How to Make Homemade Toddler-Safe Clay!

Two year olds like touching things, poking at slimy objects, tossing stuff and throwing toys into a rumble. This is one of the best time to introduce them to sensory play. Sand, clay, gooey stuff and the like are the kind of toys your two-year-old would be engrossed with. They can explore through their senses this way, the sense of touch in particular.

I haven't been successful with making silly putty or slime. I really wanted to make a Galaxy Slime but I'm failing because of one missing ingredient that I can't find. It's a pending quest, when the word Galaxy Slime in this post becomes hyperlinked you'll know I finally succeeded in making it.

Moving on! I ended up making non-toxic homemade clay, which my son and his cousin/uncle enjoys so much (my husband has a cousin who's 4 yrs ols) Here is the homemade clay recipe I snatched off of my favorite site Happy Hooligans. 

There's honestly more than two ways you can make this; and they all involve cornstarch or flour and food color. There are no toxic ingredients and you don't even need to cook anything. Check your kitchen, you probably have all of the ingredients there!

The ingredients you need are:

• 2 cups Flour
• 1 cup Salt or Cornstarch
• 1 cup Cold Water
• 2 tablespoons Oil
• Food color

Get a big stainless bowl. Don't use a square plastic container like me because a lot of the ingredients will get stuck in the corner, it's gonna be a while to clean them out. If you're going to do the clay yourself, a medium bowl should be fine but if your little tot is going to participate, use a larger one. It's going to lessen the mess. Remember what the scene is like when your toddler eats on the table? Well that's how it's gonna look like if he enjoys mixing.

Pour in the Flour and/or Cornstarch into the bowl. Make a little sink hole in the middle to pour in the water. In my case though, I mixed the food color and water first, don't ask why I wasn't paying attention to the instructions. The outcome will still be the same, so why are you still reading this?

Pour half of the water into your Flour mix and mix, mix, mix with your hands!
Keep gradually adding water, and more, until you make a dough. If you've ever baked in your life, aim for a dough that's the same consistency as a steam bun aka Siopao.

Add the teaspoon of Oil into the mix. This is going to make your dough more clay-like and prevent starchiness. That means a little less powder sticking to your hands. Miggy and I used a spoon, because we are such clean freaks. No not really, this is our second time doing this, I just used a spoon because Miggy just took a shower and his clothes are soooo fragrant at the moment. I wanted him to stay in those clothes a little longer.

Roll your dough and make four big pieces. Roll each into cute little balls and poke a big fat hole in the middle. Don't get carried away dough, hehehe... Let your little one experience that part too.

Pour your assigned food color on each dough. I mean, don't "pour" food color in. Just squeeze in a few drops; maybe 3 or 4 at most. You can add a sprinkle of flour to the dough if it gets too sticky from the food colour. Try not to mind my pictures, I only had one food color left: Green.

It will eventually come out like a real clay. Here are some things to keep in mind:
* If the mixture is too sticky ADD FLOUR
*If the mixture is too dry ADD OIL; two drops at a time

See how much gunk has stuck to the corners of my container? Don't do what I did. Get a bowl, it will make cleaner easier and you can get all the bits and get a much bigger clay. So that's that, here's how Miggy enjoyed his clay! I added ours with some glitter, but there wasn't much so you probably can't see it in the photos.

If you want to know about other ways to make play dough at home, see this page. If you feel like being creative with your kids, I suggest The Imagination Tree. They have age-appropriate activities to try! SO go ahead try them! NOW NA!