Friday, November 27, 2009

The value of playdough

I went to my 4 year old's kinder AGM last night....yahoo I hear you say and yes, you'd be right. (I also brought my knitting so it wasn't all bad.)

But one thing I do remember the kinder teacher talking about was the value of playdough. As in it's value as a play material, rather than it's monetary value of course.

She said you could take a cranky, out of sorts, having a bad day child, sit them down at the playdough table and after a short while they'd be happily rolling and squishing.
According to her, playdough is somewhat undervalued by today's parents and many children don't have any in their homes.

You're kidding, right?

Tell me you had playdough at home growing up. Tell me your KIDS have playdough at home right now.

Playdough is an essential part of child hood.........if only so you can roll it into small balls and fire them at your brother.

However, I had my very own cranky, out of sorts, having a bad day, got out of the wrong side of bed, mummy never lets me do ANYTHING I want four year old very recently.

After trying to entice him out of his foul mood by the offer of making new playdough and being soundly rebuffed, I made it with his lil bro instead. Only to find after a very short while Mr 4 could not resist getting out the muffin pans along with lil bro and making a batch of cupcakes, just like mummy.

He thawed out remarkably
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And was even happy to pose while pretending to eat one
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Whereas this little guy actually DID eat one...
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My sis has a no-cook playdough recipe on her blog here.

The one I generally use though is this:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Throw it all in a pot, mix and stir over a medium heat till cooked.
Takes about 5-7 minutes and works every time.
Store in an airproof container or in a plastic bag with all the air squished out.

6 comments:

Louisa said...

Yep, that's the recipe we use too - I still have Mum's original handwritten copy somewhere! And it is magical - my kids still love it at 11, 8 and 6 and the neighbour's 11 and 12 yr olds seem to appear out of nowhere whenever it is out. Keeps well in the fridge for months.

Laura @ Our Wee Farm said...

Oh you've got to have playdough - even if you're an adult with no kids!
I used to make the no cook recipe all the time when I was teaching - everyone loved it.

Charlotte Scott said...

That's funny - about a week ago, I tried to bribe my cranky out-of-sorts etc 5 year old with making new playdough. NO. But sure enough, once I'd made it with his little sister, guess who was joining in?!

Kath Lockett said...

OF COURSE we had playdough made, I'm pretty sure, to the same recipe (that's also on the back of Cream of Tartar packets). Mum'd put a few drops of food colouring in it, set up our playtable with some of her big spoons and biscuit cutters and away we'd go.

We never had the bought stuff and neither did Sapph. I was a bit more heavy handed with the food colouring though, so she had Chernobyl blue, searingly hot pink and retina-roasting red.

Mandee said...

We LOVE playdough! I have to agree though that a lot of parents don't let their kids have playdough b/c it's messy. I have bought playdough for nieces and nephews and cousins before only to be told that it would be put up and that I was going to be paid back for this! I thought it was a nice gift! We love making playdough as well. What a cheap and fun form of entertainment..much better than video games or television! :)

Cuggles! Kids said...

Oh of course we have playdough! (Made by a girlfriend who sells it I must admit, it's glitterised and cinnamon scented though and she does such a good job). PS. Cat JB, have nominated you for a Kreativ Blogger award. Just check my post of today. : )

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