Home Made Playdough

Playdough or clay is a wonderful thing for kids. It enhances their creativity by thinking about structure shapes and forms. It also helps kids express their feelings and visions. You can also tell a kid’s personality through his/her creations. Just like my daughter RJ who’s been molding dough since she was 3 years old. I can see that she loves to cook and will be a good cook someday because unlike other kids, she’s not making animals, flowers, persons or houses. She’s molding food and pretending she is a chef, baking and making cakes, pastries, etc. We even bought her an ice cream maker and molders. And now she is aiming for the burger machine.
As for the playdough, we only buy non-toxic like Play-Doh or Lil’hands. If you doubt on the safety of the clays that can be bought in store, you can make your own clay at home using the recipe below.You will need:
3 ½ cups of all purpose flour
½ cup of salt
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
2 ½ tablespoons of oil
2 cups of water
Food coloring

Boil the water in a pan. Remove from heat once boiling and stir in oil. Put other ingredients in a large mixing bowl then slowly add the water and oil mixture. Mix quickly using a wooden spoon. Once the mixtures have cooled, treat your homemade clay like bread dough until it becomes smooth or pliable and the same consistency as clay you can buy at the store. Color can be added when dough is being cooked or when being kneaded, or modeled objects can be painted when dry. It takes 2 to 3  days for a molded object to dry at room temperature. But for quicker results, you can bake it at 250ºFahrenheit (120ºCelsius) oven for 45 minutes to one hour. When the art has cooled, it can be painted and shellacked to make it more permanent.

Playing with doughs is great for strengthening fine motor skills so be sure to give your child lots of time to explore.