Pinterest Find | Homemade Play Dough

Every now & again I go on a pinning spree over on Pinterest. I mostly search through it all to pick out some interesting recipes to try & inspiration for various crafts. The other day I stumbled across this recipe for play dough & why play dough is beneficial activity & I just knew I had to try it out. 

The very first things I looked forward to when I learned I was pregnant was being able to buy & play with play dough in the near future without feeling like a strange 24-year-old playing with children's toys by herself. The closer he's gotten to the recommended minimum age, the more excited I've gotten (he still likes to put things in his mouth, & I wouldn't feel comfortable with him eating the name-brand stuff). Naturally, when I found this recipe compiled of pantry ingredients & Jell-o, I jumped all over it!

We had everything except the Jell-o on hand already, & you probably do to!

Cyrus absolutely loved being right along side, helping me the entire time (even during clean up!). He held all the measuring utensils while I poured the ingredients in them, & then dumped them into the pot when I let him know it was okay to. He was so eager to start mixing it all up.

After we were able to mix almost all of the floury dry lumps away, I put the pot on the stove & took over mixing while he watched from a safe distance away. It was slow going, even for my stove, but eventually...

...it all came together beautifully!

After about half an hour of cooling, the moment I'd been waiting for since Cyrus was conceived had finally arrived.

Cyrus loved the play dough a lot more than he did the air-dry clay from last week. Probably because this was a lot more pliable & soft compared to the clay. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience as well, especially the smell! This stuff smells very similar to the store-bought kind (at least from what I remember), plus there was a nice hint of grape from the the Jell-o! Another great part about this recipe was the cost. We only used one box of Jell-o, even though I had bought 4 & thoroughly intended to make it all today; there was just no need to because of how much one batch makes! What you see Cyrus playing with in his chair is only a fraction of what this recipe makes. 

Do you have any favorite homemade recipes for playtime?

Outside in our Pajamas

The Alex Magnetic Tabletop Easel is easily one of the best purchases we've made for Cyrus to date. We picked it up at a silent charity auction while I was still pregnant & visiting family in Virginia.

I love that it's a tabletop easel instead of a full-size floor easel, especially since we're currently residing in a small apartment. It allows us the option to hide it away easily & to set it up wherever we currently have space, which is most often outside.

The artist side of me is absolutely ecstatic that he enjoys drawing, coloring, & exploring with his hands. I don't want to force him into doing something he doesn't like, but I can't say that I wouldn't be proud if art became one of his passions in life (that said, I'll be proud no matter what he decides to do!).

He's quite the multimedia kid at the moment, switching from dry-erase crayons one moment, to chalk  the next. If it was warmer outside, he'd be stripped down to his diaper with a paintbrush in hand. Speaking of dry-erase crayons, can I just rave about them for a moment? I absolutely love them. They come with an eraser cloth instead of one of those fuzzy pads, which is easily thrown in with the wash when they get used up. It takes a bit of elbow grease to get a drawing erased (it's easier if you let it sit for a bit), but that's alright, Cyrus doesn't seem mind.

I can't wait until he starts drawing actual things instead of just scribbling. Don't get me wrong, I love the scribbles! But I'm really excited to get a peak into how his little mind works & the way he interprets the world. It'll be wonderful to help stoke the flames of his imagination, especially since the artistic language is one that I am quite fluent in (if I do say so myself).

What types of art activities get your children excited?

Let's break this in, shall we?

There's no easy way to start this, so I'll jump right into it as if I've been posting forever.

Cyrus found the air-drying clay that I completely & totally forgot that I bought when he was much younger (before I knew about the wonders of all-things salt dough). He had no idea what it was, but of course knew that he had to play with it immediately. Which is exactly what we did!

He had an enormous amount of fun digging & gouging with the plastic knife. Unfortunately, we don't currently have any cookie cutters (blasphemy!), so I couldn't have him cut out any shapes. But he did enjoy smashing the clay using an old knob puzzle piece.

I decided to make the ornaments while he carried on in his exploration because, hey, why not? Along with not having cookie cutters, we don't have a rolling pin either! But a good ol' metal can (filled with artichoke hearts, hum) did the trick just fine. I was actually quite surprised that he let me squish his little hands into the clay & actually stayed put for it. The only unfortunate thing about the Crayola air-dry clay is that it takes a few days to dry, so painting these ornaments will have to be another day's activity, but that's all right.

Once they're painted, the two hand ornaments will go do his grandparents & the Christmas tree will stay here with us because I spent a good amount of time free-handing that thing.