We encourage our kids to get outside and play as much as possible during the summer, but inevitably there’s going to be those rainy days when outside play isn’t an option — like today.
Rather than turning to video games and television for entertainment though, I gathered up my younger three children for a quick kitchen lesson on how to make salt dough.
While they think making and playing with this salt dough recipe is all fun and games, they’re actually learning a whole slew of valuable skills — like brushing up on their math, how to measure solids and liquids, and what happens when you mix certain ingredients, just to name a few.
And with only three ingredients — flour, salt and water — this simple salt dough recipe is the perfect intro to kitchen basics. Luckily, I picked up some fresh flour and salt at Walmart earlier this week in anticipation of a rainy day!
I gave Camden the job of measuring out the flour, showing her how to level it off for a consistent measurement.
Addie measured the salt, again leveling it off using a butter knife.
And I helped Drew measure the water, showing them all how the liquid should be level with the lines on our Pyrex measuring cup.
Then they all took turns mixing the salt dough, and I gave a quick demonstration on how to knead dough, as they were getting quite antsy to start playing by this point.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup water
Instructions:
- Stir flour and salt together.
- Gradually add water while stirring and mixing to form a dough with a Play-Doh like consistency.
- Form the dough into a ball and knead for approximately 5 minutes, adding a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky or a bit more water if it's too dry.
My kids had a blast playing with their salt dough. I gave them a rolling pin and some cookie cutters and it kept them busy all afternoon!
You can store salt dough in an airtight container for future use. Or you can let your creations dry and paint them with acrylic paints.
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