Goodness so much changes in a year! I was looking at this post about my DIY Salt Dough Playdough stamps and could not believe all that has changed (and that which has stayed the same).

I wanted to share my post with you again, in case you are new here, missed it the first time around, or had forgotten about these awesome stamps. But just before I do, a very quick update:

To begin, Sammy is in school now, Madeline is heading into high school, and Ben will be transitioning to Kindergarten come Fall! Now that is a lot of change for one Mama to handle.

The same? Well, our flock of ladies is ever growing, my internet is still dreadful, and I am still aiming to be here 2 times a week.

And now, for the original post (which hopefully will not confuse you altogether – think of it as a flash from the past, if you could please.)

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We have been very busy around here lately!  The biggest of my little ones has been settling into a new school, and my littlest ones have been settling into a new year of ‘school’ at home.  Combining that with a still fairly new house, a flock of very new chickens (matched with equally new farmers), a coop that needed building, and storms that keep knocking out my internet connection and you have my reason for this space remaining so quiet as of late!

I do apologize, and I do miss connecting with you regularly.  I hope to settle into a nice rhythm very soon, and I promise to share at least 2 new posts with you each week in the meantime.

We have been busy as ever exploring, creating with, and enjoying our new surroundings.  We officially began our home school year this past week.  Sam is 4, and where we live that means he is now officially of school age.  I have opted to keep him home and we have been making some lovely connections with other home schooling families in the area.  We have a co-operative homeschool Kindergarten happening on our farm once a week, and we are really enjoying connecting and establishing some new friendships.

My focus this year is on experiences.  I want my little ones to have as many experiences as possible!  I want them to touch, see, explore, play with and experience as many things as possible.  With a strong base of experiences established, and a healthy dose of curiosity preserved, I know it will help them with all areas of their lives.  For now and the future.  And it is fun.

We have been exploring and playing a lot with textures lately.  We made these textured owls (which were a hoot!).  And we have been playing with salt dough, play dough, and clay almost daily.  I was mentioning to John (okay, I was complaining) that I wish we had some sturdy stamps to use with out dough.  Some durable ones that would stand up to time and makes some really neat textures in the dough – but anything I could find was very expensive!  The very next day, as we were playing with salt dough I realized a very simple solution.  We could very easily make them!

I made a very simply, incredibly durable, and completely individualizable set of salt dough stamps for well under $1.

And it was fun!  At rest time I whipped up a batch of salt dough.  We like to use the recipe from The Imagination Tree – simply salt, flour, and water.  You can pop over to The Imagination Tree for the measurements.

I simply grabbed a small handful of the salt dough, rolled it into a little thick snake, and flattened the ends on the table top.  I opted to make these stamps quite chunky, ideal for my toddlers little hands, and durable too.  Yes, durable seems to be the name of the game with these little boys of mine.

Next, I used a sharp knife and a fork to make different marks, lines, and dots.  Since my little ones are quite enjoying playing with textures that was the focus of these stamps.  I also made a few shape stamps, and a little smiling mouth too.  I tried to make a chicken, but failed miserably.  Of course if you are extra artsy you could do anything!  (And maybe please make me a chicken?)

I made shape stamps in 2 ways.  First of all I carved the shape into the stamp with a sharp knife.  The second way was to make the little shape out of salt dough and stick it to the top of the stamp.  Both work very well, and give very different imprints – again giving my little ones the experience of what shape, outline, and mold, make which imprints in dough.

I then baked them on a very cold, chilly, autumn day in the oven set to 250 for 3 hours.  I made sure they were very dry.

And that’s it!  Well, actually of course, that was just the beginning … then we played with the stamps.  My little ones have been playing with depth, texture, improving fine motor skills, practicing patterns, using descriptive words, and experiencing oodles through open play with these little stamps.

A simple, inexpensive way to provide my little ones with some great experiences ~ and all for under $1.  That makes any Mama happy!

I hope you have a great start to your week!  Please make sure you are following our Facebook page – I am finding myself there each day reading and catching up with you!  And I will be back to this space later this week.  Until then!

 

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