Homemade Playdough

Schools were closed one day last week, and it was kinda icy out, so I had all my babies with me...for the entire day. I actually really love days like this, when we're all stuck inside, staying in our jammies, watching movies, hanging out...well, I should say I love days like this up until we all start getting a little antsy and drive each other crazy...usually happens around the time we clean up breakfast. (I kid! Maybe more like snacktime...;).

I have a go-to project we do whenever it's a rainy day/snowy day/nothing-to-do day. We always have everything we need for it on hand, and it's something we can always use around here...playdough. We go through playdough like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would, if you have young kids. It's always the same thing: we pick up some new playdough, come home, open it up, play with it for a few minutes, go play something else, and forget to put it away. And we all know what happens to playdough when we don't put it away...Which brings me to another issue...have you ever had the pleasure of stepping on dried up playdough with your bare feet? It's right up there with legos, am I right?

So since we stink at cleaning up after ourselves, this household of mine could always use a little more of that fun stuff around here. Of course, it's no bank-breaking purchase- they even sell it at the Dollar Store - but it costs next to nothing to make it yourself, plus, the kids always get so excited when I suggest it. I'm not even sure where I got this recipe - maybe it's from my camp counseling days, or working at a preschool - not sure, but here it is:

Homemade Playdough:

This is all you need

2 cups flour
2 cups water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
food coloring

1. Mix everything together (except food coloring) in a pot. The kids love this part;)

2. Mix it over low heat.

3. Stir until dough pulls away and forms a ball.

(While this is happening, your children may tend to get a little silly and restless...perhaps even get on top of the kitchen island and make faces at you, even though they're fully aware we don't SIT and play on TOP of the island...)

3. Take the ball out, place it on counter and knead it a little. Then separate into as many balls as you want to make, and add a little food coloring to each one. I make a little well first, before I add the drops.

4. Work each ball a little, and place each one in its own sandwich baggie, and hand them to a prince or princess to knead for a while to work the color through.

princesses hard at work

Then you're ready to play! I bring their little activity table into the kitchen when we do this. Fun change of scenery for them (plus it's much easier to clean fresh playdough off a tile floor than carpet;). I also give them all the cookie cutters from Christmas, Easter, etc. and they love to play with those.

Don't you just love the tongue?

My proud boy bringing me some "lunch."

So there's a quick and easy fix to winter boredom for you, in case you don't already know about this gem. Oh, and about 20 minutes later, they were off to destroy another room...

And I bet you can guess what we FORGOT to clean up...oops.

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