We love playdough and we love lavender essential oil. Why not combine the two to make a fun and relaxing playdough for playtime before bed or when we need to relax a little during the day?
The kids and I love lavender water play in the summer but in the cold months we can not get our water bin out to play in before bed. Now with lavender playdough we will have an alternative to calming playtime before bed indoors.
The great thing about this playdough is you can really play with it anytime of the day. That is just what we did this afternoon when we needed a little peace and calm in our day.
How to make Lavender Playdough
Lavender Playdough Ingredients:
- lavender essential oil
- purple glitter
- purple food coloring
- flour
- cream of tartar
- salt
- cornstarch, or, corn flour in UK
- avocado oil
How to make Lavender Playdough
Get a pan out and put on the stove. I have an old sauce pan I use for playdough only now. However, before I started making playdough all the time I used our sauce pan we cook in and just washed well after. The pan always came out clean.
Add 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1.5 cups cornstarch, 2 tsp cream of tartar, and 2 TBS avocado oil. I take my measuring cup and add 2 cups water. Then add purple food coloring, lavender oil(use as much as you want), and purple glitter and mix. Once mixed, I add this to the pan.
I start stirring and turn heat to high. As it heats up I turn to medium high and cook until it holds together like playdough. I stir as it cooks on the stove. Once the liquid becomes playdough, I sit the playdough on a plate to cool.
Keep an eye on the playdough not to let cool too long because it can become hard on the edges. Let sit approximately 20 minutes. Then I place playdough in a freezer bag to store. Most of our playdough keeps for a year plus in our storage bags.
I just love how soft this batch of playdough came out!! I decreased the amount of salt and added extra avocado oil to the recipe. I might have to do this all the time now.
I decided to set up a Mandala Play Activity to go over patterns with the kids. I gathered loose parts from our craft closet and the pantry. Quick and easy play activity for the kids. My boys are 3yr and 6yr that got to enjoy this playdough activity.
We used dry beans, beads, and buttons as our loose parts to add the patterns to our playdough.
I placed two plastic mats down for the kids. I made circles out of the lavender playdough and placed them on their mats. The kids then went to work creating patterns on the circles. They did a great job on a few, recreating patterns. Then, for fun, they added loose parts all over to create whatever they wanted.
I just love how all of them turned out. They really had a good time playing and staying calm while baby brother napped. Yay, it worked! Lavender playdough for peace and calm time was a success at our house.
More Calming Lavender Recipes:
Love this idea! I have everything to make it but the avocado oil. Can I use Olive oil instead? Why avocado oil?
Yep! Any oil will work. The coconut is just extra soft.
This is so wonderful. I hope to add it to the calming corner in my son’s class!
Fabulous idea, can’t wait to you it with my grandchildren and in my classroom.
You’ll love it!