Around this time last year, I texted Karen an adorable toddler handprint painted to look like Santa: "We're totally doing this with the kids." I invited her over a couple of weeks before Christmas, we made a batch of salt dough, I forced my daughter's clenched fists open, and pressed her tiny fingers into the mush.
Twelve months later, I'm standing in a sea of salt (toddler measuring and pouring is a messy task), and we're pressing little hands and feet into doughy goodness.
What is it about dough? What makes it so magical for toddlers to explore?
First of all, as it's name would suggest, the main point of play dough is "play". Most of the time when we hand Lucas and Chuck a ball of dough, we have nothing planned other than mushing around dough. All the motions-the smoothing, the rolling, the patting, the building- are a workout for little hands. This is an important part of developing fine motor skills.
The textural experience of different kinds of dough also encourages sensory exploration. Chuck wasn't so sure she liked dough the first time she touched it. It took her a little while to get used to. Her little hands had to get used to the way it felt. Lucas dove right in, making foot prints with an emphatic "ta da!"
This is how we came up with LuCk's Five Days of Dough! It's an integral part of our kid's sensory diet!
{Day 1}
This smooth white dough is perfect for ornament making! You can roll it out and make hand prints, use cookie cutters to create shapes! The best part about this dough is it's color. Thanks to the 2 Cups of baking soda it is almost pure white!
1 1/2 Cups of Water
2 Cups Baking Soda
1 Cup Cornstarch
In a pot, combine all the ingredients and stir over a medium heat. When the mixture starts to look like mashed potatoes, remove from the heat, and let it cool down.
Bake in a 175 degree oven until hard to the touch
{Day 2}
This dough is a classic! You almost always have all the right ingredients in your house to make it! It sturdy enough to last a couple of days (or weeks . . . ) in an airtight container.
If you decide you want to preserve your child's creations, simply air dry, or bake in a 200 deg F oven until hard
Recipe:
In a bowl, mix the following ingredients
1 Cup Salt
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Water
Stir until smooth
Day 3
{Elf Dough}
(aka Peppermint Sparkle Play Dough)
This is the classic LuCk Dough mixed with some peppermint oil and glitter.
We rolled it up in a ball, put it in a ziplock bag, and gave it to our friends at daycare!
{Day 4}
Shapes and Sizes
Sometimes it doesn't really matter what kind of dough you use, its what you make out of it! We like to "capture the moment" in dough with hand prints, foot prints, and any other kind of print you can think of.
Chuck likes to build snowmen and makes her dollies cakes. Let their imaginations soar! Dough can be anything!
{Day 5}
Tools Of The Trade
The kids are like Macgyver when it comes to finding things to mush into dough. Cookie cutters, trucks, spatulas - go search around your house to find things to create interesting patterns in your dough!
Watching the kids help us mix up the salt dough this year was a real treat! It's a fun way to mark how far their little minds have come in these last 12 months.
Watching the kids help us mix up the salt dough this year was a real treat! It's a fun way to mark how far their little minds have come in these last 12 months.
