A Day for (Play) Dough

The days are getting shorter and colder, meaning more time spent indoors with the kids. But when Lego fatigue takes over and the kids are no longer inspired to paint or draw with crayons, a new activity is in order.

This past weekend I made a batch of play dough from a few simple ingredients we already had on hand: white flour, salt, vegetable oil and food coloring. The result is a somewhat salty-tasting, soft dough that the kids can play with (and eat, if they so choose). The older ones can even help with the measuring and stirring of ingredients.

To make, mix together 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1/3 cup salt. Next, divide the dry mixture into several bowls, each one to be made a different color (for ease of math, I divided into three batches). Measure out three one-third cups of water into three different cups, then add 10 drops of food food coloring to each. Stir each mixture until a dough forms, then turn out onto the counter or workspace and knead until combined (add a little more water if needed). My daughter, 3, helped pour the water into the bowls and stir for a bit while my almost-two-year-old supervised.

Hand over the dough and let the kids mold it into different shapes, or add accessories like chop sticks, toothpicks, small cookie cutters and other items to help make all sorts of objects. My daughter especially liked using a plastic knife to cut the dough into smaller pieces; my son preferred the fork, with which he tasted some of the yellow dough. Rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters is also great practice for the dozens of holiday cookies we'll be baking in the next couple of months. As a matter of fact, this would also be good practice for making a gingerbread house or cookie cutter Christmas tree ornaments – also great indoor, cold-weather activities for the kids.