Homemade Playdough — What the What?!

I know what you’re thinking. No one actually makes playdough, right? Wrong. I 100% made playdough this week. It’s a stage of motherhood that I’ve weirdly been looking forward to.

You see, my mom worked at a daycare during my early childhood. She knows all of the tricks of keeping kids entertained for close to zero dollars. And she made close to a million batches of playdough. Not an exaggeration. It’s imprinted in my mind like the alphabet.

To say that I loved playing with freshly-made and still a little warm playdough is an understatement. I remember rubbing it on my face and inhaling its smell with abandon as a kid. Maybe I was the weird kid in preschool. Maybe not. Who really can tell.

Although, I can tell you that the same thing may have happened the other night when I made it for Evie. It was like I was smelling my childhood.

I didn’t realize just how easy playdough would be to make. In fact, I already had all of the ingredients on hand and whipped up a batch in just a few minutes. I halved the recipe because I wasn’t sure if Evie would really know what to do with it. 

Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
A few drops of food coloring of your choice

Directions:
Mix everything together. Done.

Not too difficult, eh? Occasionally, my mom would color it using kool-aid. But I feared that would make it seem irresistibly tasty to a 1.5 year old that wants to put everything in her mouth. So, we just used good old fashioned food coloring.

How did Evie like it?

She’s taken more and more to it each time we sit down to play. Now she’s rolling it into little balls and laughing maniacally as she smashes them. It’s entertaining for both of us. And surprisingly, she’s only eaten a small amount.