Playing With Play Dough

Emma loves to help me in the kitchen, but there isn't much she can I am willing to let her do. Messes, potential boo-boos, messes, and messes. No thanks.

So today I whipped up a batch of play dough (doh?). I guess I could buy her some, but why buy when you can make something this easily?

The play dough could have been colored, but I'm pretty sure that my budding engineer would have a problem with the colors mixing. She likes things to be "just so." So I kept it simple (if you would like the recipe, keep reading!).

After we had the "Do not eat this because it's gross" talk, I handed her a few kitchen gadgets and let her loose.







I put everything into a Ziploc bag and, presto! A ready made activity. I hand her the bag and she's ready to go!
There are tons of recipes out there. Some are edible, which could be fun, but a two-year old can't distinguish between which she can eat and which she can not. I didn't want to makes things complicated when she got the store bought stuff. This particular dough will last for a very long time, which is why I like it. It is smooth (smoother than the "real" stuff), soft, and easy for little hands to squish and mold.

I halved the recipe and it was plenty for Emma and filled up the container shown above.

Play Dough- Makes 3 1/2 cups of dough
2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1. In a medium saucepan, mix together the flour, salt, vegetable oil, cream of tartar, and water.


2. Cook uncovered over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Stir constantly until the dough is the consistency of mashed potatoes.

If you want to add coloring:

3. Divide the dough into four equal portions.

4. Add approximately 6 to 8 drops of food coloring to each portion and knead the color into the dough to distribute it evenly. Kneading the color into the dough is the fun part -- kids will love it.

5. Store in an air tight container.

Have Fun!