Crafty Time With Natalie: How 3 Ingredients Saved my Playdate and my Sanity!

How 3 Ingredients Saved My Playdate and My Sanity

Last week was busy. In 7 days we had Mother’s Day festivities, two family shindigs, two field trips, ballet class, a preschool board meeting, a date night celebrating 8 years of marriage and four… yes, I said FOUR playdates. On the last playdate I was running out of activities for the group of 2-5 year olds. And then I remembered something my mother used to make when I was a kid: homemade playdoh! The little kids loved mashing it in true toddler style. They even taste-tested a few times and I let them! It’s made with baking ingredients and no coloring or unpronounceable chemicals! The older girls were very excited to make Initial Necklaces. Apparently they are all the rage in their preschool class! So I called my mom and got the really easy recipe. It is now tucked safely in the back of my cookbook for any future kid-boredom crisis!

What you will need:

¾ cup Salt

1 ½ cup Flour

¾ cup Water

Rolling pin

Cookie cutters

Baking sheet

Paint and/or glue & glitter or other embellishments!

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.

2. Mix salt, flour and water until dough forms a ball with a soft texture. Add more flour or water as needed. It should not stick to your fingers when touched.

3. Let the kids go wild with rollers, cookie cutters and toothpicks!

4. Place all shapes onto an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated oven.

5. Bake for 2 ½ hours.

6. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

7. Let the kids go wild again with paint, glitter and whatever else is on hand!

Things we learned:

The shapes baked through more completely when kept under a 1/2” thickness.

Uncooked dough in an airtight Ziploc bag was still good to go 5 days later.

This project was so much fun. I had five kids playing and creating for the better part of 2 hours! It is a really great thing to have in our “Mommy bag of tricks”. And with all the ingredients already in the kitchen-there is no planning involved-love that!

And lastly, I will leave you with my daughter’s “N” necklace that she made with so much care for me. Mr. Crafty Natalie was oh-so-happy to model it for all of you. See you next week!