The trials and tribulations of one stay -at- home mom's journey to raising 4 kids in a too small house on a too small budget, but still trying to live BIG.
Incase you're wondering, this is the Grape's of Wrath, (I know I have problems)
The kids were home sick today. Not sick enough to be bed bound, but sick enough that school would have been no fun. In Mother of the year style I let them watch t.v. most of the day. I started to feel a twinge of guilt, so I made play dough. Who am I kidding they were getting on my last nerve so I decided to make busy work for them. Play dough for my kids keeps them entertained for hours. Last year at the end of the year we did a really fun craft project, I thought that it was worth repeating.
The craft started because one of the kids brought home a library book written and illustrated by Barbara Reid. Barbara Reid illustrates her stories by using clay story blocks. The kids were fascinated. We then went onto you-tube and watched this great video of Barbara Reid showing how she does her clay figures.
After watching the clip the kids sketched out pictures of their teachers. We decided that it would be nice to do a dough sculpture of their teachers which I would take a picture of and we would put the picture on a blank card for their end of the year thank- you card. While the kids did their sketches I made play dough. Here is my tried and true play dough recipe.
1 cup flour 1 Tbsp oil
1 cup water 2 tsp cream of tarter
1/2 cup salt food colouring
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large pot (I use my dutch oven). Cook over medium high heat. You will know it's done when it looks like mashed potatoes, or when most of the moisture is gone. Let it cool. When it has cooled for 10 minutes or so, it's the fun part. Kneed it. I really enjoy kneeding it when it's almost too hot to touch, but then I have problems.
The next step is to colour, if you want to. I will warn you, put down something to protect your kitchen table, and your hands will become rainbow coloured depending on how many batches that you make. I use gel food colouring to colour mine. I make a well in the middle of the dough, then kneed it in.
If you are wondering about my thumb nail, yes it is a monster.
To make enough for everyone to do their teacher I made 6 batches. It is a lot of dough.
The kids really had a fun time doing it. I myself really enjoyed making the pictures with dough.
This is wonderful picture I created of my husband.
That is a very good idea I might as Well try that
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