Home-Made Playdough

As a WAHM, one of my greatest challenges is in keeping Kenan occupied.

Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), he is not into toys, so that makes my task even more challenging. But yes, we don't have to burn a hole in our pocket buying toys. However, sometimes I wonder if I'm depriving him, especially after going to playdate with another kid whose place is almost brimming over with toys. But experience tells me it's wiser not to succumb to the sense of guilt.

Often, Kenan would appear thrilled with a certain toy at the store, but once we buy it home, he would probably play it a while and then chuck it aside. Then he will go back to some simple toys like balls, or he will fiddle with bottles, empty boxes and whatever knick knacks he can lay his tiny hands on. When that's done, he will go on an exploration trip around the house, attempting to open drawers or cupboard doors and emptying the contents. But often, he will be happy just to 'read' his books or our magazines (books are possibly our best buys as he really loves them).

Here are some photos I found of him playing with a balloon. These were taken when he was about eight months old (he looks so different now ya? Was such a chubby boy then!).

Day 1 - Happy balloon time!

Day 2 - Balloon burst. Nevermind, let me play with the string then!

As you can see, one simple balloon like this keeps him occupied for two days. Even on the second day after the balloon had burst, he was happily playing with the string tied to it. So that's my boy for you.

Anyway, recently I thought of letting him try out some craft work and decided to make playdough for him.

I searched the internet for recipes and followed one found on Kaboose which I adapted for my purpose. Here's how I made the playdough:

Ingredients
2 cups of flour
1/3 cup of salt

Food colouring

Water

Steps
1. Mix the flour and salt together in a big bowl.
2. Put a few drops of the food colouring into the water and stir well.
3. Slowly add water into the flour and salt and knead thoroughly until it's a firm, stretchy dough, add more water if necessary.
4. Store the playdough in an airtight container.


I chose this recipe because it doesn't require any cooking, unlike many other recipes I came across (I think cooking is supposed to help the playdough last longer).

To make it more interesting, you can make use of cookie cutters to cut out different shapes.

Kenan wasn't really fascinated with the playdough, think he doesn't quite like the feel of it. He would kind of pinch the dough or squash whatever I made for him but he has not attempted to make anything yet. Guess it's beyond his age for now. Anyway, my purpose was to give him a new experience, which I think is what's more important at this stage of his development.

By the way, it's been about two weeks since I first made the playdough and it turned moist and sticky. So what I did was to add some flour and knead it back to the right texture again.

Do you have some interesting activities you do with your toddler at home? Hope you can share with me your ideas!