Showing posts with label kids activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids activities. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Homemade Play Dough


Making your own play dough is an excellent opportunity to keep the kiddos busy and have fun with them at the same time. Its easy, affordable, and fun!!

I have 2 different recipes for you, one with cream of tartar and one without. Cream of tartar is supposed to help with the elasticity  and longer shelf life, but I have made both recipes (with and without) with great results. Cream of Tartar can be expensive, at the supermarket it was almost $5 for a 2 ounce jar, but, that will give you enough for 4 recipes.

Here are the recipes.

Homemade Play Dough (with cream of tartar)

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
  • Food coloring
  • Saucepan
  • 1 cup flour
  • Gloves



  • Directions
    Combine flour, oil, salt, cream of tartar in a saucepan.
    Add water and mix. Cook under medium heat stirring constantly.


    You will see that the dough starts to form.


     Keep stirring until the dough forms a ball without sticking to the sides of the saucepan.

    Almost There!
    Nice tidy ball, clean sides!


    Transfer to a bowl to cool. 


    Once is cool enough to handle, divide in 3 pieces. Flatten them out a bit and add a few drops of food coloring. I used gel food coloring. With the gloves on, knead until color is uniform. 
    When ever we are working with a potential mess, I put some paper and  plastic wrap to help clean up.


    Store this dough in an airtight container or a Ziploc freezer bag.

    Add some glitter for some fun!



    To make without the cream of tartar, substitute the cream of tartar with baking soda and follow the same cooking instructions. When cooking make sure to remove from heat and immediately transfer to a bowl. This is important to avoid overcooking it, if you leave it on the hot saucepan, the residual heat will continue to cook it. Do this as soon as the dough cleans itself from the saucepan as you stir it.

    Now have fun with the kiddos!!

    xoxo
    Hecmi


    Tuesday, May 28, 2013

    Homemade Slime Recipe Tutorial ( With Borax)

    Great tutorials to make with the kiddos!!




    If you can't find Borax don't worry,  I will be making soon a version without it.
    If your kiddos have sensitive skin or if you don't want them handling Borax, you can still get them involved by helping you set everything up and making the glue mix while you (or any adult ) handle the Borax mix. 


    Here is what you will need.


    1 tablespoon of Borax
    1 1/2 cups of water
    1/2 of white glue (like Elmer's Glue )
    2 or 3 bowls (if you use only 2, make sure one can hold over 2 cups of liquid)
    Food coloring of your choice
    Spoon



    First on one bowl, mix the glue with half a cup of water. If you wish to color your slime, now is the time. Keep in mind food coloring is concentrated (a little goes a long way) and that you will be adding more liquid to the mix which could lighten the color a bit.

    On the second bowl mix one cup of water with the tablespoon of borax. Make sure is completely diluted.




    Pour the two mixtures together and stir, stir, stir!






    Stir quickly, it sets fast!


    Now separate the slime from remaining liquid, there will always be left over liquid. Squeeze all the water out and knead for a while. 


    There is my little helper! ;-)


    To store it use a zip bag or airtight container.

    Make sure to not let your kids mix the slime with play dough, or it will became a watery mess. Learned it the hard way.

    Enjoy! 

    xoxo

    Hecmi