Gracen and I are lucky enough to have one of her little friends join us for an afternoon of play each Wednesday. They play quite well together, so I put a few things out for them to explore in advance, then step back to let them play, helping communication and sharing happen when needed. We always have a good time together, but the last couple of times I’ve noticed that together they plow through the activities I’ve set out (2 minutes of play dough! 1 stroke of paint! 3 minutes of water play!) and then look at me with eager eyes for something more.
Gracen’s been loving the tiny build a snowman play dough kit we brought with us so much this trip that I decided it was time to make a full batch for her to enjoy during our downtime at the apartment. I gave her some options, and she decided that chocolate play dough was the way to go. {Mmm… A girl after my own heart!} The only challenge while on vacation, of course, is not having a fully-stocked kitchen. Based on our favourite ever no-cook play dough recipe, I popped some ingredients onto our grocery list and hoped for the best. Relying on my limited French to read the German labels at our local market, I searched the aisles for cream of tartar and glycerine without any luck. I’m sure I could have gone elsewhere and eventually found what I was looking for, but I thought to myself, why? Back in the old days when I was babysitting or nannying at least 5 days a week, I relied solely on one from-memory play dough recipe {quite possibly the simplest recipe ever}, which consisted of three ingredients – flour, salt, and water. That’s it. And while it didn’t yield the stretchiest, softest, shiniest, last-for-at-least-6-months sort of dough, it was fun to play with and the kids loved it nonetheless. So back to the basics it was. And you know what? Our super simple no-cook chocolate play dough turned out great! In the words of Grae, it’s ‘so SO soft’ and ‘smells DE-licious!’
One of Miss G’s favourite holiday activities last year was making play dough gingerbread people. Our little bin of simple materials kept her happily engaged for hours and her cousins loved it just as much as she did, so there was no doubt in my mind that we’d do the same thing again this Christmas.
With our last crafting class of the year coming up in just a few short days, Miss G and I wanted to prepare some simple gifts to share with the little friends she’s made at Bright Minds over the last few months. We adore play dough and had so much fun with our larger scale play dough snowman building activity that we decided to make miniature versions in easy to pack cases – everything needed to build play dough snowmen in small locking lid containers for some holiday fun on the go {or at home, really}.
First, we gathered up our materials… A double batch of our yummy-smelling vanilla mint play dough, awesome divided locking lid containers, beads, buttons, googly eyes, orange matchsticks, small twigs, and miniature scarves cut from inexpensive felt.
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We found our locking divided containers at City Star here in Kuwait, but these Sistema Klip It Split Food Containers on Amazon look similar. I love them because they’re small, easy for little ones to seal and unseal, and perfect for packing in a purse, diaper bag, or carry-on. Plus, they keep the play dough and the ‘building accessories’ {as Miss G calls them} separate, which I like too.
To get started, I added a big ball of vanilla mint play dough to one compartment of each container.
Then Gracen added the accessories to the other. To keep things uniform, we came up with a ‘recipe’ of what should be added to each container (2 googly eyes, 2 matchstick carrot noses, 2 twig arms, 5 beads, 5 buttons, and 1 felt scarf), which turned out to be great counting practice for Miss G.
This is how our kits looked when we were done with them.
Afterwards, Gracen matched up the lids, locked them on, and I used a regular glue stick to adhere some very basic labels I made and printed to fit our containers. And that was it – simple but cute gifts for our friends to enjoy over the holidays, be it at home, on an airplane, and while waiting in restaurants and doctors’ offices. I am so keeping one of these to bring along on our upcoming trip to Germany. In fact, I’m thinking I may create a couple of other little ‘play on-the-go’ kits too! ☺
Of course the one I tucked away for our trip didn’t remain a secret for long…
In fact, Grae’s already had several play dough snowman building sessions with her little kit.
Now let’s just hope the excitement continues until Christmas break rolls around and we board that plane!
The cutting tray we did a couple months back was such a hit, that I knew I wanted to do another one, but this time around, a holiday themed one! Just like last time, most of our cutting materials were things we already had around the house – so no need to go and purchase anything new. In fact, I look at this as a perfect time to use up some scraps we’ve no idea what to do with.
One of the things i love doing each year is setting up a tree {of some sort} that is just for G. A tree that she can call her own and not have to worry about being careful with. For her first Christmas as a toddler, I made her a giant felt tree that hung on the wall. She loved it {and then mice ate it up while it was being stored in our garage – gross!} The following year, I created a smaller felt board Christmas tree for her, and she still plays with it today. But for this holiday season, I wanted to try something new… A sticky tree! Our fall sticky apple tree was a big hit, as have our other sticky wall activities been, so I assumed this would be too. I was right. ☺
One of the things we love most about our living situation in Kuwait is the fact that Miss G has had a built in community of friends since we first arrived… A posse of munchkins that she sees and plays with everyday. Of course, lots of kids means lots of birthday parties, which means more opportunities to put together thoughtful, creative gifts, which both she and I adore.
On Wednesday afternoons, Miss G and I are lucky enough to have one of her little friends join us for some afternoon play. While they happily engage in their own games and play for part of the time, I also like having a couple of fun invitations to play and / or create out for them to explore if the choose to. When I asked Grae if she had any activity ideas for our play date, she suggested that we play with the ocean items we collected at the beach last weekend. That was that – an ocean-themed day it was!
Cloud dough is an old favourite of ours. We started experimenting with it when Miss G was about 19 months old and she’s loved it ever since. If you’ve not played with it before, you must. It’s soft and silky and powdery, but mouldable at the same time, which is loads of fun. Pair it with some scoops, spoons, and small containers, and you’ll have some very happy kiddos.
Play dough is an everyday thing in our house. Grae is free to use the bin of tools and dough we keep in the main living space of our home at any time and she also has a smaller set in her bedroom to use during quiet play time too.
Deep in a bin of secondhand Duplo I picked up yesterday, Miss G discovered a tiny little Lightening McQueen car and immediately fell in love. Though she’s not really watched any movies yet, she and Brad have watched bits and pieces of Cars on their special days together and she adores the characters. Upon discovering him, she suggested that we build him a track to drive on. She most likely had our painter’s tape roadway in mind, but when I suggested a cut and paste city with lots of roads for driving, she was more than game.
Oobleck, goop, goo, cornstarch paste… Whatever you call it, we’re huge fans! The cornstarch and water mixture has been a staple in our play repertoire for a long time now and it never fails to captivate those who dare to dig their hands in. With Halloween having just come and gone, we’ve played with it a ton lately. Sometimes paired with creepy crawlies, sometimes with giant googly eyes, and other times all on its own. It’s been loads of fun for Miss G and her little friends in the courtyard, so today we decided to try something different… Colourful SCENTED oobleck!
A bin of green oobleck and a handful of creepy crawlers = messy Halloween-inspired fun for the kids in the courtyard. The bugs slowly sunk into the oobleck and disappeared in the sticky swamp, so retrieving them was great fun.
{this post contains affiliate links}
{this post contains affiliate links}
{this post contains affiliate links}
{this post contains affiliate links}
{this post contains affiliate links}
Cloud dough is an old favourite of ours. We started experimenting with it when Miss G was about 19 months old and she’s loved it ever since. If you’ve not played with it before, you must. It’s soft and silky and powdery, but mouldable at the same time, which is loads of fun. Pair it with some scoops, spoons, and small containers, and you’ll have some very happy kiddos. 
