Making your own playdough can be a delightful and rewarding activity for both parents and children, offering a host of benefits beyond the simple joy of crafting.
One of the primary advantages to making your own playdough is the opportunity for creative expression and imagination. By choosing your own colors, experimenting with different scents, and even adding in fun additions like glitter, children can engage in a hands-on process that stimulates their creativity, tantalizes their senses and encourages self-expression.
Additionally, the act of making your own playdough involves measuring and mixing ingredients which fosters early math and science skills as children learn about proportions and chemical reactions in a playful context.
Learning through sensory play, especially with materials like playdough, is crucial for a child’s overall development. The tactile experience of squishing, rolling, and shaping the dough provides valuable sensory input, enhancing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The different textures and colors of the materials contribute to the development of sensory awareness, promoting cognitive growth.
I also love the flexibility of playdough to further engage their minds in imaginative play by allowing my children to explore and understand various concepts such as spatial relationships, symmetry, and cause-and-effect, laying a foundation for more complex cognitive skills for homeschooling in the future.
Overall, the process of creating and playing with homemade playdough provides a rich and multi-faceted learning experience that supports a child’s holistic development! Plus, it’s just plain FUN!
The BEST No-Cook Playdough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (substitutes listed below)
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (substitutes listed below)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (substitutes listed below)
- optional: food coloring for color
- optional: essential oils for scent
Directions
- Bring 1 cup of water to a boil
- Meanwhile, add flour, cream of tartar, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Stir until well mixed.
- If adding coloring, add 4-8 drops of food coloring to the flour mixture.
- If adding scents, add 4-10 drops of essential oils to the flour mixture.
- Pour the boiling water into your flour mixture bowl.
- Mix until well combined.
Substitutes:
Cream of Tartar
Cream of Tartar can be expensive from the grocery store, so I recommend if you are planning to make play dough more than once, grab the Good Belly Cream of Tartar on Amazon for only $4.15 ($0.83/ Ounce)
Alternatively, if you are anxious to make play dough today and don’t have the ability to grab some cream of tar tar, you can substitute lemon juice or vinegar for the cream of tartar. Just be sure to strain out the pump and seeds! 😉
GF Flour
Got celiac? You can substitute regular wheat flour for all-purpose gluten free flour. I recommend Bob’s Mills GF 1 to 1 Flour over King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour. It just works better and produces a less crumbly play dough.
Oil
I recommend using the cheapest oil you can, since you aren’t eating it! Alternatively, you can use olive oil or avocado oil if that’s all you have on hand. Only use coconut oil if you live in a warm climate or it’s summer, otherwise your play dough won’t stay soft! I personally love using fractionated liquid coconut oil! This works awesome and softens their little hands wonderfully, but is a little more expensive than other options.
Optional Colors and Add-Ins!
Hot Cocoa Playdough
Add 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix!) and optionally add 4-6 drops of Hot Chocolate Hug essential oil blend to the flour mixture before adding the boiling water. You can use the essential oil blend in addition to the cocoa powder to really enhance the smell or as a sub for the cocoa powder.
Candy Cane Playdough
Before adding the water to your flour mixture, separate it equally into two bowls. Add 2-4 drops of red food coloring to one and none to the other. Add 4-6 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil to both mixtures and then add your boiling water to both equally.
Christmas Tree Playdough
Add 4-6 drops of green food coloring (or more for a deeper color) and 2-4 drops of any woodsy smelling essential oil blend to the flour mixture before adding the boiling water. Spruce, Pine Essential Oil and Balsam Fir are my personal favorites!
Sparkling Snowflake Playdough
Add 1-3 drops of blue food coloring and 2-4 drops of Winter Wonderland Essential Oils Blend to the flour mixture before adding the boiling water. (Alternatively you can use peppermint essential oil or cinnamon for this as well.) You can also add in white, silver, or blue glitter to your finished playdough and knead until well incorporated.
Sugar Cookie Playdough (no color)
Ran out of food coloring? No essential oils in your house? No worries! Just add 1 tsp of vanilla to the base playdough recipe and voila, you’ve got Sugar Cookie Playdough!
As a mom of almost 17 years now, I’ve made a LOT of homemade play dough over the years. I personally prefer the texture and longevity of the no-cook playdough recipes and this is the best no-cook playdough recipe in the world.
Which scented play dough are you going to try first?!
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