Engaging children in kitchen activities is not just about preparing food; it’s a gateway to developing essential skills. Following a recipe, for instance, is a fun way to enhance literacy, math, and science competency. Sometimes, we enjoy kitchen science activities outside of the food preparation arena, such as making playdough. Making playdough at home is a cost-effective option and a great way to reinforce those kitchen skills. Plus, it’s a guaranteed boredom buster for kids of all ages, even our teen occasionally joins in the fun.

Allow me to share a personal journey. Our teen has a rare genetic diagnosis that caused him to have lower muscle tone. When he was younger, he faced challenges with fine motor skills due to having the lower tone. In occupational therapy, we discovered that playing with playdough was a beneficial strategy to strengthen some of those muscles. By kneading and rolling out the dough, he was able to develop the small muscles in his fingers and hands. If your child is struggling with scissor skills, you can encourage them to roll out a thin stretch and practice cutting through it. This was especially helpful for us and paved the way in preparing him for cutting on paper. Another thing we learned in OT was that he could build and manipulate the playdough to shape the capital letters of the alphabet. The Handwriting Without Tears curriculum we used for handwriting (developed by an occupational therapist) taught this approach to learning about letter formation. The kid is so busy having fun, they don’t tend to realize that they are working too! We found this to be a helpful for learning how to “write” letters before our kiddos were necessarily developmentally ready to hold the pencil properly to write on paper.

Playdough is very inexpensive to buy at the store. But sometimes the kids get bored and need something to do, helping to make it is part of the fun for our guys. Most of the ingredients are staples that you may have on hand anyway. Our little ones like to help measure and stir (we use caution and encourage supervision if you let them help at the stove of course). I found the following recipe on Living Well Mom. She has a choice of 1, 2, or 3 servings. I use the one-serving amount and split it into three sections for each of our children, which is more than enough for them to enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

I’ve found that there are two ways to go about preparation. One can either combine the ingredients per the instructions below on the stovetop or combine the dry ingredients and vegetable oil and then mix with boiling water (if you want to make the playdough a color, you can add food coloring to the boiled water)

1. Mix all the ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan.
2. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring.
3. Continue stirring until the mixture is thickened and begins to gather around the spoon.
4. Remove the dough onto wax paper or a plate to cool.
5. Cool the playdough completely before storing it in a Ziploc baggie or sealed container.

We usually keep our homemade playdough for a couple of months without any issues, but it’s a good idea to inspect it periodically to make sure that it’s still good. The salt and the cream of tartar act as preservatives to keep the playdough from spoiling.

Let me know if you try this and what you and your kiddos think of the final product. I hope that you all enjoy it as much as we do!