Play dough fun

On Sunday we made play dough. Nothing special in that as things go, but James asked to do it, and so we did. Wanting to try something different from the usual food colouring thing, I boiled up a couple of beetroot that were going a bit soft in the 'fridge, and we used the water from that in our usual recipe.


The result was a beautiful deep reddish pink colour - well no surprises there - beetroot is red after all. It also has that nice earthy smell. I was a bit worried that it would stain, but it doesn't seem to.
James has really enjoyed this batch and has played with it A LOT! He started of with the usual play dough things, rolling and patting and then getting me to make things - a choo-choo, a cup, a cat, a digger (challenging one) and then squashing them as soon as they were ready. Then he started to cut it up into slices, and later discovered it cut very nicely with scissors - woohoo! - he cut and cut for ages. After supper he doggedly started again and he didn't want to stop cutting until quite late in the evening, despite being so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open. Finally he melted into a pool of exhausted tears, but not wanting to stop having fun. He cuddled in and then remembered something else he like better than play dough, so off to bed for milk and sleep.
I loved watching him do this - his own ideas from beginning to end - and the learning process unfolding before my eyes. It was an ordinary thing to do, but full of wonder.