How to Make the Best Homemade Play Dough

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Don’t you want your kids to grow up with lasting memories of their fun childhood? Play dough is one of those staple childhood memories that most kids share, and personally, my most fond play dough memories were not only playing, but also cooking the play dough with my mom. Now that I’m a mom myself, I’m constantly looking for things to bring that kind of joy into my sons life. In addition to being a great memory, an added perk of this recipe is that for those of you that have really little ones, you don’t have to harbor too much fear of them putting this toy in their mouth. That’s part of what inspired me to do this activity with my still fairly orally fixated son. It allowed us to do a cute bonding activity (even if he didn’t fully understand what was happening), and then have loads of fun playing afterwards! 

Ways to play with play dough:

With my 1-year old we used play dough to practice different motor skills. We tried squishing the dough, pulling it apart, and rolling it into balls. The best part of this versatile activity is that it grows with your kids too! You can practice counting, colors, or recognizing shapes. You can allow your children to explore their creative sides and build castles or animals or whatever else their incredible minds can think up. If they’re not feeling very creative you can also check out some play dough accessories to help them build things! They can practice new skills by cutting, rolling, flattening, and turning their play dough into shapes. 

How to make the play dough:

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-purpose flower

2 teaspoons cream of tartar 

1/2 cup of salt

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 cup boiling water

Food coloring of your choice 

Directions: 

1. Add your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir. This is a great opportunity to include your little ones!
2. Mix in the oil. 
3. Have an adult mix the boiling water into the bowl slowly and knead until smooth. 
4. Separate the play dough into as many pieces as you have colors and knead in your food coloring. 
5. Enjoy!

Be sure to store your play dough in an air tight container to avoid letting it dry out so you can use it again:)