58. 3 SCREEN-FREE ACTIVITIES TO KEEP YOUR LITTLES ENTERTAINED

How were your holidays?

If they were anything like mine, they were exhausting! Beautiful but exhausting so we want to give you mamas sometime to cooperate while your kids entertain themselves for a little. This too is helpful for our work-from-home moms just trying to get a little work in while their little ones can stay busy.

This week Amma Lisa shares why independent play is so beneficial to our little ones and how to set it up for success in our own homes!   

Join this week's conversation and learn all the benefits our kids reap from practicing independent play and the different ways we can set it up for our kids. 

Amma teaches us how to set up water play, sensory bins, and homemade playdough! So much fun!

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Waterplay
-Water in a bin/or at the sink
-Sponge
-Soap
-Different size cups/plates
-Car wash
-Eye dropper
-Water toys

Sensory Bins
-Sand/Beans/Flour/Corn Starch/Cotton Balls/Snow
-Hide toys in it
-Magnet

Amma’s Favourite Play-dough Recipe

•2 Cups all-purpose flour

•3/4 Cups salt

•4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar

•2 Cups water

•2 Tablespoons vegetable oil 

•Food colouring

•Quart-sized bags

In a large pot, stir together the flour, salt and cream of tartar. 

Add oil to water in a measuring cup. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the oil and water mixture to it, stirring it in. 

Cook over medium heat - 

** stirring constantly!** 

Continue stirring with your wooden spoon until the dough thickens and begins to form into a ball. 

Remove from the heat and spoon it out onto parchment paper on the countertop. 

Allow it to cool slightly and then knead it until it’s smooth. 

Divide the dough into as many balls as you’d like in different colours. 

Add just a few (5-7) drops of food colouring to start and knead it into the still-warm dough. Add more drops to deepen the colour as desired, but knead between each addition as the colour will deepen as it merges into the dough with kneading. 

Alternatively, if you are concerned about staining, you can put the dough balls into separate quart-sized freezer bags to add the colouring to each one in the bags. Then knead the dough IN the bag until the colour is fully merged. 

There are also amazing colours you can make using natural ingredients like coffee, purple cabbage, matcha green tea powder and turmeric! But I recommend looking up recipes for these as there are some cautionary (potential mess!) details! But they’re fun and super cool, too, so I strongly recommend them. Just do a little research first for “natural play dough dyes.” 

Store your awesome play-dough in the zip lock bags (or a container with a tight-fitting lid) in the fridge for up to 3 months. 

Enjoy!