Play Dough with a Twist

Shop-bought play dough is handy to have in the cupboard, but you don’t get much in a pot, so it doesn’t stretch far if you have a few kids to entertain or you run a playgroup. Meanwhile, homemade play dough is cheap and easy to make, so you can make it in bulk, and thanks to its salt content will keep for months in an airtight container. If you’ve made your own play dough before, you’ve probably dyed it various shades, but have you considered additions that give your dough an aroma? As sensory play is about stimulating all the senses, making scented play dough is an option to stimulate your little ones’ sense of smell. There are lots of possibilities for how you can add aroma to your play dough using various flavourings, but at this month’s messy play group in St Bees I used lemon, mint and cinnamon.

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Simply add two cups of flour, one cup of salt and two tablespoons of oil to a bowl, along with your chosen flavouring. To this add one and a half cups of boiling water and your preferred food colouring. Then mix everything together and your dough is ready for play!

If your tots still put everything in their mouth, salty play dough recipes like this one aren’t suitable, as it’s easy for babies and toddlers to quickly overdose on salt, which can be toxic. Instead, you can make bread dough for them to play with, which you can still colour and add flavourings to.