Salt Dough & Shenanigans

I was surfing through Pintrest a few weeks ago and found a blog called The Artist Woman. She is a homeschooling mom who uses art to enrich her children's learning experience. In this entry they made Jurassic landscapes in salt dough for one of their projects for the section on Dinosaurs. They look like giant old coins.  Now I'm not a homeschooling mom much to my husband and best friend's dismay, but it inspired me to make a piece of art work that little man and I can create together.

 I want to redo his room, like a turn of the century paleontology site. The base of my plan is to create a wall hanging to look like it is a framed coin collection in Dinotopia. Very rustic, maybe a touch of Steampunk. I will discuss the completed vision as it comes into focus, but let's focus on one thing at a time for now. Just so you know, I don't do anything easy. So there are multiple steps to this project and I'm trying for us to make all the components ourselves.  I was going to write about it all in one blog, but nothing would ever get written if I did that. All my information would pile up and eventually I would get overwhelmed and abandon the project all together. So I've decided to do it in installments.

This is the first time little man and I are trying our hand at making an instructional blog. Luckily the coins are made of Salt dough which is easy enough for a 4 1/2 year to do with direction, so I thought I would seize this moment do a So easy a preschool can do it" style segment. I was shock a how much he really enjoyed doing this, making salt dough and creating the instructional photos. He loves to be the teacher, so when I explained his photos would be instructing other kids how to make the salt dough, he was all in. LOL!!! I love my little alpha male. He really took to this format. I would show him a step then he would repeat the step for the camera. We will definitely be doing this style of entry more often. He wants to do video, and have his own you-tube channel. I'm not ready for that yet. Plus he still needs some work with his words.

Well enough of my rambling! On with the instructions. This is a basic salt-dough recipe. If you wanted it colored just add some food coloring, but since we are going to be painting our dough to look like coins it was unnecessary here.

What you need:

1 cup of Salt

4 cups of  All-purpose flour

1-2 cups of  Water

In a large bowl combine the salt and the flour.

Gradually stir in water until the dough begins to clump. Try not to add to much water, or your dough will be sticky. If that does happen, add a little more flour to get it to a workable consistency.

On a well floured* surface knead dough until is smooth and pliable. They usually compare it to having a feel similar to that of your ear lobe. Dough can be used immediately or stored in the refrigerator indefinitely.

Something to remember, even though my son did help with each step he was supervised and helped with the stirring and kneading of the dough. Let them do some of the work, but remember especially if your working with young kids, you will need to make sure each step is properly completed for the project to be successful.

I couldn't believe how much he enjoyed doing this. In fact he was ready to move on the next step when we were done making the dough. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't prepared, because I had no intention on going on to the next step. I have learned to only do one section of the craft at a time, even if he wants to move on to the next step. That way he is excited about it. So instead of my having to struggle with him to keep his focus on the task at hand, he is eager and asking to do it. Since we've started doing these projects his attention span has gotten better. He is beginning to slow down and listen.  Hopefully this will travel over to school.

*When kneading dough of any kind it is important to do it on a well floured surface and with floured hands. Otherwise the dough will stick to your hand and counter top. If this happens it is easily remedied by adding  flour, but save your self the hassle by not skipping this step.