My girls love the tactile art experience that is sculpture–or, rather, they love goofing around with modeling clay and play dough of all kinds. Sometimes they’re really interested in creating a specific piece, and sometimes they simply enjoy feeling their hands moving through the material, I think, but for whatever reason they, like most kids, go through a lot of modeling material.
I tend to choose to make our modeling materials for a few reasons. I’m much happier spending a hour in the kitchen every few weeks mixing up several batches of natural play dough than I would be spending that hour driving to the store and back for Play Doh. My girls always help make whatever material I’m mixing up at the moment, which is a precious experience in itself, and also allows them to create exactly the color, scent, and texture that pleases them the most. The price difference between homemade and store-bought is unbelievable, and with homemade, there’s no plastic packaging to throw away and no artificial preservatives to worry about.
Whether you’re a complete homemade play dough newbie or you’re looking for the next exciting recipe for your little connoisseur, I think that you’ll be inspired by the following five recipes. With many of them, you’ll find that you already have all the ingredients in your pantry, so you’ll be able to get started right away!
The most basic natural play dough recipe is plain white flour play dough. You can mix it up super-cheap with the least expensive store-brand white flour that you can come up with, or go uber-natural with organic white flour. White flour play dough takes minutes to make, and kids universally love it.
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What fabulous recipes! I’m feeling inspired to create with my boys…
[...] materials: Homemade modeling materials made from natural ingredients, such as my homemade modeling beeswax, can be archival. In addition, homemade modeling materials can be made in greater variety, to [...]