As you probably know by now, I’m a huge believer in following the seasons. Seasonal play helps children to connect to the world around them and understand the passing of time in a hands-on way. We make activities like this part of our seasonal rhythm.
To my followers in the United States, I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families tomorrow. And if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, this natural cranberry playdough recipe will help you to celebrate winter with some seasonal play.
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How to make the play dough
For this recipe, we used our basic playdough recipe -listed below -but substituted water for cranberry water (saved over after boiling cranberries to make sauce). As an alternative, you could also used the water left over from a can of cranberries.


Homemade Play Dough Care Tips
Ingredients
After spending the first half of the year in Austria without being able to source cream of tartar, I can honestly say that it makes the biggest difference in the success of the play dough. We tried using lemon or lime juice instead but it just wasn't the same. I've since started bulk ordering cream of tartar from Amazon (is that crazy?!) and it's made the biggest difference!
Without cream of tartar, the dough would get crumbly fast, but now we have lovely soft, smooth play dough again - yay!
Storage
You've gone to the effort of making the play dough, you need to store in correctly. We tend to wrap ours in ziplock bags (which we reuse for new batches) then we seal the dough inside a IKEA GLIS container.
Generally speaking, keeping the dough in a cool dry place will be enough to make it last for up to 4 weeks. However, in the summer we have occasionally kept the dough in the fridge to stop it from going sticky.
What to do with dry dough:
If your child has been playing for some time with the play dough then it is likely to get dry. If needed at the end of a play session, we add a drop or two of water or a teaspoon of oil to the dough using a pipette to revive it. Works like a charm!
How to prevent sticky dough:
When making dough, the best thing we've found is to knead it by hand to get all of the stickiness out. If you're still finding the texture a little too much on the sticky side however, keep rolling into small amounts of flour until you get the right, 'springy' consistency.
Why you should make play dough with your children:
Homemade play dough can get messy with children involved, so I do understand the temptation to just do the ‘making part’ yourself. BUT, making play dough together has so many educational benefits. Here’s a few reasons why you should try it with your child:
Introduction to early math: From counting cups or spoonfuls to measuring out quantities, there’s heaps your little one can learn from this practical activity.
Hand-eye coordination: it takes focus to pour ingredients from the packet into the bowl
Fine motor skills and hand strength: using pincer grip to hold the teaspoon and hand strength to mix the ingredients.
Sensory exploration: making play dough engages the senses, although I should add that tasting is not recommended due to the salt content!
Social emotional: this is a lovely way to spend time together. I like to think of it as a lower stakes version of baking!
Making connections to the wider world: In this instance, making a nest but play dough can really be adapted for so many small world activities!
Listening skills: Via verbal instructions.
Age Recommendations:
As mentioned previously, my daughter was just over 2 years old when I first made play dough WITH her. Before that, she just played with the batches I made up.
You need to make sure that your child is past the stage where they put everything in their mouths. This will depend on the child. With my daughter, I could do all of these activities with her from around the age of 12 months yet her younger brother was around 2.5 when he stopped putting everything in his mouth!
To note, until your child gets used to these types of activities, you can absolutely guarantee a huge mess. This is partly due to the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Don’t worry though, the more they are exposed to sensory / messy play, the tidier they eventually become!
Regardless of age, this activity should be done under supervision.
Activity Ideas for Homemade Cranberry Play Dough
Play dough is such a brilliant resource for building hand strength and fine motor skills. Even if you child simply squishes and rolls the dough, it will be an excellent activity!
Cafe Play
To boost speech and language skills, try adding your homemade dough to a cafe scene. Use the cranberry playdough as ‘cakes’ along with other loose parts.
Print Making
Use a selection of loose parts to make prints in the dough.
As part of an Invitation
Using a snack platter filled with loose parts can really help inspire your child to get more creative.
Watch the video above for an example of how this can look.
Share your version
If you try this recipe in a play activity, I’d love to see it. You can do so by commenting below this blog post or send me an email to sian@thisplayfulhome.com
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