Play dough. We’ve all heard of it, did you know that using play dough will help your children to develop their imagination, build their fine motor skills, develop their self esteem (there’s no wrong way to use play dough)! It can even be used as a tool to help with numeracy!

If you’ve never made play dough with your little ones, now is the time to try! It’s a favorite rainy day activity for my little girl. Let the children get stuck in with helping you measure out the ingredients and give the mixture a stir. I can guarantee that they will enjoy making it as much as they do playing with it!

Here is the basic recipe:

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in small amounts until it feels just right)
• few drops glycerine (optional- adds more shine!)

To make your play dough EVEN more amazing –

AMAZING EXTRAS!:

• Make it colourful!!  – add food Colouring – A little goes a long way!
• Make it smell amazing!! – Essence – such as vanilla essence or some drops of peppermint will make the play dough smell fabulous. For a calming experience you could even add some lavender or essential oils.
• Make it sparkle!! – Add a sprinkle of glitter to your mixture for a super sparkly ball of fun

The possibilities are endless!

If you don’t have some of the more unusual ingredients above such as cream of tartar or glycerine you can use the recipe below

• 8 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp table salt
• 60ml warm water
• food colouring
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Just mix the colouring in a separate bowl with the water and then add together to the mixture.

You can make up different batches in different colours and cling film them & keep in the fridge to extend over a few days.