end of summer doldrums

Luckily we have one more trip planned before school starts up- but the end of summer has started to get the best of some in the family.  Whining and squabbling and complaining... ugggh!
We needed something to get us out of the summer doldrums.
So...

the kids and I found some fun activities to change things up a bit...

Activity #1

Homemade Play Dough

makes about 2.5 Cups

1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 cups of salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 TB vegetable oil
1/2 TB cream of tarter
*food coloring - I use the liquid kind

Mix all of the ingredients into a saucepan. Add the food coloring to your liking. Set your stove top to medium-low (about a 2.5 on a glass top stove). Stand by the pan and stir occasionally. When the batter look is gone and the ingredients start staying together when you stir (5-8 minutes), remove the pan from the heat. Lay out some wax paper and scoop play dough onto the wax paper. I can usually start kneading right away, but make sure that you check the dough for heat - you don't want to burn yourself!

Once the dough has been kneaded into a nice texture, place in an airtight zip lock.

We did this one night when Ryan was out of town for work and the kids loved it.  The thought of cooking it up on the stove and squeezing just the right amount of food coloring in to get the perfect color was exciting.  And each batch turned out huge and super vibrant in color.  It was fun for them to feel the dough warm.  They kneaded it and played with it for a couple hours using all sorts of fun tools. It has become a summer favorite and kept in an airtight bag has stayed soft and squishy.

 

More activities to come :)