Money Saving Messy Play Activities

As parents it can feel like your money disappears so quickly, especially with the current prices for things going up and up. Here are some low cost and easy messy play activities you can do at home with your little ones. If you’re looking for more money saving tips check out our previous blog here!

Make your own money saving play dough – in just 4 minutes!

You will need the following ingredients:

• 250g Plain flour
• 125g Table salt
• 2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons Cream of tartar
• 250ml Boiling water
• Food colouring (optional – gel ones are best!)

Method:

1. Mix the flour, salt, oil and cream of tartar in a large bowl.
2. If using food colouring – add & mix into the boiling water.
3. Gradually add the boiling water and mix until it feels the right consistency (a sticky combined dough).
4. Allow the dough to cool, once cooled remove the dough from the bowl and knead it until all of the stickiness has gone. You may need to gradually add a little more flour if it still remains sticky after lots of kneading.

It will last for approximately 6 months if stored correctly in an airtight container. You can also freeze it and take it out the night before you want to use it. You can also add seasonings to it to make it smell nice like pumpkin spice at Halloween.

Sensory Rice

You will need:

Place 1kg of rice into a medium sandwich bag

• 500g – 1kg Long grain rice
• Food colouring (gel works best)
• 1 medium food bag
• Greaseproof paper
• Baking tray

Method:

1. Pour the rice into the sandwich bag
2. Mix the food colouring with a small amount of water and pour into the bag with the rice.
3. Make sure the bag is closed then shake/squish the bag to mix the food colouring into the rice until it is all covered/coloured.
4. Pour the rice onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and either leave to dry on the side or you can place it in the oven for a short time (make sure you check it regularly as you don’t want it to burn!).
5. Now you have money saving sensory rice to put into a tuff tray – you can be creative as you like! We like to laminate faces to put on our creations which makes them fun for little ones but they are just as happy with just the rice!

Sensory Trays

Children love to discover new and different textures, our Little Learners sessions prove it! You can put a variety of things out for your child to explore, here are some money saving ideas for you to try:

1. Place a mixture of lentils, split peas and dry pasta in different parts of a tray and let your child discover the different textures.
2. Cereals are great fun for littles ones – we love using weetabix, cornflakes, rice krispies and coco pops as they are a big hit with our Little Learners Wakefield, especially as they are taste safe. Weetabix makes great walls or you can challenge your child to see how high they can stack them! Have a go at making different animals using cereals – its lots of fun and you can buy these cereals low cost!

Low Cost and Low Mess Painting at home

Children love to paint and explore making their own marks with paint. If you don’t like too much mess at home chalk eggs are a great ‘less mess’ alternative.

Using different textures for painting can be lots of fun. Everyday home objects can make great painting effects – potatoes, sponges, brushes etc.

If you like to get outdoors you can collect some leaves with your children and then they can have a go painting the leaves and making leaf prints on paper. You can also make simple stencils for them to paint using paper and scissors.

Got some low cost messy play or money saving tips of your own? Let us know in the comments!

If you prefer to keep the mess away from your home…

Come and join us for our baby and toddler messy play and mark making classes in Wakefield. Our January term classes will be on Tuesdays at The Little Hub, Flanshaw. We also have various events throughout the year and our Daddy Learn With Me! class just for Dads are every first Saturday of the month. I also offer parties which are tailored to your theme and can be as messy as you want them to be. Please contact me if you are interested in having a Little Learners Wakefield party!

I look forward to seeing you at a class, event or a party in Wakefield soon!

Joanna – Little Learners Wakefield