Playdough is such a wonderful material for people from 1 to 100 to play with! You just need to have a lump of fresh playdough placed in your hands to start to discover the many benefits of using playdough with children:
• It is a great activity to strengthen your child’s fingers and hands, ready for writing, drawing, cutting, etc.
• It works all the muscles in the hands.
• It allows for your child to be creative – today he can make a cow, tomorrow he can make a car and the next day he can make something completely different, using the same lump of dough.
• It helps release tension and anger in a safe way.
• It is a soothing texture to play with.
• It can be used to reinforce shapes and numbers.
• A “snake” of playdough is the best thing to use when introducing children to cutting for the first time.
• It is useful when working on eye-hand co-ordination activities, especially with the younger children, as it is very forgiving, and your child doesn’t need to do it perfectly to get it right.
This recipe lasts for ages if you store it in an airtight container. If it gets a little dry, wet your hands and pat the water around the playdough and store overnight. The next day, it should be workable again.
It is non-toxic, so don’t worry if your child checks to see if it is edible. It tastes pretty awful, though, so he may need a sip of water after tasting it. And if he is still gagging after you think you have taken it all out, check the roof of his mouth as it sometimes gets stuck up there like peanut butter does.
Try it yourself. Give your child some playdough and take some for yourself, and discover a whole new world of creativity and stress release!