Toddler Fun - Cloud Dough Recipe

We are not really stay at home types here, we are very much out and about, meeting for coffee, soft play, lunch, play date sort of people. I find it quite difficult to spend a full day in the house and inevitably we end up a little bored and restless and shouty. I do wish I was more of a homebody, keeping a perfect home while simultaneously planning educational toddler activities, but alas, thats just not me.

I do follow a lot of pages and blogs that share hundreds of great messy play, crafty and super fun play ideas for pre-schoolers, which in theory look awesome, but in reality never turn out right or I spend ages planning and she doesn't show the slightest bit of interest.

Anyway, last week I had a day off work, which coincided with waiting in for a plumber to come and 'fix' our washing machine (it was unfixable, sigh) so we were housebound, and I was determined not to spend it restless and shouty.

So I took to my facebook page (have you liked my facebook page yet? *wink*) to ask for ideas for activities to keep us sane. I got lots of great ideas, but decided to try and create some homemade play dough, known as cloud dough. It looked really fun and a bit messy (instant toddler hit) but also not really difficult or time consuming (Instant mummy hit).

Needless to say it was a huge hit with Zoe, she loved squishing and making imprints with her hands, I also dug out some cookie cutters, a mini rolling pin and various bowls and containers I had laying around. We squished and rolled and made shapes for nearly an hour, which is pretty impressive for a 15 month olds attention span. After about 50 minutes she started smooshing it into carpet and trying to eat it, so I called it a day, but I popped it into a zip lock bag so hopefully it'll last a little while.

Ingredients
Cornflour
Conditioner (I used cheap coconut conditioner from Aldi, but any will do)
Food colouring

I didn't follow any specific measurements, just added a bit of flour and conditioner into a mixing bowl, and kept adding and mixing until it reached the perfect consistency (I used a spoon until it was kneadable).
I divided into 3 equal balls and added food colouring, depending on the depth of colour and amount of food colouring, you might need a bit more flour, to counteract the moisture... Just keep playing until it perfect.

The bonus of this 'cloud dough' is as well as being mouldable and soft, it doesn't taste great so after one go at eating it she didn't try again.

Zoe ended up mixing all three colours together, which I know totally bugs some people, but it looked SO COOL! It was pastel-y and swirly and reminded me a little of a lush bath bomb.

I am determined to do a few more crafty or creative activities with Zoe as she is getting older and better at more structured play. If you have any ideas or blog posts to share, please do, chances are we'll need to wait in for a washing machine delivery sometime soon...