A Dough For All Seasons (and a little bit of literacy)

Playdough is big at our house.  It was since the kids were toddlers.  We grew from pretend cooking with miniature bake ware to making elaborate fairy houses.  I love to connect all of our activities with the outside world, especially with the seasons (and calendar holidays). I have a great homemade recipe that is cheap & easy. I switch it up a little to give the kids a color and fragrance of the seasons/holidays.

I made a batch this morning anticipating any rainy days left in our dwindling summer.  AND I have an ulterior motive with my younger firecracker who refuses to "learn" anything that has to do with school.  I will share my scheme below. First, let me get to the recipe:

3 cups flour
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups salt
2T vegetable oil
1T cream of tartar

Although today I had to improvise since I had no vegetable oil.  I substituted coconut oil; it worked fine and now I have a new summer scent for August!

Take all ingredients and mix them in a saucepan.  Set heat to medium and stir constantly, scraping the sides of the pot.  Until it turns into a big ball of dough.

Turn out on wax paper and let it cool.  Store it in a Ziploc bag and it will keep for a month, if not longer.

When I change my theme for each month, I add the ingredients below to the saucepan with all the other items I mentioned above when making the playdough.

This is my usual rundown for all the months of the year:
January: Snow- 1T peppermint extract, generous amount of blue glitter
February: Valentine- 1T cinnamon, 5 drops of red food coloring
March: St. Patrick's Day/Start of spring- 1 envelope lime Jello, 5 drops green food coloring
April: Spring- 2t lavender essential oil, 5 drops of purple food coloring
May: Strawberry Season- 1 pack strawberry Jello, 2 drops red food coloring
June: Peach Season- 1 pack peach Jello, 2 drops 3 drops orange food coloring
July: Blueberry Season- 1 pack blueberry Jello, 5 drops of blue food coloring
August: Late Summer- replace vegetable oil with coconut oil
September: Apples- 1T apple extract, 5 drops red food coloring *apple extract can be hard to find.  I'd check at craft stores in the baking section during the fall or order it on line through this online store I have used before.
October: Pumpkins- 1T pumpkin pie spice, 5 drops orange food coloring
November: Warming Foods- 1/4 cup cocoa
December: Christmas Cookie/Baking: 1T vanilla extract, 5 drops yellow food coloring


Now for my elaborate plan:
I found these little cookie cutters at a yard sale years ago:

I will have Mya make playdough letters out of these cookie cutters and form words as listed above.  You can see the word "sat".  I will have her change the first letter with each one above so she is "reading" new words. I will also try this with -ot, -it, -am, etc.  Hopefully she won't catch on that this is a phonics lesson. ;) Later we will write them on paper to see if we remember.

Also, I am guilty of going to Toys R Us to pick up a pack of traditional playdough.  How can I refuse when I found these relics salvaged from my childhood?

Feel free to post in the comments sections as to anything different you may try with your homemade playdough in regards to the seasons or holidays.  I always love new ideas.