Homemade Play Dough

I love making homemade play dough, but have gone through many recipes to find just the right one. Too many of them end up being very gritty from the salt and dry out extremely fast. This recipe is a keeper because it is smooth, moist, and even smells good. It uses all ingredients you probably already have in you kitchen and is quick to make.

2 1/2 Cups flour
1 Cup salt
2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Cups boiling water

Mix all dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Carefully knead until well mixed. (I usually let the kids help as soon as the dough is cool) Store in a zip lock bag or air tight container and it will last about 2 weeks.

K loves to play house right now, so we use our play dough to make cookies or pizza. She picks out two or three kitchen utensils to use when she plays play dough.

Other ideas for playing with play dough:

- Put marbles in the dough to help develop fine motor skills by having child remove all the marbles from the play dough.

- Make simple flash cards with shapes, letters, or numbers and have the child create the image using the play dough to help with early literacy skills.

- Make different colors and mix small balls of dough together to learn about mixing colors. The book Mouse Paint would be perfect to read to go with this activity.

- For older kids make up a list of words/phrases and play 'pictonary' using the dough to create the word/phrase for other people to guess.

- Just use your imagination and have fun!