I will never have to buy the Play Dough again

I found a simple and customisable recipe for making play dough at home from this hapafamily Instagram post.

And that changed my life :D

Why I would urge every parent/caregiver to try this at least once?

Of course, the cost aspect was one of the motivating factors for me. I would see myself buying dough again and again only to see them get hardened in no time. Or the colours would get mixed up and all the doughs are turned into brown. However, there are many more reasons than that. Please read on to know.

1. It doesn’t get hardened that easily/quickly. Earlier with store-bought play dough, you would see me, reminding my daughter continuously that she has to remember to close the lid, continuously from behind as she played with dough. This somehow, was against my parenting philosophy, as the whole point of the play was for them to get immersed and focus. So as part of that, she would keep all doughs out for a while, take a little in her hand etc. But I from behind would be prompting her to take only the required dough, and to put the lid on the rest etc.
2. Ability to let kids explore without pressure. The beauty of playdough is that it gives young children the much required sensorial experience to explore, imagine and create. Kids usually have the tendency to mix doughs as part of that process. That is the most natural thing for them to do. Initially, I used to let her do it, but later I noticed myself restricting her from doing that. As I was worried about “ Now I will have to buy again”. However, with these homemade doughs, I don’t anymore see myself restricting her.
3. Allows you the flexibility to customise. You have complete control over the shades of the colours your kids prefer. We even add fragrances of our choice to make the dough more welcoming. One can add glitter, colours from vegetables, other add ons etc — limited only by your creativity.
4. The joy of making it ourselves is unbeatable. My daughter since the time we explored this option, has been very excited about this process. We make this dough together. I give her all the ingredients in their respective cups. She gets to add them and mix. I take over, at the last step of adding the hot water. I again give her the charge, after I finish putting the dough together. Many other skills/awareness around measurements, fine motor skills, following the recipe etc can be learnt in the process.

So if you are a parent/caregiver of a young child or a toddler, you should have this recipe among your bag of tricks. Kids can be engaged and will be lost in the play for hours.

Matching Patterns

Re-creating experiences from books

Creating — Creatures, real and imaginary( Flying Starfish)

A fun way to engage kids, during get-togethers or parties.

Unlimited pretend play

And the recipe

• In a typical Indian, kitchen, one would find all the ingredients easily except “Cream of Tartar”. So order that immediately. I bought mine here.
• I prefer the used cooking oil, that gets left out after a deep-fry.

I would love to hear your experiments and experiences with this recipe. Please do leave a comment if possible.