Magnents and Play Dough

Poor Molly has a hard time each day.  I spend a lot of my day telling her "not now" or "stop" so I have been trying really hard to give her things to do while we do school work each day.

Lately Molly has been enamored with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book.  I have been reading it often and she has been requesting the DVD as well.  One day while exploring the game closet she found a bag full of magnetic letters.  She quickly added them to the fridge and was singing  "a told b and b told c, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree" but of course her version was more "a..b... up coconut tree".

Later in the week I went to a Relief Society craft night and came home with a new nativity magnet set to play on the fridge. Molly has had a good time rearranging them on the fridge, the dishwasher and I even found Mary and Joseph on the oven at one point.

This one will stay on the fridge for awhile.  And so far it has kept her busy while I make dinner.

And for the first time in my life I actually made play dough.  I don't know how cost effective it is since the recipe I used called for Cream of Tarter and that stuff is expensive especially if you need a quarter cup of it. But the play dough was so smooth and it was nice to only have one color.  My kids all loved playing with it especially since I had just cooked it and it was still warm.

I broke out all the play dough toys too. That isn't something I do often. I just hate having to clean up the play dough mess.

Maybe play dough will have to be our new Rainy day activity. I know my kids love it and I do have a very nice big batch of bright pink dough now.

Plenty for all to have a large blob.

 

I know Molly would love to play with it everyday but I don't know if I am up for that yet. 

If you need a good Play dough recipe, this is what I did.

2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1/4 cup Cream of tarter

1/4 cup oil

food coloring or even paint (I just used food coloring)

Heat on the stove in a large pot. Fold the flour over and over making sure the bottom is pulled up to the top. After about 5 min. it should be stiff and well mixed.  Dump it out on a floured counter and kneed it (when it is cool enough to touch) for awhile until very smooth.  Then play and play.

Keep in a air tight container and it should stay moist for a number of months.

I am trying to keep Molly better occupied while I help the others with school. It isn't easy and she often gets pushed aside and as a result she is rather crabby so I am trying to make sure she gets read to and played with each day but also that she is given things to do while I am needed elsewhere.