I attempted to make salt dough for my kids to the turn into ornaments that they could paint or we could make into bird feeders. It turned out to be a lot of fun for them to roll out the dough and push the cookie cutters into it. The hardest part was waiting for them to dry. One thing I learned was that I should flip them halfway through the drying process to help the backside of the ornaments dry quicker.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!We had a lot of fun picking out paint and starting the process of painting a few of them. Even my one and a half year old enjoyed coloring with markers and a little bit of paint on his.
Another idea we had was to put peanut butter and birdseed on them to hang them outside for the birds to enjoy. I think the kids will really enjoy watching the birds eat them as they have thoroughly enjoyed watching the deer in our backyard enjoy our rotten pumpkins.
Nature
They love watching all things nature and I’m all about encouraging it. I would much rather the kids spend time watching nature and being outside than sitting in front of the TV. One of their favorite things to do is watch the deer in our backyard. Our kids each have their own binoculars to enjoy finding different things.
We do not have any devices for our kids to use on a regular basis. We have one tablet that they occasionally get to use in the car on long road trips. Generally, though they are having more fun playing and are not overly interested in watching TV or playing games on a device.
So, this craft was perfect for our family. We have almost two weeks off for winter break and it’s definitely something I think we will do again over break and let the kids share with some of their friends.
I love finding new things to share with others! It was easy and a successful experiment!
Recipe Salt Dough
- 1 cup table salt
- 4 cups flour
- 1.5 cups water
Instructions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees.
- Begin by mixing together the ingredients in a bowl.
- Then place the dough on parchment paper and roll it out to the desired thickness. (Keep in mind that the thicker they are, the longer it may take to dry)
- Next, grab some cookie cutters and make your desired shapes.
- If making ornaments don’t forget to poke a hole for your string to go through.
- Then place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven, for best results for 2 hours at 175 degrees. I found that they dried out better if I flipped them halfway through.
- You can also let them air dry, but it takes much longer.
- Once they have dried and cooled decorate as desired. You could even seal them with Mod Podge.
Faith
God is the bread of life he have us Jesus to help guide us in our human ways. Jesus as the spiritual sustenance that gives eternal life. Just as bread is essential for physical nourishment, Jesus is seen as essential for spiritual nourishment, fulfilling the deepest needs of the soul.
John 6:35 (NIV)
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
In the Bible, dough and leaven (yeast) are also used as metaphors. In Matthew 13:33, Jesus says:
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Here, yeast represents the transformative power of the Kingdom of God, which can spread and affect everything it touches, just as a small amount of yeast leavens a large quantity of dough.
Although, salt dough does not use yeast, it does give us a good representation of Christ. God uses all types of metaphors to help us understand him.