Playdough - A Week of BLUE: Part 1

I absolutely LOVE spending time with my 2 year old boy 'B' - playing, creating, exploring, learning, having fun, laughing and generally making memories (as well as mess)! Since I am now working part time, our play time together has been dramatically cut. So, in an attempt to not miss out on too many of these wonderful moments, I'm trying to go for 'quality' rather than 'quantity'. Although we spend a lot of time in unstructured play, there are so many cool play materials and ideas around I know my son would love! My idea is that if I can be super organised and plan ahead - I might be able to have a little stock of activity and play space materials prepared and ready to go, so I can just whip out something fun and different for us to enjoy here and there around my work schedule.

To start this routine off, on a Sunday night, just before dinner, I decided on a BLUE week theme and set about preparing 3 activities. Why? Well, I think because we really haven't spent much time with colours specifically, and B seems more than ready to consolidate his understanding of at least the basic colours, including practising the words themselves!

In 20-30 minutes I was amazed how much I could get ready!

1. A batch of blue 'no cook' play dough wrapped and popped in the fridge, and a few blue 'play dough tools';

2. A bucket filled with blue objects collected from around the house suitable for a blue themed bath;

3. An ice cube tray filled with blue water - with a cut straw in each (to form little blue ice block boats)

B has always loved getting stuck into play dough. You can see our previous play dough exploration post here.

This blue dough and the blue objects/tools collected for the play dough fun were initially set up on the highchair tray (whilst a vacuum was being whizzed around underfoot and a bath prepared), however, it has been the perfect play 'kit' to bring out at anytime of day (well beyond the week for which is was intended!)

The play dough recipe:

1. Combine 2 cups plain flour and 1 cup salt,

2. Add food colouring to 1 cup of water (it may not all be needed),

3. Add the coloured water and a tablespoon of cooking oil to the flour/salt & knead well,

4. Add flour or water to get the right consistency (it shouldn't be too wet). 

The 'tools' we found: bottle tops, an old bank card, cookie cutters, spoon, rolling pin... You don't need much - even one bottle top would have been entertaining enough - rolling, stamping, turning upside down and imprinting, hiding, discovering, picking off the playdough to 'clean' it, cookie cutting shapes with it, ... all GREAT finger strength and manipulation practise!

So I joined in with him here and there - cheering him on, leaving him to do his own thing, letting him show me what he was discovering and creating, and taking instructions from him as to how he wanted me to participate. ..."Mama! dog!" - to make a cookie cutter dog shape...

For the most amazing collection of play dough recipes and inspiration - I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of the recently released e-book:  The Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book , from Nurture Store. It is jam packed with ideas for the entire year (and more!) of play dough fun, and perfect for anyone starting out with play dough or those who are already fans - just after some more inspiration!

I really hope you enjoyed this little post! ... You can check out part 2 and 3 of our busy mama's BLUE themed week activities by following the links below:
Easy blue bath time fun and A child led adventure with blue ice block boats!

Thanks for visiting Kids' Play Space!
'til soon,
happy playing!
Anna :-)

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