Home made playdough

*note* cashews and peanut butter DON'T go together (blech). Now back to your regularly scheduled post.

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now but haven't gotten around to it. My daughter and I (well mostly me but she did get to stir and dump in some of the ingredients) made our own playdough and it was lots of fun. We used 4 half packets of koolaid (no sugar) for the coloring and they had the added bonus of making the dough smell yummy. Just be warned it tastes nothing like it smells, although since it is homemade from normal stuff it probably won't hurt your little ones to sample it. If they are the adventurous sort they may even sample it more than once... or twice... or three times. I am not sure how many times it took before my little bear decided it didn't really taste very good after all, but eventually she stopped sampling it. This is the recipe I used:
Best Ever Playdough Recipe.

I don't remember if we doubled the recipe but now that I think about it I am pretty sure we did because I still have a lot of playdough in the back of the fridge and It seems like way more than 2 cups of flour's worth.

We mixed up all the dry ingredients and split them into four bowls of more or less equal amounts. Then we added a half packet of koolaid to each of the bowls. If you are the sort that has to measure everything exactly, well then I recommend you do so if you don't want to have to play around with the amounts. As it was, we had to add a little more flour to some and a little more water to others, but my little one just thought that made it all the more fun.

Then we boiled our water in a big glass measuring cup in the microwave (no I didn't let her help with this or with the playdough while it was hot. Oh wait, I let her stir a little... but I am sure it had cooled down at least some by then...) and poured 1/4 of it into each bowl. Sorry I didn't get better pictures of the whole process. I think it was the whole hot-liquid-within-less-than-an-arm's-reach-of-a-toddler thing that prevented me from doing so.

Then stir to form dough and when cool enough knead with your hands to get the texture smooth.

That's it! I don't necessarily think it is any cheaper than regular playdough (the cream of tarter tends to be expensive) but it is edible if your kids are prone to eating such things, and my daughter really enjoyed making it as much as she now enjoys playing with it. Scratch that, I think she liked making it MORE than she likes playing with it now.
Is there a smudge of purple on the corner of that little mouth? She certainly looks awfully pleased with herself doesn't she...

We keep ours in a big freezer bag in the back of the fridge. It has lasted 2 months so far although I did split the colors in half to keep some un-played with so that it would last longer. Also if it starts to get a little dry just spray it with a little water from a spray bottle, or add a few drops and work it in as you play with it. Also, the grape flavor came out greyish, not really purple, but my daughter didn't seem to mind. If you really must have purple I would try those neon food coloring drops in purple. The regular blue and red together make a greyish color as well.