Whatever the weather, sometimes you just need something to keep your little one still for five minutes! Today was the day to try our hand at Homemade Play Dough!
We adapted this recipe from The Imagination Tree ever so slightly to enable us to make 3 colours instead of just 1 huge batch of 1 colour. We used coconut oil as it smells nice and isn’t too greasy.
You will need:
- 250g Plain Flour
- 2 tbsp Coconut Oil (melted)
- 65g Table Salt
- 2 tbsp Cream Of Tartar
- 225ml Boiling Water (add extra if required)
- Few drops of gel food colouring (we used red, yellow and blue)
- Few drops glycerine (not essential, but helps with getting a nice consistency)
Method:
- Mix the flour, oil, salt & cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl
- Add most of the boiling water, stirring continuously until the dough is combined. You want it to be a bit sticky at this stage, but not wet, so add water or flour accordingly until you get a good consistency.
- Split in to 3 equal portions. Add a few drops of food colouring and glycerine to each.
- Once the dough has been left to cool a little, knead each portion vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone.
- If after a few minutes the dough feels too sticky, add a little more flour until it feels perfect. You’re now ready to play!
Ideas for play:
If it’s their first time, let them explore the texture themselves. They may taste it, but trust me, it smells better than it tastes! You may find they don’t know what to do with it at first, but it’s good for them to figure it out on their own at first and let their imagination run wild!
Use plastic animals and have fun getting them ‘stuck in the mud’!
Set up a pretend bake shop, complete with cookie cutters, a rolling pin and some plates to serve!
Experiment making different patterns using random household objects, such as a fork or an old comb!
Try to make faces in the dough using a blunt instrument, such as a spoon handle or blunt pencil!
