Have you tried fairy playdough? It’s simple and fun with just two ingredients: cornstarch and conditioner. Big Brother played with it all afternoon.
Mom Kate at LaughingKidsLearn.com shared the recipe. In a bowl, mix 1 cup of inexpensive hair conditioner and 2½ cups of cornstarch. These are approximate measures and you may need to add a little more conditioner if it’s too powdery or a little more cornstarch if it’s too sticky. At first, it seems as if the two things will never mix to make a dough but keep stirring. Once it started to clump together, it was much easier to knead it smooth.
Big Brother wanted a lump right away. He wasn’t really interested in rolling, smooshing, or making a snake. He squeezed a bunch into a sort of ball, made another one, and then more. He ended up with quite a line of balls and because there was less of the play dough left, the balls got smaller and smaller. In the craft drawer, there was an assortment of sequins. He choose a sequin and carefully placed it on top of each ball. Then he talked about what he had done and named each shape.
When I asked if he would like to mix all the balls and shapes together, he said no and instead chose to poke the sequin into some of the balls and bury them. We took a break to give Baby Brother a snack. The playdough dried and was a little powdery when he came back it. Since it needed a bit more conditioner, we took the sequins off and mixed in only a couple of drops. This time, Big Brother made it all into one big lump and hid some fairy rocks underneath and inside. The fairy rocks were flat, glass marbles. He called it his fairy rock hideout and like to flip it over to show the rocks. 
Two friends came over to play. Now, there were three boys playing with the fairy rocks and fairy playdough. They brought some pipe cleaners we used too. We decided to try a few drops of food coloring to see how that worked. Red was the choice.
Red added to white makes pink, but Big Brother said red and pink were his favorite colors. All three boys happily played with the pink fairy playdough until Little Brother woke up from his nap and we went outside. Our hands were sure soft from the conditioner. Good thing, because the next activity was digging in the dirt for more hands-on fun. Does your child enjoy playdough play?
Come back again tomorrow for another fairy play-of-the-day.
