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Homemade Play Dough: A Sensory Activity for a Rainy Day
This homemade & easy play dough recipe is perfect for a simple yet engaging activity that’s hours of fun for young children and mamas alike. Hooray! It’s a squishy, sensory delight that encourages creativity, fine motor skills, and an opportunity for a quiet moment with your little one. Plus, it’s a great way to keep kids entertained indoors on rainy days. And as the autumn is coming, there’ll be more of those so you’d best get prepared.
And this recipe for homemade play dough is just brilliant. Make a batch, store it in a zip lock bag in the fridge and it’ll keep for ages. That’ll be due to the salt in this particular recipe.
But Why Homemade Play Dough?
- Non-toxic: Unlike shop-bought play dough, homemade versions are typically made with natural ingredients that are safe for children. And, as we know, children have a tendency to explore the world by tasting and occasionally – just occasionally – EATING whatever it is they’re playing with. And isn’t play dough oh so similar to, well, dough? So best have it as natural as possible until they’re old enough and disciplined enough to not eat the play dough.
- Customisable: You can tweak the play dough to your child’s preferences by adding different colours, scents (how about a few drops of some essential lavender oil to calm everyone’s mood?), or textures. We have a special Space Play Dough using black and navy blue food colouring and silver glitter. I’ve also got some special space toys, like THESE that stay in the freezer bag with the sparkly play dough.
- Cost-effective: Homemade play dough is often cheaper than shop-bought options, especially if you already have most of the ingredients on hand. Ok, the Cream of Tartar is pretty niche, but one pot will last years. Oh, and because the ingredients are pantry staples, you can quickly make much bigger volumes of the stuff. Jolly useful if you’ve a big family or maybe fancy making some fun favours for children’s party bags.
- Educational: Apparently, play dough can help children develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving abilities. So that’s a bonus. You’ve a mini Donatello or Michelangelo in the making.
Enhanced Play Dough Ideas – Up Your Play Dough Game
- Shape creation: I mean, you could encourage your child to make animals, vehicles, letters, or numbers. Or just leave them to it. They’ll work it out.
- Imprinting: Use objects like cookie cutters, toys, or leaves to create impressions in the dough. I also give the children rubber stamps when I can’t face the mess of ink smearage and they’ll merrily stamp impressions onto the playdough, a bit like futuristic Sumerian clay tablets.
- Texture exploration: With older children who won’t nibble on the play dough, add different textures like sand, rice, or glitter to explore how it feels. Expand your child’s vocabulary by introducing words like “nobbly” or “gritty” when they try to describe the enhanced play dough.
- Sensory play: Now, if you’re brave enough (I’m not) and don’t mind mess (I do) then combine play dough with other sensory materials like water, paint, or shaving cream for a “multi-sensory” experience. AKA mess. This is absolutely optional. Really it is.
Conclusion
There you have it, m’dears. Your ticket to indoor entertainment for your little ones this autumn that doesn’t involve children’s telly. Now go forth and conquer those rainy days like the the super mama that you are!
P.S. If all else fails, there’s always the tried-and-true method of letting them loose in the garden, albeit very much swathed in waterproof clothing. A little mud never hurt anyone, right? Apparently, it’s immune-system boosting and everything. Just don’t blame me later when your house looks like some sort of Neolithic bog after a downpour and you’re in the throes of a clean up!
Easy, Homemade Play Dough
This is a brilliant play dough recipe that's fun & simple to make. Perfect for a rainy afternoon and it uses easy pantry staples for its ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup table salt
- 2 tbsp cream of tartar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup water with food colouring of choice added
- 1 tsp essential oil e.g. lavender (optional)
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients into a large saucepan.
- Stir over a medium heat until the dough forms into a ball.
- Allow to cool then knead until smooth.
- Store in an airtight Ziploc or freezer bag with the air pressed out. Keep it in the fridge.
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