Thrifty Homemade Play-doe

I used to be in the "Why make homemade play doe when you can buy it so cheap?" camp.  Other moms kept telling me I should try it and I would smile politely and say maybe I would.  I just couldn't see the sense of making something I could pick up for $1.50.

Enter in gas and commodity price increases!  Suddenly making my own play doe is much more economically compelling ;)

My kids love play doe, especially Captain Submarine.  He discovered the joy of it back when we lived in Wyoming when the temperatures hovered at 10 below during the day for a month.  He now constructs amazing ships and sea animals that are so detailed and tiny he could be an artist.

Homemade play doe is softer (much better for toddlers to use) and lasts longer than the store bought stuff.  It also is pretty easy to make, a one pot deal.  It is also cheap. 

I use a simple recipe I got off the net for Koolaid play doe.  It gives it nice color and scent which the kids seem to like. I always triple the amount because we have so many little ones who like to play.

You can use different Kool-Aid packets to get different colors.  My children's favorite's are blue, green, red, and yellow.

Kool-Aid Play Doe

1 cup flour

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 pack koolaid

1/4 cup salt

2 tbs cream of tartar

1 cup water

Put all dry ingredients into a large pot and stir until well mixed.  Stir in the wets and then stir over medium heat until it forms a ball 3-5 min.  Turn out onto tinfoil on your counter and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Then kneed like bread doe until smooth.  Only a few times needed usually.  Cover and let cool.  Then let the kids go at it!

Crayon shaving stained glass pumpkins and leaves- Fall craft

I remember doing these as a child and loving the magical transformation of the crayons to a stained glass like window hanging so I decided to do it with my kids.

The different supplies

Crayon shavings - my hands hurt just looking at them

Captain Submarine making his pumpkin

The finished products!  They are so pretty with the light coming through.

We had a great time and they turned out great.

Birdwatching Fun for Kids

One fun and very cheap nature activity that I do with my kids is set up bird feeders next to our big windows.  This draws tweety birds, quail, and the occasional bigger birds.  My children find it fascinating and exciting to watch these birds up close eat, fight, and flutter around.  Every time a bird comes to the feeder the children whisper excitedly "look there's a bird".  I have taught them not to run to the window or yell because it frightens them away and even our two year old is able to resist the temptation.

This all started when we lived in our first house whenr first child was about four.  I placed some bird feeders right outside our window.  Soon we had dozens of little puff ball visiting all the time.   But as children always do my inquisitive daughter asked over and over "Momma what bird is that, what kind of bird is that".  I couldn't answer her at all so I decided to expand our bird watching into something educational.  I went to the library and requested a bird watching book written for our area (almost every place in America has a book for it) and we started identifying the different birds from the illustrations.  Soon my four year old could tell me the names of almost every bird that came to visit.  We learned which birds were lived with us all year long and which left for greener pastures in the winter.  As the seasons changes we made note of the new birds that visited our feeder on their migrations and this helped my daughter understand what migration meant.  Every time an unknown bird came to eat we would frantically search the guide to identify it.  It was amazing fun for something so simple.

Soon a covey of quail were regular diners at our little buffet.  They formed a solid blanket of feathers under the feeders every morning.  This drove my husband, an avid hunter crazy.  We love the taste of quail but somehow resisted catching a few.  Now we are starting our birdwatching all over again with our 3 youngest and it is proving just as fun and educational.  I would recommend this for anyone with kids.  Its fun, almost free, and gets your kids interested in the world around them.