Nature-themed homemade playdough

Manipulating playdough has lots of benefits for toddlers, as rolling, poking and pounding the dough helps develop essential muscles that are especially useful for practical life activities like cutting and eventually writing.

This was my first time making homemade playdough. A was 18 months at the time.

I used a really popular homemade playdough recipe from and it was actually enjoyable to make with A’s help.

You will need:

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup table salt 

• 1 tbsp cream of tartar 

• 1 tbsp oil

• 1 cup boiling water

You can also add food coloring to the water if you’d like some color.

To the tray I added some sea shells we collected on one of our trips to Portugal, some stones we collected during our morning walk and a few loose parts I had at home. 

She especially enjoyed rolling the dough, poking it and using the sticks and shells to make holes and shapes.