Playdoh Play Date

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Today was play date day for my boys and my friend's 2 year old boy.  I knew we would have a 1 year old, 2 year old, and 4 year old navigating playing together so I made some playdoh up ahead of time.  My thoughts were that it would be a great ice breaker because it lends itself to parallel play. I put some items in my little tray I use for playdoh and the boys had a blast get.  My friend was surprised at the soft texture and lack of that weird smell that comes with the store bought kind she had used in the past.  When I told her that it was homemade, she was way more impressed than necessary because, to be honest, playdoh is the EASIEST thing in the world to make! 

Now before people comment that Playdoh is messy and a nightmare to clean up, let me just say two things.  First, as a former teacher, I want to point out that learning is often messy, embracing that kind of mess will benefit your children in so many ways.  Second, this playdoh is really a cinch to clean up.  Even on carpet, if you let it dry out, you can crunch it up into dust and vacuum it out. 

Some Benefits of Playdoh

My playdoh recipe is noncook and takes maybe all of 5 minutes, start to finish.  It is a great recipe for little ones to help with too, provided that you are the one that pours the cup of boiling water in.  My mom was a preschool teacher for 28 years and so as a kid we always had some of this around as a boredom buster.   Little did we know the benefits went far beyond entertainment.

Some of those benefits include:

• It strengthens tiny, and not so tiny, hands.  This helps down the road with scissor skills and writing.  Hand strength is a big component when it comes to holding a pencil, drawing, and cutting.
• It hones fine motor skills.  Fine motor skills are used to pinch and squish the dough, roll balls, make snakes, and sculpt their favorite shapes. 
• It is calming.  Kneading the playdoh provides sensory input, applies gentle pressure and stimulation to the joints of the hands and fingers, and creates a sort of rhythmic calm, much like squeezing a stress ball. 
• It promotes problem solving skills, creativity, and imaginative play.  Take this picture to the left here. My 4 year old and I set out to make a dino world. We had to think of the colors that would be needed.  then we had to figure out how to make the world itself.  We rolled out the grass and he decided wanted to cut it and put a river in. He wanted a volcano, so we tried sculpting one and when that wasn't satisfactory, we ended up wrapping it around a small cup to get the shape we wanted.  Problem solving and creative ideas were needed in every step of creating this scene.  Then we added the dinosaurs and imaginative play became the focus.  
• It can be used in tactile learning.  When I was teaching 3rd grade one of my options for word work was to make their spelling words out of playdoh.  the kids loved it and pairing the hands on creation of the words with the repetition of spelling them out, helped them retain the words more easily. 

There are lots more but these are the ones that really speak to me the most and the main reasons I make playdoh regularly for my boys.  That and it is just fun!

The Recipe 

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups Flour
• 1/2 cup Salt
• 2 tsp Cream of Tarter ***If you plan on making this often, I recommend getting a large bag from Amazon.  Click here for what I use
• 2.5 - 3 TBL of Coconut Oil* (Liquefied) *You can also use vegetable oil but I think the coconut oil is a little softer.  Start off with 2.5 tablespoons but then add more if you find it too dry or tough to knead. 
• 1 cup boiling water
• Food Coloring (Optional)  I prefer gel food coloring for more vibrant colors but any food coloring will work. 

Directions

1. Throw the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and give it a stir.
2. Pour in the oil and the boiling water.  I usually just throw a microwave safe glass measuring cup in the microwave right before I start measuring out all the ingredients and it is boiling by the time I am done.  You could also use the stove. 
3. Stir it all together until dough forms. 
4. Let it cool a couple minutes and then begin kneading the dough by hand to make sure everything is mixed through. 
5. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour.  If the dough is hard to knead add a bit more oil to smooth out the texture. 
6. Once it is the right texture, I break it a part into several balls depending on the numbers of colors I want to make.
7. Make an indentation in the dough ball and add a few drops of food coloring. Fold the dough over the coloring and continue to knead in your hand until the color is worked through. NOTE: if you don't want to get coloring on your hands, wear gloves.  I don't personally care if I end up with some extra color on my hands but I also don't have anywhere to be where that would be seen.  You can also add the color to the water before you pour it in, if you want to avoid getting drops of straight food coloring on your hands and are only making on color. 

That's it!  It is so easy! I hope you try it and love it!  

Vapor billows gently from the humidifier, placed strategically out of reach of the one year old terrorizing the living room, and the smell of Vicks wafts from my four year old's chest.  Ah...It is beginning to look and smell a lot like cold and flu season around our house.  There is no doubt that the blissful time of year where someone's nose is always needing wiped is upon me.  Both the boys are sick with coughs and noses that are somehow  stuffy and runny at the same time. 

If 10 years of teaching elementary and middle school has taught me anything, it is that germs are the one thing that children share freely.  For the most part, it isn't a big deal.  Getting an occasional virus helps build their little immune systems.  We have vaccines to ward off or minimize most of the big scary viruses.  Thank you, science! However, as any parent that has dealt with a whiny snotty child sneezing directly into their ocular cavity will tell you, their germ sharing often goes beyond their little school friends.  

So what can we do to minimize the passing of germs to one another?  Well, the CDC and our mothers have been telling us for years that the best thing we can do is wash our hands thoroughly and frequently, cover our mouths and noses when we sneeze and cough, and stay away from each other when we know we are sick.  It is pretty basic stuff for adults, even though the pandemic has shown that some adults still don't comprehend it.  Children are new here and need to be taught these things though.  The best way I have found to teach kids these skills is a combo of modeling, reading books, and watching videos. 

Modeling is the easy part, it just involves consistently washing your own hands while reinforcing why it is important. For example, "Hey, buddy, we just came in from playing outside, time to get all those germies off our hands. Grab your stool and we can wash our hands together, but don't you dare steal my soap."  The "don't steal my soap" is a game I play with my 4 year old to get him to wash his hands longer.  I put soap on my hands and he "steals" it by grabbing some for himself.  Then I act all indignant and try to steal it back, all the while rubbing it on his hands.  He thinks it is hilarious and doesn't fight me with the typical, "I can do it myself," battle cry of independence when it is a game. 

As for the books and videos, I have put together a handy dandy list of resources below for you to use with your kids.  If you have any to add, please let me know.  The key to developing any healthy habit is repetition so read and watch your kid's favorites frequently and praise them each time they make the great choices to cover their mouth or remember to wash their hands.  Will any of this completely stop your kids from sharing germs with you and each other? Absolutely, not.  I share this in the hopes that it makes teaching our kids lifelong healthy habits easier and, fingers crossed, reduces the number of times you have to break out the vapor rub this Winter.