On cold days indoors needing entertainment for my little teenage toddler there is no finer distraction for little fingers...umm..and big fingers.....than play dough.
Play dough is easy to make. My mum made it all the time for me and my sis and now I make it for Ella.
She loves it. Of course you're never going to distract a toddler for very, very long, but it just about keeps her quiet and creatively focused for me to have a breather. Although actually I usually spend that breather moulding and sculpting said play dough and then getting a bit carried away with my dough sculpture and imagining that the Tate might just call offering me exhibition space....
Finally, daydream broken, Ella grabs whatever I've been making and lobs it across the room. Children really are the harshest of critics.
Here is the recipe I use;
½ cup of plain flour
½ cup of water
¼ cup of table salt
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
1 tablespoon of oil
food colouring
{double ingredients for a larger quantity of same coloured dough}
Mix the flour together with the tartar and salt in a saucepan {preferably old pan}
Add the water and mix until smooth.
Add a tsp of food colouring {or more if deeper colour required}
Then the oil and stir until combined
Put the pan over a medium heat and keep stirring until the dough comes together to form a ball.
Allow to cool, then play!
Keep dough in a zip lock or freezer bag and place in a box or tin to prolong it's life.
Play dough will dry out and it's highly likely that in a very short time, your lovely neat coloured dough balls will end up looking like this....
