Play Dough

We love play dough in our house. Especially the homemade stuff. Store bought play dough has a yucky smell and feel to me. There is something so .... well, comforting and wholesome about making it from scratch with my children. Plus, they get the experience of being a part of making it come to life, much like cooking and gardening.

Blake and I spent a morning last week doing this. He was so eager to pull up his chair and mix up the flour, salt and cream of tarter, and lets not forget, picking out the food coloring, he choose blue. Chloe even commented on how yummy it smelled, she even wanted to eat it. Something you cannot do with the store bought stuff..

Rolling, molding and sculpting, makes for hours of fun for the Little's...




I have been experimenting with different ways of making play dough for about 4 years now, and I finally found the perfect recipe, thanks to Miss Olivia, Blake's wonderful preschool teacher. She makes play dough with the kids at her school on a regular basis. She even has a small table in the kitchen for the kids.. They all get on there aprons, with wooden spoons in hand and mix up all the dry ingredients, while she boils the water.






Here is the recipe...what you will find, is how much quicker and easier it is to make. The key is to mix the dry and wet ingredients separately, then you don't have to stand over the stove to make it.

Dry Ingredients;

2 Cups of Flour
1 Cup of Salt
1 tsp Cream of Tarter
Optional ( Sparkles )

Wet Ingredients;

2 cups of Boiling Water ( use your tea kettle )
4 TBS of Inexpensive Oil ( I use Canola)
Food Coloring


Let the kids combine the dry ingredients on the table or counter. Then, you pour the hot water into another bowl, add the oil, then have your little one's add the food coloring , as many drops as you like. Mix it up. Then pour your wet ingredients into your dry, mix and then knead it till it is cooled down. You can even separate your dough into two balls, flatten one out, and have the kids put there fingers in, to test how it feels. Of course make sure the dough is not to hot before they do this.



I must say I really enjoy the feeling of freshly made, warm play dough in my hands, and I know Chloe and Blake love it to...