Playdough... Embrace It!

I know, I know most parents hate playdough.  Secretly I'm a hater too.  It grinds into carpet, sticks to socks it's squishy and messy.  But you have to admit it, kids LOVE it.  It's a great thing to love because it's such an awesome tool for building fine motor.  While your kiddies are rolling and squishing, squeezing and pulling they are building their little hand muscles and perfecting their coordination.  Which translates into better paper/pencil skills and I KNOW that parents find that important.  The possibilities for playdough are endless.  There are many commercial products available the actual dough and many cutting tools.  There are even super fun pizza, ice cream and cake making kits.  Keelyn has had much fun with all of those things.  However she enjoys finding things around the house and making the playdough even more.  It's a great activity that the two of us can do.  Here's a list of some of our favourite around the house items we use for playdough

At Home Playdough Tools:

-plastic forks, spoons, knives
-potato masher
-garlic press
-pipe cleaners
-straws
-tooth picks
-various sized lids from containers
-toy cars
-Barbie shoes
-The shapes from the Tupperware Shape Sorter ball
-coins
-puzzle pieces, especially wooden pieces
-Fisher Price Little People
-cookie cutters
-cookie press
-toilet paper rolls
-old toothbrushes
-shampoo bottle lids
-sensory balls

There are many playdough recipes out there.  A quick google search or peek on pinterest will yield tons.  I had to try out a few before I found one that I loved.  I haven't had any success with the no cook kinds.  They always end up really sticky.  My favourite is a cook kind from playdoughrecipe.com with a few variations.  I use alum because it's cheaper than cream of tartar but you can completely leave it out.  I also use koolaid instead of food colour because it makes it nice and scented and sensory.

Playdough Recipe

-2 cups of plain flour

-2 tbsp of cookin oil

-1 tsp of alum

-1 cup of salt

-2 cups of water

-1 package of koolaid or food colouring (add to water) 

-Place all the ingredients in a medium pot, cook slowly on medium until the playdough thickens

-Remove from pot and carefully knead.  I use the spatula at first as it's HOT!  

-Now you are done!

Sometimes I add glitter to it as well.  

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