You need to have a few simple tips and tricks to get the most out of your playdough experience. This post is the definitive guide to the best playdough recipe out there & everything else playdough.
The great thing about playdough is that it is quick to make and uses cheap common ingredients. That's what makes playdough so great, and it's for everybody!
Your definitive guide to everything play dough lives here:
- A no-cook playdough recipe using natural ingredients made in less than 5 minutes
- How to use playdough as an excellent tool for your child's development
- Great playdough games both you and your kids will enjoy
- How to store your playdough to make it last for months
- A simple way to resurrect your playdough if has been left out
- The only way to get playdough out of your carpet
The best no-cook playdough recipe using natural ingredients
Every great playdough experience begins with an excellent playdough recipe. We have tested quite a few and have found that this is the best playdough recipe out there.
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 cup of salt
- 3 tbs cream of tartar
- 2 tbs oil
- 2 cups boiling water
- Colouring (from natural ingredients such as cocoa powder, raspberries, rose petals, beetroot, blueberries, turmeric)
Method
- Place dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Add wet ingredients.
- Mix until combined.
- Knead well.
- If consistency is too wet add a little plain flour.
Why playdough is an excellent tool for your child's development
Apart from the initial learning that comes along with following a recipe, the making of play dough also stimulates your child's senses of touch and smell.
Playdough is tactile, fun and great for all multi-sensory early developmental play. Playdough mats are a great tool to use with your children to work on various learning skills as well as help develop their fine motor skills.
By playing with playdough children learn about coordination, they practise their vital motor skills and they strengthen their muscles as they roll, squeeze, poke, knead and shape the dough into all sorts of things. Best if all, it is great to watch their imaginations run wild with their playdough creations.
Great playdough games both you and your kids will enjoy that are great for their development
- use cookie cutters to make shapes
- roll beads to make jewellery
- make pretend meals, e.g. cookies
- poke in sticks or spaghetti to make structures
- make letters to spell out words
- use googly eyes and feathers to create playdough figures
- explore colour mixing with playdough
- make prints, such as leaf prints from different shaped leaves collected outside
How to store your playdough to make it last for months.
Only two easy options needed for this section. Sandwich bags, ordinary glass jars or beeswax wraps, all cheap and perfect for storing play dough.
A simple way to resurrect you playdough if has been left out
There are many playdough recipes out there that claim that their playdough recipe does not dry out, but let's be honest, it does.
What if I told you it doesn’t matter?
Playdough is mostly flour, salt and water. When the playdough is left out, it is the water that has evaporated. What we need to do is push that water back in!
What you need
- Mixing bowl
- A small amount of water
- Elbow grease
Method
- Collect all the playdough in a mixing bowl.
- Massage the wet ball in your hands and start sprinkling small amounts of water into the dough. Continue doing this until some life comes back into it.
- Start using that elbow grease and knead the ball playdough, if needed add more water. The ball should return to its original form in 3-4 minutes
The only way to get playdough out of your carpet
When we said earlier that there are only fond memories connected to playdough, that’s maybe a stretch, definitely for kids, however not so much for mums and dads when they wake up to see dry playdough trampled into the carpet.
What you need
- Vacuum cleaner
- A stiff brush
- Damp cloth
Method
- What until playdough is completely dry.
- Brush the play dough off the carpet with a stiff brush to remove any small bits of play dough stuck to the carpet.
- Vacuum up as much of the play dough as you can. There will still probably be playdough left in the carpet. Don’t panic!
- Place a warm damp cloth on top of the play dough and let it sit there for an hour to soften the playdough.
- Stick more play dough onto the play dough stuck to the carpet (are you crazy!?). This sounds completely counter-intuitive, but trust us once you've stuck some more playdough on top it will come out easier.
- If a little of the playdough colour remains after you've removed the playdough from the carpet, dab the spot gently with a white cloth dipped into mildly soapy, cold water. Napisan works well for this.
Now it's your turn
We would love to hear your experiences with playdough or if you have a playdough recipe that rivals ours! We want to create this page as a one stop shop for everything playdough, so if you think of anything we have missed, please say so as we would love to include it!