Play Dough!

I have recently started watching my 3 year old nephew during the days. So far it has been a lot of fun. He is a typical 3 year old boy. He has a lot of energy, a great imagination and is full of personality!  I want our days to be full of fun, exercise and learning- if we can do all 3 at the same time, even better!

I had some air dry clay that he played with and he really enjoyed it. Since air dry clay is expensive and is not the best idea for a 3 year old (due to price and it really is designed for modeling not just playing with over and over) I decided to do something a little more appropriate. So, I hopped onto Pintrest and looked up the recipe for homemade play dough and we set to work.

In 30 mins we had 4 batches of the play dough made and ready to play with! We went with Red, Green, Blue and we attempted orange, but it turned out to be a bit too Tangerine. Oh well! It was home made (which means cheap), it was quick and it was easy. And even better- it is should last longer than the store stuff, and if accidentally ingested by anyone it is safe, because the ingredient list is simple and stomach friendly (though I doubt it tastes yummy).

For those of you out that that want to try and make it here is the simple 1, 2, 3 of it all.

In a 2 quart sauce pan mix:
           1 cup Flour,
           1 cup Water,
           1/3 CUP Salt (yep),
           1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar, and
           1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
 Add your food coloring (the more drops the richer the color)

Turn on the stove to medium. use a plastic spoon to mix the dough up till it is a ball and looks like play dough.

Remove from heat and let the ball of colored (or white if you left it white) cool on wax paper.

That's it! Takes about 5 minutes (Took me a little longer because I couldn't locate our Cream of Tarter)  Repeat as necessary for different colors.

I just stored mine in plastic containers we had in our cupboard, I used clear containers so we can see what color is in each one. You can also use Ziploc bags as well. As long as it seals out the air to keep the dough at the right consistency.

It was a fun little project and now we have Play Dough that will provide hours of entertainment!

-JLP-

PS. If you have ideas for fun at home, educational activities with kids pass them along!