HELLO JELLO PLAYDOUGH – AN EASY HOMEMADE KID-FRIENDLY DIY RECIPE

Homemade playdough using Jello, anything is possible!

If you are like me, you probably have fallen down the rabbit hole of Pinterest more than once.

Last Saturday, I was minding my own business when a Pin caught my eye:  How to make playdough.  I just had to check it out.

You see, I’m always on the look out for activities to do with my kids.  Junior is too old now, but I still have a little bit of time left with Blondie Bear.

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, activities that would make us get out of the house have been canceled or require a passport.  So I’ve been looking for kid-friendly activities to do at home.

Benefits of homemade activities with kids

Just like other kids, Blondie Bear has trouble staying focus and concentrating at school.  What can I say, he’ s a dreamer like me.

So I’ve found out that doing an activity with a child where he or she has to follow directions can help with learning to focus. For instance, following a cooking recipe or a manual to put something together.

Learning how and what to cook is a great activity for kids to do and a life skill.  I mean, when Jacky (my mom) got married with Tango (my dad), she didn’t even know to fry an egg!

So if you are looking for a gift idea for an upcoming birthday or Christmas or just because, how about a cookbook made for kids?

Cooking with kids is fun and dirty!  Once they’ve mastered a recipe, have them make it on their own while you sit back and relax!

To be honest, when I was a single-mom, Junior started cooking sometimes during the week.  It really was a time saver.  While he’d cook dinner (nothing complicated), I could tend to Blondie Bear who was three at the time.

Playdough

Playing with playdough is a great activity for kids.  There are multiple benefits to it such as:

• developing motor skills; and
• encouraging creativity.

The acts of squishing, rolling, flattening, and more help your children develop muscles used in their hands for fine motor movements useful in the future, such as holding a pencil or using scissors.

For more benefits, I invite you to read this little article on playdough.

List of ingredients for your homemade playdough

Generally speaking, you should already have all the necessary ingredients to make your jello playdough at home.  I couldn’t resist testing it out when I saw the recipe.  However, my tired eyes made me misread the list of ingredients, so I was missing one of them.

Can you guess which one in the recipe below?

• 1 cup of flour (120 gr.)
• 1 cup of water (240 ml)
• ¼ cup of salt (75 gr.)
• 2 tablespoons of oil, I used vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
• 1 package of Jello.

Yes, cream of tartar is really not the same as tartar sauce which I also confuse with ranch dressing!

Substitute ingredients

Unless you bake often, you most likely won’t have cream of tartar at home.  You can replace it with baking soda which I happened to have. I used the same amount of baking soda that I was supposed to use instead of cream of tartar

If you don’t have access to Jello, you can replace the whole recipe with:

• ½ cup of cornstarch (60 gr.)
• 1 cup of baking soda (230 gr.)
• ¾ cup water (180 ml)
• 4 or 5 drops of food coloring (optional)

I have not tried it, so let me know when you do.  Heck, I don’t even know what we use corn starch for!

Cooking your homemade Playdough

Once you’ve gathered all the ingredients from the list, put them all in a bowl and mix.

Don’t forget to add the water!  It sounds silly, but we forgot to add it.

Once the ingredients are mixed, put them in a pot on low heat for a few minutes.  Stir with a whisk and fold the mixture using a silicone spatula. 

When the jello playdough doesn’t stick to your fingers too much and starts to look like a ball, remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

You can have a little dance off while you wait.  Blondie Bear was quite the entertainer during that time.

Finally, start kneading it and then start to play.  It really is as simple as that.

Storing homemade playdough

Once you are done playing with it, store it in a glass lid jar or other container. 

The yogurt jars by Riviera could be a great storage option, and you can order the lids online. As it turns out, I have a whole lot of them that I used at my DIY Wedding.

Now that you know what it takes to make playdough with jello and have the recipe, start being creative with your kids! Playdough can be stored up to 3 months in a jar.

Send me pictures of your creations or tag me on Instagram @carlotasweb so that I can share them in my stories.