How to Make Home Made Play Doh

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One of my daughters favorite activities is to make home made play doh.

When Miss B was a toddler we started making home made play doh several times a year. My girls love hands on activities, especially when they have been involved in the creating. They will sit and play for hours after they make something themselves but if I buy the same thing from the store, they will only play with it for a few minutes. Then it gets cast aside.

Yesterday we came home from church and decided it was the perfect day to create. Miss B made a makeshift birds nest. Then we dyed rice and made home made play doh.

If your child loves to play with play doh this activity is a must! They will love helping you make it. The play doh is non toxic, using only kitchen items that you most likely have on hand (the best kind of activity!) The items are cheap too making this fun activity an easy to make and easy on the wallet.

What you need to make home made play doh

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup salt
• 2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Food dye

I also suggest using vinyl gloves for the last part. (We’ll get to that!)

The first thing you will do is add the first three dry ingredients together in a bowl and stir.

Next add the cup of water and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to your dry mixture. Stir until smooth.

Transfer your mixture to a saucepan and cook until the dough starts to form up.

We have tried this next step several different ways and I have only found two ways I like.

If you are only making one color play doh you can add the desired colored food dye to your play doh mixture while you are stirring it. I am not a huge fan of doing it this way. But it’s less messy than the way I do it.

The dough may form quickly so continue to mix and don’t take your eyes off of it until it starts to form a ball and is no longer liquid.

Let your play doh cool. After it is cool knead the play doh until it is no longer sticky.

If you dyed your play doh in the saucepan than congratulations you’re done!

If you waited to dye then you can move on to the next step.

Knead the play doh until it is no longer sticky. Roll it into a ball and then punch a small cave (hole but don’t go all the way through) into the dough. We rolled four balls out of each mixture and dyed them four different colors. Put your vinyl gloves on, pour your desired dye color into the cave of the dough ball, and knead the dough until all the dough is the color you would like.

This step is messy. But it’s the only way I have found that I truly like. Dying the dough this way keeps the colors vibrant. I don’t miss any spots on the dough and the color stays consistent.

After you are done kneading hand it over to your kiddo and let them play! My children are entertained by play doh for hours. It’s amazing.

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If you like hands on activities to do with your children don’t leave without reading how to dye rice and the best hands on activities for toddlers and preschoolers!

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