Project: Homemade Playdough

What kid doesn't love playdough. This recipe is great. We have been playing with it for over a week and it still has the same elasticity as it did the day we made it. The boys love playing with it.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (if you don't have this it will still work - it just improves the elasticity)
food coloring (I used neon food colors and they look great)

1. Mix all of the ingredients together and stir over low heat. The dough will begin to thicken.
2. When the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and clumps in the center, remove the dough from the heat and allow to cool enough to handle (go to http://www.instructables.com/id/EV84F86KD1EUN32O5B/ if you want to see what the dough should look like).
3. If your playdough is sticky you just need to cook it longer. Keep stirring until the dough is dry and feels like playdough.
4. Turn the dough onto a clean counter and knead vigorously until it becomes silky-smooth. Divide the dough into balls for coloring.
5. Make a divot in the center of each ball and add food coloring. Fold the dough over and knead until the color mixes throughout. (You might want to use gloves - I totally stained my hands on this step)
6. Store in an air-tight container.

Project: Oodles of Noodles

If your kids are ever extremely bored and you happen to have a huge Sam's Club bag full of expired Penne noodles this is the activity for you. In actuality, any type of noodle will do. Penne noodles work well for this age child (2 years old) because the holes are big enough for them to deal with.

Supplies: Noodles, 1 plastic bucket/container per child, fun spoons and other small containers, yarn

Fill a plastic bucket with noodles for each child. Provide each child with various little containers for them to play with. My boys loved pretending they were cooking. They liked to stir the noodles, transfer them from one container to another, and count noodles. We also made necklaces out of noodles. We just took some old yarn and threaded it through the penne noodles. They still play with the necklaces. This is a fun indoor activity. Kids love to play with sand and mud. This lets them play the same kinds of thing inside and isn't too hard to clean up.

Project: Bean Shakers

It was suggested I post some of my project ideas online so that other people can use them if they wish. I will do so, but would like to mention that most of the projects we do aren't extremely excited or anything. My boys just love doing "projects" each afternoon, so I have to come up with something for them to do each day. As long as a I call it a project and they get to sit on the floor or at the table to it they are happy.

One day last week we made music shakers.

Materials needed: dry beans (any kind will do) and empty water bottles

What to do: Give each child one water bottle and a small bowl full of beans. Let the child put the beans into the water bottle. Someone this can entertain them for quite awhile. When they have the bottle at least 1/4 of the way full of beans you can put the lid on the bottle and let them shake it. You can save the shakers and use them as musical instruments later on or you can dump them out and do the project again another day. To mix it up a little, you can make homemade funnels out of paper and let the kids see how a funnel works.

Baby Rolls

Emerson and Finlay love making these "baby" rolls. They roll the dough into tiny balls. It is the perfect project for little hands. The bread is easy to make and tastes great. The rolls work well for dipping in fondue or soup.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 tsp salt
1 package yeast (or 2 Tablespoons)
1/2 cup very warm water
1/2 cup very warm milk
1 egg
butter or margarine, melted (I usually don't put this)

1. Mix 2 cups of the flour, sugar, shortening, salt and yeast in medium bowl. Add warm water, milk and egg. Beat with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until double. Dough is ready in indentation remains when touched.
3. Grease bottoms and sides of 2 round 9x1 1/2 inches.
4. Punch down dough. Cut dough in half; cut each half into 24 peices. Shape into balls. Place close together in pans. Brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double.
5. Heat over to 400.
6. Bake 12 to 18 minutes or until golden brown.