Homemade Summer Play

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Homemade Playdough: Mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 4 teaspoons cream of tartar, 2 cups water, 2 teaspoons cooking oil, and food coloring of your choice. Stir in a saucepan over medium heat until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. Cool and knead. Store in an airtight container to keep soft and malleable.

Uncooked Playdough: Mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup water with food coloring added to it. This dough doesn't keep as long, but it is easier for children to make.

Baker's clay: Mix 1 1/2 cups flour with 1 1/2 cups salt; add 3/4 to 1 cup of water and knead until stretchy. Creations from this dough can be baked in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes and then painted with poster paints.

Sand Dough: Mix 2 cups corn starch, 4 cups fine sand, and 3 cups cold water in a pan. Cook over medium heat until thick. Let the dough cool, and use it to make a sandcastle or sculpture. Decorate with shells, beads, and other objects. Your creations will harden and last.

Peanut Butter Playdough: Mix 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup honey, 1 cup powdered milk, and 1 cup oatmeal. Roll the dough and cut it out with cookie cutters, or make free-form sculptures. When you are finished with your creations, eat them!

Slime: Mix a box of cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water. Add green food coloring. This dough isn't for making sculptures--it's just fun to ooze between your fingers! When it dries out, simply add more water.

Silly Putty: Mix equal parts of Elmer's glue and liquid starch. Food coloring can be added. Store in airtight container.

Good Clean Fun: When you've gotten messy from your mud and clay creations, clean up with a little bubble fun. Here are a few bubble ideas that appeal to kids and parents alike:

Bubble Soap: Mix 1 cup dishwashing liquid, 10 cups water, and 1/4 cup glycerin (available at the drugstore; for longer-lasting bubbles). Make bubble wands from straws, cardboard toilet paper rolls, or thin wire bent in creative shapes.

Bubble Paint: Add a few drops food coloring to bubble solution. Blow a bubble and let it pop on a sheet of white paper. Mix different colors and pop them on the same sheet. Soon you will have a colorful piece of artwork.

Monster bubbles: Roll a piece of poster board into a cylinder and paper clip the ends together. Dip into a bowl of bubble solution and wave it in the air. To make bubbles galore, dip the plastic rings from a six-pack container into the solution and wave them in the air.