Sunshine Sparkle Playdough

Hello!  It's months since I wrote anything at all.  Life is certainly busy with two little ones.  I've been looking back at posts and really enjoying/remembering things I made or things we've done so I want to keep trying to post.

Today I'm posting some sun-shiny playdough that we made on a really dull, wet day back in the summer to cheer us up.

Add yellow food colouring to a basic playdough recipe and then lots of sparkly gold bits and pieces. 

It certainly cheered our day!

Playdough Apples

Our leaves and apples from the garden

It's been a lovely summer and the sun and warmth were still with us until today when it turned a bit more chilly.


That didn't stop us from getting out into the garden to collect a few colourful leaves and collect the last of the apples from our little tree.

Our apples and leaves alongside
our playdough version

So as well as tucking into the apples, we decided to have a go at making some bright red playdough and turn it into another little basket of apples.  

Here they are!






We just used our usual playdough recipe (below if you want to try it) and then I coloured a couple of playsticks with a brown Sharpie and then cut some leaves from foam. 

You could of course use real leaves and sticks if you preferred.



Playdough Recipe
1 cup plain flour
half a cup of salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup boiling water
food colouring

Rosemary and Lavender Scented Playdough

I cut back the rosemary bush in my garden yesterday and have an absolute stack of it!  I'm planning to dry it and then store it or maybe even freeze some but there's just soooooo much of it.

So this morning - a grey day - we decided to make playdough au natural and add some fragrant rosemary to it.  












We ended up with rosemary trees and some pebbles around the playdough and then also added some lavender from the garden.  It smells delicious! 



Then we added some animals and little one had a great time moving the animals about, pummeling, rolling and squishing the playdough and rearranging the trees and pebbles.

He was absorbed in this for a whole hour!  
What a hit!

If you want to make playdough you can do so in a couple of minutes.....

1 cup flour
1/2 a cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup boiling water

Mix it all up and add whatever you like - colour, glitter, scent etc

Playdough

What great fun we had today (on yet another rainy day)!  

Little one's fingers are getting bigger and stronger and he's becoming more confident with playdough and not eating it as much either....bonus!





Today the playdough turned out a very dark shade (red and blue mixed together) so it was perfect for adding these really colourful buttons, spools and matchsticks.



He spent ages pushing the objects into the dough and then taking them out and moving them around.  This is the longest he's played with playdough yet!  (20 months)




Playdough is great for loads of reasons and if you want to learn more about it's benefits click here.

And if you're looking for a super easy playdough recipe I can recommend this one....

1 cup flour
half a cup of salt
a spoonful of cream of tartar (increasingly difficult to find in the supermarket so I'm using a little spoonful these days)
1 cup of boiling water
food colouring (optional)

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix til they all come together.
You can play with it when it's cooled a bit.

It will keep for a week or so in an airtight container.

Oatmeal Playdough

Following on from our first go at playdough when Monty was more keen to eat it than play with it I decided
to have a go at this oatmeal playdough recipe as it contains no salt and if he insists on eating it then this has to be the more preferable option!

All you need is:

• half a cup of flour
• half a cup of warm water 
• one cup of oatmeal

Mix it all together - that easy!!

You can also add food colouring if you like, but I used red and it came out looking like raw sausagemeat so I would recommend a different colour (still lots of fun though)!


This time I gave him a few large buttons and a couple of pegs to push into the playdough.  




Little objects like this are good for developing fine motor skills and also building strength in fingers and hands.










We tried rolling it into a sausage shape to make a caterpillar, then we divided it into balls and made cup cakes in paper cases.  

He liked scrunching up the paper cases best! 

First go at playdough!

Today was our first go at play dough, well is was for the little one anyway, I've been making it for years at work with glitter, fragrances and all sorts of colours.  
But today we kept it super simple - plain playdough with the tiniest bit of colour and some lolly sticks.




At first he was keen to push his fingers into it and dig and scratch little bits out, rolling it between his finger and thumb.  

He was also determined to have a sneaky taste and kept popping little bits in his mouth...yuck!

One at a time

I put the lolly sticks into the playdough and he had great fun pulling them out, first one at a time.....

Pulling lots out at a time

......and then lots together as I was quickly putting them back in. 

He found this hilarious!









Playdough is easy to make and is good for building up the strength in little fingers, not to mention great fun!

If you want to have a go at making it, there are loads of recipes online to choose from.  Most include flour, salt and water with a little vegetable oil.  Food colouring is optional.

Store it in an airtight container and it should keep for a few days.