I’ve heard many Moms say that they never let their kids play PlayDoh because of the mess it creates and yes, it can get messy, but the mess can be also contained to form a kind of controlled mess. T1 has been playing PlayDoh since she was 2 and now T2 also plays PlayDoh a whole lot. I think that the benefits of PlayDoh far outweigh the mess problem and here is why:-

The Analogy of LIFE

Children learn from playing PlayDoh that for every action, there is a reaction. Every action has a consequence. When we press it, it flattens. When we pull it, it stretches. When we poke it, it forms a hole. When we squeeze it, it becomes flatter. Later, you can teach your child that life is like PlayDoh (when they are 6-7 years old). Everything we do has a consequence. Like PlayDoh, we can choose to behave in many ways and each way we behave has a consequence too. If they don’t work hard on their PlayDoh, and have no patience, it will be a blob of gunk. Similarly in their friendships, if they don’t treat their friends with kindness and fairness, very soon their friendships would be a mess too.

Fine tuning of Fine Motor Skills

Fiddling with PlayDoh helps children develop better their fine motor skills and their hand-eye coordination. They work their tiny muscles on their fingers and get better and better with their pincer grasps with each PlayDoh session. The eyes and fingers are always working and then the brain brings it all together. These practises will eventually contribute to the child’s manipulation of the pencil grip and holding crayons, and eventually writing correctly. Many children today hold their pencils wrongly and hence can not write fluently. This becomes a problem when they start writing cursive and later when they need to write a lot of essays in a short span of time during exams.

Another Form of Learning

PlayDoh is also a medium in which a child can learn. For example, children learn in various ways be it visually, auditor-illy or kinaesthetically. A visual child may have problems learning her shapes by looking at the whiteboard or books but give her some PlayDoh and some cookie cutters and she may learn her shapes immediately. Similarly, they can learn their colours through the various PlayDoh colours and can start learning ANYTHING really when PlayDoh is used as a kinaesthetic medium for teaching tactile learners.

Boosting Creativity Juice

One of the biggest benefits of PlayDoh is allowing your child to make and create whatever it is he feels like creating. Because it is shapeless and moldable, children are free to explore and really, their world is at their fingertips. They can create absolutely ANYTHING with PlayDoh. It is a shame that the PlayDoh sets that they sell come as Ice-Cream Machines or Burger Sets or Barbeque Sets; everything is associated with food! Who says it has to be? Why can’t we make a PlayDoh book, or a PlayDoh cow, or a PlayDoh Blackberry! A child’s mind should NEVER, EVER be constrained and limited. Let them be free and allow them to create cylindrical houses if they want to.

LOTS OF FUN!!!

Last but not least, playing with PlayDoh is plenty FUN. It truly is. A child can play PlayDoh by himself or he can play in a group with friends where they learn to communicate and interact and share with one another. Either way, PlayDoh is FUN. My girls have had plenty, plenty sessions with PlayDoh fun and it is something I highly recommend to every young child. And seriously, even at 10, 15, 20, 30 etc, you could still have fun with PlayDoh. Back in the day, we only had plasticine – does anyone remember those???

Now, there are so many options of PlayDoh, Clay and all sorts of other soft, squidgy, moldable materials for play available in the market. I say just make your own. There are many recipes you can find on the net on how to make PlayDoh. We have done it before and it was great. We are now too lazy…….

I wouldn’t get too anal about which PlayDoh or clay brand to get because seriously, you’re supposed to be monitoring your young child whilst he plays anyway, so assumingly he wouldn’t be able to eat the PlayDoh unless he was really hungry and you left him alone to eat it. And seriously, wouldn’t you have to ingest quite a lot of it before it becomes harmful? If your child has a reaction to a pea of PlayDoh, he probably has low immunity or suffers from allergies and as a parent, you should know about this. We suffer from allergies but we’ve had no problems at all with PlayDoh (the actual PlayDoh brand) and we’ve also used several other brands with no problems at all. Plus, I have no idea if my kids have eaten any amount of PlayDoh because I don’t monitor their PlayDoh activity. I just tell them not to eat it *grins*. They seem to get it!

If you want to be super safe, then just make it yourself. But seriously, PlayDoh is worth playing because like I said before, the benefits of PlayDoh far outweigh the hassle for Mom.

TRY IT!!!

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