Edible Play Dough Time

Toddler ages: 22 months, 22 months, 3.5 years

Materials you'll need:
-flour
-oatmeal
-food coloring (optional)
-cookie cutters
-butter knives
-rolling pin

So yesterday I promised I would be posting about our edible play dough experience, and because I had promised, I couldn't shirk my responsibilities. However, we actually didn't get around to our activity until about 6:00 in the evening. Thus, it was a family event, not just a 3 three and under event, but still counts!

I have to tell you, this was definitely a 5-star activity. The first site I googled was THIS SITE, called Family Corner dot com, where I found not one, but TEN recipes for edible play dough! They ranged from Jell-O play dough, to chocolate play dough, but I had to be choosy for my twins. After careful study, I choose oatmeal play dough. This was an absolutely perfect play dough for my family. Here's why...

1. It is made with only oatmeal, flour and water, so it doesn't taste good.
2. If someone did decide to eat it, it would be perfectly safe, even healthy!
3. This dough did not easily become mashed into the carpet, but was so easy to clean up, as you will see.

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
4 cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
2 cups water (or more)
Food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients, then knead dough for about ten minutes adding water until desired consistency. However, if you are the designated kneader, be prepared for some messy hands...



Here are the play dough manipulation tools we used...



...and here's how this play dough can be enjoyed...(please excuse the over-abundance of flash photography. I have no good lighting in my house at night.)

You can stab it with your butter knife...




...and get really happy when you can pick it up with your butter knife...



...and get just as happy when it falls off your butter knife...



You can roll it out and make fun shapes...(Incidentally, this dough can be left out to harden or baked, then painted. We just weren't that ambitious)




You can make it into balls...



...and throw your balls up into the air...




You can try to get someone to eat it...



...but just as I had anticipated, no one would...



You can certainly make a mess with it...



...but as long as you have a broom and a vacuum handy, making a mess is no problem!



When we were done with the fun, we put the play dough in a ZipLoc bag in the fridge for more TV-free toddler time another day! Hope you have as much fun with this as we did! Thanks for listening.