Home Made Play Dough

I've been very lazy lately (okay, so ever since we both moved and found out I was pregnant in the same month) about keeping my preschoolers constructively busy while the older 3 boys do their school work. I do have a decent arsenal of educational activities for the younger set, but unfortunately those activities are tucked away in a closet somewhere.

At least I'm assuming they are. I guess I should take some time to go track those things down...

So a few days ago when my blogging buddy Annalia wrote this post about pulling out (and organizing!) her kids' play dough, I was inspired. Joseph and Josiah LOVE play dough, and poor deprived little Joanna has NEVER even had the opportunity to try it out!

So I made some for them!

"This is FUN, Mommy!"


"Mmmmm, tasty!" (I don't really recommend this...)





I think I surprised him with the camera!











"Look what I made!"





I make our play dough. (Okay, in the interest of full disclosure the purple play dough in the photos above is left over from a Christmas present and is not home made.) It is super easy-peasy to make, and only takes a few minutes. Best of all, the kiddos can help to make it, if you and they are so inclined! Our recipe is in this post from a couple years ago, along with instructions and pictures. Boy, I'd forgotten how little Jordan and Joey were then.

If you try out our play dough recipe, please come back and let me know if you liked it! :)

Yes, The Packaging Is STILL the Best Part!

When you were a small child, do you remember opening a gift, only to set it aside and play with the box? There is one Christmas that stands out in my memory because my mom got a large appliance of some sort, and my sister and I turned that box into a play house and spent hours in the front yard playing in it. I don’t even remember what the present was!

My children are the same way…they love a good box! Over the years we’ve turned boxes into houses, rocket ships, trains, and the like. Their cardboard sides have been used for crafts of all sorts. I’ve started doing more of our shopping on line, and whenever a package is delivered, I have several boys begging for rights to the box! But now, we’re finding that the packing box has another treasure to offer…cornstarch packing peanuts!




Yesterday when Joshua’s new grammar books arrived, I handed a few of the packing peanuts to the boys. They weren’t impressed, until I told them how to dampen the ends and stick them together. Then all hands flew to that box…they had so much fun building with them! It wasn’t a very big box, so the peanut supply was small and they were used up quickly. But oh, they were fun!




Another package was delivered this morning. It was so funny--as soon as I opened the box, the boys grabbed a few peanuts and licked them to see if they would stick! They were more excited about those peanuts (yes, they are the sticky kind, not boring ol’ styrofoam!) than they were about the can of yummy freeze-dried strawberries the peanuts were protecting. I put them away, telling the boys that we would build something with them once they finished their schoolwork. Nothing like a good incentive to keep them on task, right? I can’t wait to see what they will create this time!



Jordan's expression after licking a peanut...he decided he'd rather lick his finger and touch it to the peanut instead! The other boys didn't seem to mind the taste and licked away!




I’m thinking about ordering a big bag of these for the boys. I did a little bit of research, and you can buy colored ones, called Nuudles, specifically for kid’s crafts. Or you can order plain white ones from a packing company. They’re hard to compare price-wise, since the former are labeled with a piece count and the latter by cubic feet. I suspect that the plain ones from a shipping supply store will be less expensive, though. I’ll let you know what I find.




What would you do? Would you spend extra for the fun colors? Or would you stick with cheap basic white, knowing that your children would still have fun with them?

Preschool Activities

We are 8 school days into our new schedule and for the most part things are going well! The biggest change I've instituted is having everybody together at the table for an hour and 15 minutes in the mornings. Previously I had just Joshua and Jonathan at the table, and the other 3 boys would just play wherever they wanted. More often than not, that arrangement would lead to chaos and messes, and I would have to squeeze in Jordan's schooling during nap time.

Having everyone together is doing wonders as far as reducing the mess and chaos in our home, but it comes with it's own challenge: How do I keep 2 preschoolers, 4 years old and almost 2, sufficiently occupied (and preferably learning something!) during that time?

Last week I dug through the toys we have on hand and came up with several activities they could do at the table. We colored with crayons on blank paper, did lacing cards, strung wooden beads, and played with plastic counting bears. But since each activity holds their attention for only 15-20 minutes or so, I knew I needed to come up with more! I know there are many wonderful activities I can buy for them, and I probably will end up buying some, but for now I wanted to see what I could come up with using stuff I already have on hand.

Over the weekend I made 3 different simple activities: home made play dough, colored pasta, and just some simple cut-up squares of construction paper to glue mosaic-style onto plain paper. I've posted my play dough recipe before here. I colored the noodles using food coloring and rubbing alcohol. I played around with the proportions some so it's not exact, but basically ended up doing this:

1/8 c. alcohol
5-8 drops food coloring
1 c. dry noodles

Mix alcohol and food coloring in a ziplock bag. Add noodles, then squish them around in the liquid mixture for a few minutes. Then I lined a cookie sheet (with sides) with paper towels, scooped the noodles out of the baggie with a slotted spoon, and allowed them to dry overnight.

I made purple, red, yellow, and blue. I found that because of the pasta color, I actually ended up with an orangey-pink color, a brown-ish purple, a greenish color, and the yellow isn't much different from the original noodle color. Here is the finished product, ready for stringing, sorting, or whatever...


And here they are in action--Joseph and Josiah strung them first, then when that got old I gave them egg cartons to sort them in...





Joseph did a good job sorting them by color...


Here are the construction paper squares. I wrote their names really big on 11x17 paper and gave them each a glue stick. I showed them how to glue the squares on their name, but they ended up just gluing them everywhere...





These were some pom poms I had on hand. I've printed up some coloring sheets on the numbers 1-10 and we're learning a different number each day.





Josiah enjoyed the home made play dough...


As did Joseph...


I've been looking through a couple of catalogs for other activities. Before I jump in and start buying things, I want to see what else I can make with what I already have on hand. I'm thinking about trying to make a flannel board with felt items to "stick" on it, and maybe making up some matching/sorting/categorizing-type activities as well.

If any of you have any great ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Here's one last shot of my adorable Joseph having a great time with his play dough!