a very simple and fun craft: Making slime at home! Feel free to enjoy some caramel popcorn as you read.

Here’s what you’ll need:

– An 8oz bottle of white school glue (do I really need to specify Elmer’s?)

– 2 tablespoons of contact lens saline solution

– 1 tablespoon of baking soda

– Food coloring

You can technically make this recipe without the food coloring, but c’mon – kids don’t want to play with boring white slime! To make this mess, pour your food coloring and glue into a bowl. Use your judgment on how much coloring to use; if the mixture looks the way you want it, that’s when it’s time to stop adding drops. Stir these together and then mix in your baking soda and your saline solution. More saline solution results in a thicker mixture while less gives it a more slimy, runny feel. Once it’s all mixed together, you and your kid can knead the dough until it all comes together in a perfect consistency of dryish goop. I’m not sure what the technical term for “dryish goop” is, but you’ll know it when you feel it.

This is a fun craft for kids and parents to enjoy together, but I should offer this word of caution: Do NOT let your kid play with this stuff anywhere near the carpet, or you’ll have a task ahead of you that will make you wish you were at work, selling bags of caramel popcorn to your reluctant friends – the likely fate of my longsuffering husband.