How I Get Anything Done While Simultaneously Homeschooling: My Favorite Playdoh Recipe

Ok, so most of the days I either get homeschooling done, cleaning done, blogging done, OR sewing done. This is because I swear the kids can make a mess faster than I can chase them around to clean it up.  In a conversation recently with another homeschool mom, we discussed how the kids just spend all day undoing what we are doing (getting unhungry, pooping in diapers, getting out toys, making bodies muddy, making dishes dirty, making laundry dirty, etc.).  Every Friday I think, "Yikes! How can I ever get the house clean WHILE the kids are stationarily (I know spellcheck, it's not a word, I made it up, get over it) enjoying something "educational" (besides T.V.)?"  And then I remember, PLAYDOH!  When will two little boys voluntarily sit still long enough for me to temporarily catch up with them?  When they are playing with playdoh.  Now, I know what you are thinking.  "But, Beck, that makes a huge mess and the 19 month old will eat it!"  Yes, it makes a little bit of a mess (less if you always insist on the playdoh staying on a plastic cutting board or if you play outside), but not as much of a mess as regular boy activities do.  And the  mess is hopefully contained to one area.  And yes, the 19 month old tried it once, and thought it was too salty, so he stopped.  I can't stand the smell of that awful "real" store bought playdoh, and that stuff can get pricey so I make my own.  When I first started making it I got a great recipe from my mother-in-law but it required cooking the playdoh in a pot (aka burning a sticky mixture of wet flour and salt to the bottom of one of my cooking pots that requires chipping off later).  Then I found the no cook recipe in More Mudpies to Magnets: Science for Young Children by Sherwood, Williams and Rockwell (our science curriculum) and fell in love.  I do add a bit more water because it is a little crumbly.

1 cup flour
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup water
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Put dry in first and stir, add wet in a nest, stir again, and mix with hands.

And now if you will excuse me, the magic of the playdoh is over, the dishes are not done (I was blogging instead) and Quentin is shaking the contents of a bag of Grapenuts all over the kitchen floor.  Happy doughing!