Playdough has so many advantages as a toy, or art project, and homemade playdough provides a safe, non-toxic, and sensory stimulating experience.
I also appreciate the money saving opportunity, since there is such a wide variety of playdough recipes and all of them come from kitchen ingredients. I also love that it doesn’t require and plastic pieces that end up all over the floor and eventually in the trash.
Screen Free Activities
During school breaks, I’m always looking for activities to entertain my kids while I get some chores done, and its a definite win when I don’t have to turn on the tv or break out the ipad. If you’re looking for a screen-free activity that’s creative, educational, and safe enough to eat, edible playdough checks every box.
Research supports its role across a wide range of developmental areas, and the benefits shift as children grow.
Here’s a list by age group of playdough benefits:
- Babies & Toddlers
- Babies and toddlers benefit most from the sensory experience. Squishing, rolling, and poking dough builds fine motor skills, strengthens hand muscles, and introduces cause-and-effect thinking. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, open-ended sensory play supports early cognitive development and exploration.¹
- Preschool 3 – 5 years
- Preschoolers gain even more from playdough. Manipulating dough strengthens the same hand muscles needed for writing. It can also be used to explore early math concepts like counting, dividing, and comparing shapes and it introduces basic science ideas like color mixing. Experts at Zero to Three note that pretend play with materials like playdough supports language development and early math thinking.²
- Children (6–12 years)
- This age group can use it for more complex creative and academic purposes: building structures to explore geometry and symmetry, developing patience and focus, and practicing narrative storytelling through sculpted scenes. The act of creating without a “right answer” is also a healthy outlet for stress and anxiety.³
- Young Adults
- Teenagers and adults aren’t left out either. Occupational therapists use therapeutic putty, essentially the same concept, for hand rehabilitation and stress relief. Mindfulness researchers have found that tactile, repetitive activities can support emotional regulation and grounding.⁴
Playdough supports Family Bonding
In addition to the individual developmental benefits of playdough that support our health, playing with playdough as a family creates opportunities for positive social interactions. Children learn primarily through observation, and when adults play alongside them, it signals that creativity and imagination have no age limit. Adults can play too!
They learn it is safe to engage in these activities as an adult and provides parents an opportunity to build trust and connection with kids. The Harvard Center on the Developing Child describes this kind of engaged, back-and-forth interaction as “serve and return” one of the most important drivers of healthy child development.⁵ These practices have the potential to build healthy familial cycles and builder stronger bonds between adults and children.
Playdough can also create a relaxed environment for children to practice exploring their creativity without expectations. For children who struggle with anxiety or perfectionism, that freedom can be genuinely therapeutic. When there are no expectations and no risk of making mistakes, children feel more relaxed about trying new things and exploring their creative side.
Making edible homemade playdough is a great way to make lasting memories. We cherish the time we spend with each other and the some of our most precious possessions are the recipes we hand down through the generations. Playdough may be an unconventional recipe, but I wouldn’t doubt that it makes the list of one of the most fun and rewarding family recipes.
Store Bought Versus Homemade Playdough
Conventional Playdough is labeled non-toxic, but that is because it is meant to be manipulated with your hands and not eaten. If conventional playdough is ingested, especially in a large quantity it can lead to upset stomach, dehydration, and potential salt toxicity, which is very rare but if enough is ingested it is possible.
Some key ingredients that make it non-edible and shelf stable are the ingredients you wouldn’t want to ingest like preservatives, aluminum sulfate, calcium chloride, and PEG compounds (which are wax stabilizers). Some brands may contain colorants for the vibrant colors, fragrance compounds for scent, or bittering agents to deter kids from eating it.
None of these ingredients are things I would want in my compost bin, and we prioritize limiting our use of non-recyclable products, and try to choose and many biodegradable options as possible. So when I make the homemade playdough, and it goes stale after a few weeks or month I want to be able to put it straight into the compost bin. That is what I consider sustainable, if I can make it and then use it to remake something it becomes part of the cycle, a sustainable practice.
I choose to make the edible playdough instead. It is safe for my kids to manipulate with their hands, and if they get curious and want to taste it, it’s safe to eat.
Edible Playdough Teaches Sustainability
When we create play from kitchen ingredients we are teaching our kids that not everything needs to be bought from the store. In fact some of the best “toys,” games, and activities come from items around the house. Edible playdough is definitely one of them.
As a family we are working on prioritizing options that support the life cycle, which means working towards using natural, organic materials in as many of our daily activities as possible. This is not just about our food, but our clothing, storage, toys, etc.
Making playdough at home is a small but meaningful way to teach kids that not everything needs to come from a store or arrive in plastic packaging. Some of the best creative materials are already in your kitchen. When kids participate in making their own play materials, and later watch them decompose naturally, they’re learning about cycles, resourcefulness, and environmental responsibility in a hands-on way.
Playdough Recipes
You can find a variety of different edible playdough recipes with different scents and textures. One of my favorites is frosting playdough. There are two different ways to make this playdough, the first is my preferred method using homemade frosting. You can find the recipe for homemade frosting here.
The second is made with store bought frosting, which is perfectly fine when your in a pinch. I find the store bought frosting method a relief because my kids may only eat a small portion of the playdough, they are mostly interested in sculpting.
Below is the edible playdough recipe, the main ingredient is store bought frosting, but it does have notes for when you use homemade frosting.
Edible Playdough
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a large mixing bowl combine all purpose flour, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting.
- Start mixing the ingredients with a spoon, once the frosting becomes flaky, knead the mixture with your hands until the consistency is like dough.
- Add 2 tablespoons of flour to increase firmness, if to much flour is added the dough will break instead of stick.
- Once your desired consistency is reached add sprinkles or natural color to decorate the dough
Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!One of my kids took to the Halloween theme and made this beautiful playdough pumpkin decorated with candy corn.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links’. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.
References:
- American Academy of Pediatrics. The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Pediatrics, 2018. aap.org
- Zero to Three. Math and Science in the Early Years. zerotothree.org
- Hoffman, J. et al. Creative play and its effect on executive function in childhood. Early Childhood Education Journal, 2020.
- American Occupational Therapy Association. Occupational Therapy and Stress Management. aota.org
- Harvard Center on the Developing Child. Serve and Return Interaction. developingchild.harvard.edu
- American Association of Poison Control Centers. Play-Doh Ingestion FAQ. poison.org
Photo Credits:
Photo by Joshua Melo on Unsplash
Original Photos by Suburban Homestead LLC
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