Homemade No Cook Playdough

Alexandra LOVES playing with Playdoh. Ever since she was about 2 she has loved it and each year at birthdays and Christmas she usually gets a new Playdoh set or tools (since it always seems to be on her wish list and I'm not going to lie - I like playing with it too!)

Now insert toddler brother who thinks everything that falls to the ground is food. I'm pretty sure he has already managed to eat a small piece of Playdoh so I figured I'd just make some homemade dough so that if he does get it into his  mouth it won't hurt him.

I found dozens of dough recipes on Pinterest so I just started trying different ones. So far my favorite is the 4 minute no cook recipe over at The Imagination Tree because let's face it, I'm a busy mom and the quicker the better and it's super easy to make!!! And another added bonus was that I usually always have the ingredients in my pantry!

Here are the basic ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2 TBSP cream of tartar
up to 2 cups of boiling water

Optional Ingredients:
food coloring
few drops of glycerine (makes it more shiny)

Directions: 
Mix the flour, salt, oil, and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl
Add the boiling water
Stir until it becomes a sticky ball of dough
Add food coloring and glycerine if you like
Let it cool and then take it out of the bowl and knead it until the stickiness is gone
Add flour as needed if it is still sticky after kneading
Have fun playing!!

I Spy

I've read all over about sensory bins and I have wanted to make one for Little Bug for a while. Well this wasn't a sensory bin per say  but it was fun for her to dig through some rice to find the letters of her name. I hid foam letters for her name and then threw in some colored pasta to challenge her. She had a fun time finding her name and lining up the letters. She already knows how to spell her name but practicing can never hurt. We were able to work on letter recognition (again she knows her letters but practice is key!) and so she would say each letter when she would find it. When she would put the letters upside down  I would have her look through and see if the foam letters matched the ones I wrote. 

I thought she would enjoy digging her hands into the rice but she preferred to use her spoon. Then she hid the letters for me to find and I wanted to use my hands and she insisted I use the spoon - she thought I was "cheating" by using my hands!

C is for Cloud

We talked about different types of clouds this week. Little bug loves looking clouds to find animals or other things. We'll be driving in the car and she'll say "Look Mommy - that looks like a dragon!" Glad she has a great imagination! Well she can tell  you what a cumulus cloud is and is very observant if the clouds are grey in the sky. As a craft we made a cumulus cloud with cotton balls.

After we made the cloud craft Little Bug did some weather jigsaw puzzles online and then we had a cloud race. We used a cotton ball and a straw and we raced by blowing air into the straw to move the cotton ball. I used this game also to teach Little Bug about good sportsmanship because she is obsessed with winning. God forbid my cotton ball got ahead of hers ! So I won on purpose once just to show her it's just a game, it's ok to lose, and to be a good sport. So another time I won again and this time around she said - good job mommy!

Her cloud craft 

 Some puzzles - she is getting good at using my laptop mouse! 

Cloud Race

Make Your Own Pop-up Book

Little bug has some pop up books that she likes to look at. Did you know you can make your own pop up books at home? Sure, they aren't as sturdy but it still works the same way! You could make up your own stories and characters or use it as a review book for colors, shapes, etc.