Softer Side Of Play Dough

by Two Chums on May 20, 2016

playdough-2-ingredient-with-watermark
Need (or knead, pun intended) an activity to keep your little ones occupied this weekend? We’ve got just the ticket! Have you ever noticed that children seem to have a kind of calm that comes over them when they play with play dough? Maybe it is the squishy, softness of it, or that wonderful tactile sensation of feeling the dough as you mold it into shapes and then smash it down and go again. It is sort of like watching fish in an aquarium, there is just something soothing and mesmerizing about it.

Lots of people make their own play dough for pennies, much less than the brand name kind you can buy. And the fun thing is you can make it in as many colors as you want. We did a post about homemade play dough sometime back. It is a very good recipe and method but it does involve a small amount of cooking and makes a somewhat denser and a bit firmer dough. But now we have found an even simpler and softer play dough on the kidsactivitiesblog.com that will have children (even the grown up kind) playing happily for long periods of time.

All you need is:

1 part hair conditioner
2 part corn starch
Food coloring (optional) Add a couple of drops only to the conditioner and mix well before adding it to the corn starch. If you add too much the color may come off on your hands as you are playing. An alternative coloring agent is Kool Aid. Many recipes for homemade play dough add a packet of Kool Aid to the dough. It not only colors it but makes it smell fruity as well. And for a truly sparkly effect, add some glitter to your play dough. Have fun. Experiment. Try out both kinds of dough in these two posts. Find out what kind and combo of ingredients you and your little one like best.

Don’t forget you can pick up what you need, including some fun plastic cookie cutters to use with your homemade play dough, at your local Dollar Store or 99 Cent Store. This really is a very cheap, very easy, and did we mention very fun activity.