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	family fun guide

Getting Down and Dirty
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Playdough: Mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 4 teaspoons cream of tartar, 2 cups water, 2 teaspoons cooking oil, and food coloring of your choice. Stir in a saucepan over medium heat until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. Cool and knead. Store in an airtight container to keep soft and malleable.

Uncooked playdough: Mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup water with food coloring added to it. This dough doesn't keep as long, but it is easier for children to make.

Baker's clay: Mix 1 1/2 cups flour with 1 1/2 cups salt; add 3/4 to 1 cup of water and knead until stretchy. Creations from this dough can be baked in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes and then painted with poster paints.

Sand dough: Mix 2 cups corn starch, 4 cups fine sand, and 3 cups cold water in a pan. Cook over medium heat until thick. Let the dough cool, and use it to make a sandcastle or sculpture. Decorate with shells, beads, and other objects. Your creations will harden and last.

Peanut butter playdough: Mix 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup honey, 1 cup powdered milk, and 1 cup oatmeal. Roll the dough and cut it out with cookie cutters, or make free-form sculptures. When you are finished with your creations, eat them!

Slime: Mix a box of cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water. Add green food coloring. This dough isn't for making sculptures--it's just fun to ooze between your fingers! When it dries out, simply add more water.

Silly putty: Mix equal parts of Elmer's glue and liquid starch. Food coloring can be added. Store in airtight container.

Good Clean Fun
When you've gotten messy from your mud and clay creations, clean up with a little bubble fun. Here are a few bubble ideas that appeal to kids and parents alike:

Bubble soap: Mix 1 cup dishwashing liquid, 10 cups water, and 1/4 cup glycerin (available at the drugstore; for longer-lasting bubbles). Make bubble wands from straws, cardboard toilet paper rolls, or thin wire bent in creative shapes.

Bubble paint: Add a few drops food coloring to bubble solution. Blow a bubble and let it pop on a sheet of white paper. Mix different colors and pop them on the same sheet. Soon you will have a colorful piece of artwork.

Monster bubbles: Roll a piece of poster board into a cylinder and paper clip the ends together. Dip into a bowl of bubble solution and wave it in the air. To make bubbles galore, dip the plastic rings from a six-pack container into the solution and wave them in the air.