Every time we go to A.C. Moore, I cannot pry Ellie's hands out of the Moon Sand bin, or Sands Alive, or whatever you call it. I've seen it called Cloud Dough online. Mark is really into it, too, and he's been hinting that we should eventually get some for Elle, because it's "just so cool."Yeah, but it's $20(!). Even though it comes with toys to play with, we have similar Play Doh toys. I couldn't see spending the money. I at least wanted to first try one of the Pinterest recipes to see if it compared.
Much to my surprise, it was exactly like the Sands Alive in the store. The only difference is that it probably won't keep as well -- just my guess, as the one in the store is reinforced with something that prevents bacterial growth or something. So what, I'll just toss mine after each use, because it's the cheapest thing in the world to make.
It's 8 cups flour, 1 cup baby oil
(or vegetable oil, or olive oil, if you're worried about your toddler tasting the mixture).
That's it. I split the recipe and used 4 cups flour, 1/2 cup olive oil.
It takes a little while to mix it. The oil clumps together at first, which made me think "Oh no, Pinterest Fail," but you just have to knead it for about 3-5 minutes. So easy!
I put it in an aluminum foil bin with some Play Doh toys, but any old spoons, cups, or cookie cutters will work the same.
She played with this for an entire hour. Then I gave her a bin of water to rinse her toys and hands. She spent another hour happily rinsing and singing, "Doing my dishes!" in a sing-songy voice.
Two straight hours, and she wouldn't let me play with her. Fine. I took pictures and read interesting articles on my phone. It was really relaxing and fun for her. We played outside, so the mess was easy to clean up. I'm definitely going to do this again!
