Making Play Dough

I have been telling the children that we could make play dough sometime soon. I really don't like the smell of the store bought play dough so I make it. We have done so for years now...ever since I took J to a preschool playgroup when he was 2yrs old and they gave us the recipe (included at the bottom of this post). Here are the kids already to make the play dough.



I tried to get pictures of both of the boys helping but they were quicker than I or the camera but here is D putting in the salt. J did the flour but he was too quick for me.


To make the process go quicker I mix the water, oil and food coloring together. This picture was taken as soon as I finished putting in all 50 drops of the food coloring. As I took the picture the food coloring broke throught the oil leaving....


this behind....

I really wish I had the video going instead because it would have been a really cool video to have. We tried the next time or two to get it recorded but we missed everytime. I thought some of you might want to see what it looks like when it is being cooked. Oh look, it matches the wall.

J was having such a wonderful time kneeding the dough. D wanted to help but kept talking about it being too "hot" which is funny seeing as he can deal with hotter things than J can.

When we were all done the kids when to watch some afternoon TV and I let the play dough sit for about an hour to cool completely (or so...not sure it is cooling now). When it is done cooling I plan to take it downstairs and let the kids play with it while I hang the school posters up in the school area (I will take pics too since it is all painted now too).

Homemade Play Dough
What you will need:
*1/2 cup of salt
*1 cup water
*50 drops food coloring
*1 cup wheat flour (makes it darker...if use all purpose flour use 100 drops of food coloring)
*2 teaspoons cream of tartar
*1 tablespoon oil
*double boiler pan (or something to pretend...I use two pans)
*plastic spoon (just needs to be very stiff)
*wax paper
*container to put it when done (ziplock bags work great!)

What to do:
1. put all the dry ingredients in the top part of the double boiler
2. add the oil, water and food coloring
3. cook and stir until the mixture comes awaya from the sides of the pan
4. scrape dough out onto wax paper
5. kneading for about 5 mins
6. put in container or play

Keeps a very long time if in air tight container and is ok to eat (not recommended).