There is nothing like a room full of happy children.

I was lucky enough to visit our Eco Max creche this January with my daughter Erin and sister Yvette and I took full advantage of having all that extra luggage space. It is amazing how much Duplo you can fit into three suitcases, particularly if you plan to wear the same thing everyday!

While the duplo was a hit with the children it was our homemade play dough that really had them smiling.

Play dough allowed the children to use their own imaginations and the possibilities are endless. They created birds and nests, people and houses, flowers and even a ghost. Even the youngest child enjoyed getting in there and simply squishing it between their fingers.

I found an amazingly easy recipe for the play dough from The Imagination Tree and even though we weren’t very precise with measurements – using just the same size cup as a standard – it worked out wonderfully. I was a little worried how the heat and humidity would effect the dough, it did seem to dry it out faster but didn’t stop the children enjoying it. With our second batch we just made it a little wetter. Aside from being able to adjust the recipe to suit the conditions, the best thing about homemade play dough is you know exactly what has gone into it and of course no extra plastic packaging.

Recipe for Play Dough

What we used:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartare
• 1 – 1.5 cups of boiling water (Add in increments till it feels just right. We used more due to the heat and humidity in Sri Lanka)
• Food colouring (We used Hopper’s natural food colouring and just kept adding it till we got the brightness in colour that we wanted)
• Few drops glycerine (Don’t miss this out it really does give it a better stretch and shine)

Method

• Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a mixing bowl
• Add food colour to your boiling water then add to dry ingredients
• Stir continuously until it become a sticky dough. (We gave up with our tiny stirring spoon by the 4th colour batch and did this with our hands. The natural dyes were great and washed off well so we didn’t have multi coloured hands for the rest of the trip)
• Mix the glycerine through then leave to cool
• Once cool remove from bowl and kneed vigorously. (This is the important part and you just have to keep kneeding till you get the perfect consistency. Add a little bit more flour is too wet.)

The play dough will store in an airtight container for about 6 months. However in the humidity of Sri Lanka it needed to be kept in the fridge. ENJOY