The Easiest Homemade Play-Doh Recipe

 Now that it's getting colder, finding indoor activities is a priority. I loved crafts as a kid and it's far easier for the kids to not fight with each other and color on the carpet if they have something to engage with. Playdoh is a pretty compelling activity in our household, as is baking. Bringing these things together and letting the kids customize their portions with their own colors seemed to captivate them even longer than usual. From start to finish, I think making and playing with their creations occupied them fight-free for more than two hours. Plus, they actually made something and used their imaginations, rather than tapping things on an iPad. I let them each add different ingredients, which meant they also got a minor math lesson as well as the motor skills of pouring and mixing. Here's how we did it!

The Easiest Homemade Play-Doh Recipe

2 cup flour
1 cup table salt

1.5 cups water
1 Tablespoon oil

Food coloring

Whisk the dry ingredients together, then drizzle the wet ingredients over. I let each kid gently mix the ingredients with a spatula before I finished up by mixing it together by hand.

Then, we separated the dough into four portions and put them in plastic bags. I added six drops of food coloring to each and let them knead the color in in the bag. Eventually, I took the dough out and finished incorporating the colors before handing it over to them, because that stuff won't come out of clothes or skin for some time.

This stuff is not shelf stable, so it's good for one play session only. The kids used forks, rollers, strainers and other utensils for at least an hour. A favorite game was hiding a small toy in a ball of dough and then letting the other kid unveil it.

Enjoy!