{Fun for the kids} Homemade play dough

With summer in full swing, I'm sure many of you are looking for easy and affordable ways to entertain the kids. One of the things my girls love to do is make our own play dough. I love it because everything I need is already in my kitchen cupboard and I can just throw it out when we're done. It's easy, cheap and stirs up their imagination.

I use the recipe my daughter's preschool gave us and I like the texture better than store bought play dough because it's softer and it doesn't have that smell that comes with the store bought kind. I also like how we can color it to whatever color we feel like that day and even add our own oils and extracts to make it smell nice. I'm not sure how long the batch will keep. We usually throw ours out after a couple of days.

This is a great activity for parties or play dates though I suggest already whipping up a big batch before the kids arrive. For smaller groups, you can have the kids help measure the ingredients and add their own color and extracts. Then provide rolling pins, plastic cookie cutters, silicone baking cups, etc and let the kids create! I think this would also be a great party favor. Divide the dough into sandwich bags or plastic containers and add a plastic cookie cutter.

Recipe:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons oil

2 cups water

optional: a few drops each of food coloring, flavor extracts

Directions:

In a shallow pan, mix the first three ingredients together then add oil and water. Cook on medium- high heat until you get the play dough consistency. Add coloring and extracts

* My girls love to add the coloring themselves so I usually turn off the heat when the consistency is still a bit wet. I wait until it's cool enough to touch but still a bit warm then I put a glob of the dough on a paper plate and let the girls add the coloring then they mix it in with their hands.