When I was growing up Mama made a lot of my stuff and although I wasn’t okay with it at the time — because I thought other kids would think I was weird — my favorite memories are playing with the homemade doll closet, play dough and learning to cook. As I got older, life experience taught me about the things that really matter. I appreciate those things much more.

Since my oldest was in pre-school we have been making play dough (we have store bought sometimes too). Here is the time tested recipe that we use. It uses simple ingredients and today, we added essential oils to make it scented. It also doesn’t take very long at all and keeps her busy! Sometimes I let my daughter measure and scoop the ingredients for a bonus session for Fine Motor skills.

Homemade Play Dough

1 cup of flour

1 cup of water

1/3 cup of salt

1 Tablespoon of oil

2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar

Food Coloring (optional)*

Essential Oils (optional)**

1. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan.*

2. Cook over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture forms a ball. (It will be lumpy at first, keep stirring!)

3. When cool enough to touch, knead until smooth.

4. Let cool on wax paper for about 30 minutes. Store in baggies or air tight containers.

* If you want to make smaller portions of different colored dough like we do, don’t add the food coloring to the sauce pan. Then follow cooking instructions. Before the kneading step, divide into desired amounts and add desired colors of gel food coloring to each ball.

**Add essential 2-3 drops of essential oils during the kneading step.

Note: The food coloring will get on your hands, but if you keep kneading it will come off of your hands and work back into the dough. Wash your hands between batches to prevent muddy colors if there is any left on your hands.