Homemade Playdough = Messy Fun!

I write on my blog a lot that I get sad when my daughters get older. But there is a part of me that loves to experience them growing older as well. Isabella is now well over 4 years old and she is fascinated with assisting me in all that I do. Well, with the exception of picking up toys or making her bed.

But if I suggest that we do a fun project together or bake something with one another? She is all over that! She grabs her helper stool and gets to work by pouring, measuring, stirring and throwing away trash as needed. I love it. It's as if I suddenly grew an extra set of hands--and who hasn't ever wished that they had more hands available to help?

Today we made homemade playdough. We usually buy them playdough at the store, but I have seen so many fun ideas floating around online that I wanted us to try it out for ourselves. I crossed my fingers, grabbed my assistant and got to work.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tsp creme of tartar

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1 cup water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

few drops of food coloring of choice (I used ~6)

Mix together the dry ingredients in a saucepan. Stir together. 

In a liquid measuring cup get your water, add the vegetable oil and food coloring. Pour into saucepan.

Stir all items together and have your stove set to medium. Constantly stir together. After a couple of minutes the dough will begin to peel away from the pan. This signals that the dough is ready.

Remove from stove. Sprinkle some flour on a hard surface and knead with hands. To store the dough place in an airtight container or bag. Make sure no air is let into whatever you are storing it in as that is what will dry out your dough.

And that is it! Super simple, super fun. We colored ours pink and we have a list of colors that we want to test out. Isabella loved having some one on one time with me--and loved being able to make some messy fun with her mom. It's not all of the time that I encourage us to make a messy fun project.

Do you have a messy recipe that your little one loves? Submit your fun and messy recipe to Clorox Clean-Up Recipes for Fun site and Utimate Mess Party contest. Your recipe must fall into one of the four categories: Wacky Science, Arts and Crafts, Kiddie Cooking or Creative Cooking. There are a lot of fun recipes over there and if you do submit your recipe for fun you could win one of many prizes to include a grand prize of $10,000!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Clorox Clean-Up Recipes for Fun blogging program, for 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on this program, click here and see the Terms link.