Kidster is a little over 17 months (almost a year and a half in non parent time) and she’s always asking to play with the Play-Doh. She actually says “flay” about 20 times before we finally just give in and let her play with it in her high chair. I noticed she was taking little nibbles of it and had bits of blue goo stuck in her teeth. Of course everyone says, “Play-Doh is non toxic!” That being said, I’m not a fan of my kid putting it in her mouth when I’m not really sure exactly what is in it.
Here’s a bit of history for you. Play-Doh was originally created in the 1920’s as a wallpaper cleaner. It was smeared on the wallpaper where the soot from the cooking stoves had caked on the walls. Kind of along the lines of using silly putty to copy comics from the newspaper. (Do kids still do that anymore?) It contains mineral oil and borax. I’m not sure if Kidster ate a chunk of it that she would be feeling ok. Toxic or not, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea for my 17 month old to be possibly eating.
I remember when we were kids my mom would ‘cook’ play dough for us. It didn’t taste that great but I know that it wouldn’t make us sick. I’m pretty sure she used Jell-O as a coloring or something. This time around I didn’t have any Jell-O so I went this gel food coloring. Not a good choice might I add, it just wasn’t as bright as I had hoped, and I used a whole tube!
In the spirit of nostalgia I used a vintage Pyrex mixing bowl, and a wooden spoon. Pretty cool when I was playing with it it smelled just like I remembered when I was a kid. I found the recipe at The Imagination Tree. Be sure to subscribe to her blog! She’s pretty awesome! She used glitter but I wasn’t sure how my dough was going to turn out and I can just imagine trying to get glitter out of a toddlers eye…. not fun. You can be sure I’ll be adding glitter when she’s older though! Who doesn’t like glitter?
The recipe at The Imagination Tree was a pretty big batch so I halved everything. The recipe below is my halved version. It’s certainly enough for one kid! Be sure you have Cream of Tartar on hand because it’s a pretty major ingredient. I talked about C.o.T. in my post Instant Apple Cider Cookies.
Ingredients:
Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl.
Add the coloring to the boiling water. I did this as instructed and it barely added much color to the dough.
The wooden spoon wasn’t working to mix the dough so I switched to a silicone spatula.
Kidster totally loved the dough and didn’t seem to notice the difference between the homemade kind and the Play-Doh version. It wasn’t as colorful as I was hoping or remembered. I think next time we will use the plain food coloring instead of the fancy pants gel stuff. I ended up using a whole tube of gel color for a half batch of dough. It’s a bit of a sickly green color but she enjoyed it anyway!
I have no idea what we’re going to have planned for next Fun Kid Friday but be sure to subscribe!
Which do YOU prefer: Play-Doh or Homemade?
~Lisa
Kidster, Hubster and I were visiting Auntie A and her family recently. Kidster found an MP3 player and headphones and started trying to put the headphone cord into the jack. I realized that she was ready for a few more complicated toys especially ones that help develop her small muscle motor skills.
You only need two items. Both can be found at the Dollar Store. A shoestring and a pool noodle. Pretty simple to find almost anywhere especially during the summer season.
Using a serrated knife cut the noodle into ‘bead’ shapes. I cut ours into about an inch width but I think next time I’d make them thinner. You want the end of the shoelace to go all the way through the bead so the child can grasp the other end when threading it through.
We use the ‘beads’ to learn small muscle manipulations, colors, numbers, and counting. As she starts to learn more about numbers and letters I’ll use a sharpie marker to write numbers and letters on the beads so we can put them in order.
Kidster will ask for the ‘bead’ to play with all the time. Be sure that your child is past the stage of having to put everything in their mouth!
What is YOUR favorite kid craft?
~Lisa
I have long thick hair that holds a curl very well but there is just SO much of it that I avoid curling it because trying to keep the sections separated and uniform is really hard to do. Getting the strands at the back of my head is really a pain too. Imagine the black and white video portion of the ‘As Seen on TV” items. “Ug! It’s Too hard!” Well. Rather than spending $19.99 for something that doesn’t work Abut just looks like it does through the magic of TV try this little trick. If you have normal to thin hair you can use just a regular pony tail and not have to turn to the piggy tails.
My baby sister was in town and babysat for Kidster last night. I told her about my new favorite way to curl my hair. It was an offhand comment between our QuizUp matches but she seemed to take it to heart. She texted me at 10:49am “Tried curling my hair in piggy tails and it’s life changing.” My response, of course, was “LOL! I know, right?!” To which she said, “It took like 15 minutes”. That’s when I told her she had to be my To Neat Tuesday model. Because all ladies need to know the super easy trick to flowing pretty curls without all the yoga moves.
She came over and spent some time teaching Kidster to blow into the whistle on her keychain and then we got to work.
What is YOUR favorite hair trick?
-Lisa
I love the dollar store. I can go on a shopping spree and only spend $20! I’ve been pinning so many different dollar store kid fun ideas I figured it was time to actually DO one. I had originally pinned the idea from this mom: Play At Home Mom.
Here’s what you’ll need:
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| Use whatever cardboard you have around the house. |
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| Cut to the size of the bag. Leave space for the tape. |
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| Fill bag with gel. The less gel the better for writing practice. Squirt in some food coloring and glitter. |
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| Tape a border around the baggie to the cardboard. |
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| Cut to fit high chair tray if needed. |
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| Kidster loves it! |
What is YOUR favorite kid craft?
-Lisa
