Bubble Dough

Sweet Pea is 6 years old.
 

From: I saw this very cool and super easy Bubble Dough recipe from Creative Playhouse and couldn’t wait to try it!

 Material:

• Mixing bowl.
• 1 cup Cornstarch.
• 1/4-1/2 cup Liquid dish or hand soap.  (We used Dawn.)
• Dry cloth and a damp sponge for clean up.

Procedure:

• Put 1 cup cornstarch into the mixing bowl.

• Add 1/4 cup liquid dish soap.

• Let your tot mush the cornstarch and soap together until they are combined into a smooth dough like texture.  (It starts very messy, but gets better!) 

• If your dough is still crumbly, add more liquid dish soap about 1 TBS at a time until it comes together.  If it is still sticky, sprinkle in some extra corn starch.
• Let your tot play!
• Make sure your tot washes their hands afterwards since they will have a soap film on them.
• To clean up – Try to roll the dough back together to collect every stray piece of dough and then wipe the table down with a dry cloth first!  
• Hand your tot a damp sponge and let them scrub the table clean.  It’s a fun activity and a chore combined.  Win! Win!

Observations:  This dough was amazing.  It was a huge winner.

Sweet Pea loved it!  She loved squishing the dough.  Shaping it.  Rolling it.  Everything!

I even loved playing with it.  It is somewhat similar to ooblek (cornstarch and water), but with a much sturdier texture.  You can make shapes out of it which then very slowly melt.

You can even “break” it.

After we were done, I stored the rest in an airtight container and it has kept without spoiling for about a month, although it has become much drier.  It isn’t so good for playing with anymore, but sometimes, I let Sweet Pea pinch off a little bit of the dough and use it to wash her hands.

This was one of the best “dough” mixtures we have ever used.  It has a great texture and is only a little bit messy.  Huge props to Creative Playhouse for discovering it!   I highly recommend it for all ages.  If your tot is too little to keep her hands out of her eyes, you could probably use a No Tears shampoo instead of the dish soap.  

It just occurred to me that I should try to mix the remains of our DIY liquid snot-soap with cornstarch and see what happens.  Off I go to experiment!

Notes from the Trenches: 

Adding water to the dough will create a gloopy mess.  And again, avoid getting any of it in the eyes since the soap will sting.  

I really want to call this material “clean clay” instead of “bubble dough” since it is essentially just malleable soap,  but since Kat over at Creative Playhouse came up with the recipe, I figure that she should get to name it.

Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent, Frugal)

Link Ups:  This post is linked up to It’s Playtime! @ Kid’s Activities Blog.