My niece and I love to create things when she stays with us. Everything from painting to making castles out of loo rolls. I remember doing it all as a child and I secretly love bringing back all those great memories and being a child again.

** Play-Doh Tubs **

Play-Doh is pliable coloured dough that can be moulded, cut, squashed and shaped into a million different things. The dough comes in little plastic tubs with lids (the lids correspond to the colour of the dough), and as long as the lids are put back on the product can last for months.

The pack of play-doh I bought comes in a pack of 4 tubs, each tub is 130g and you get a good amount of dough in each tub. The pack my niece chose had the colours Purple, Pink, Green and red. But the packs come in lots of different colours so it is nice to let the child choose or if you want to buy more than one pack.
The cardboard packaging that the pots come in is a good resource of ideas if you get stuck. The packaging we have has a picture of a play-doh dog, an apple and a hot air balloon. The point of Play-Doh is that it encourages creativity and hand to eye co-ordination. Plus fun in general!

** In Use **

My niece is 5 and loves getting a bit messy. She used play-doh she likes to squeeze and squash it, but the great thing is that it isn't messy! It cannot spill or stain, plus she is out of the age of wanting to eat it. She is at the age where she can create things easily and she is more than happy to sit there and create little meals for people. (She will roll the play-doh into little beads for peas and squash down little bits to make ham etc.). Her other favourite thing is to create little animals or people and we use a little pencil to create a face on what she creates to bring it to life which she always find quite funny. We just lightly dig the pencil into the 'face' and create two little eyes and lightly create a line in the play-dough for a mouth etc. The dough is really brightly colours and so soft and pliable. It has a lovely texture that even I like having a play with it and help my niece create things.

Once she has finished playing she now knows to put the play-doh back into the tubs. If it isn't put back and sealed properly than the play-doh dries up very quickly. The fact each pot has the colour on the lid means that she can easily put the coloured dough into the right tub.

My niece can play with this for quite a long time for her. She hasn't got the longest attention span but it will keep her entertained for a good 30 minutes and it is quick and easy to get out and put away. She has some other accessories that have been bought separately to be used with play-doh that increases the length of time she spends playing with it. Extra cutters, things to squeeze the play-doh through to make hair for her 'people' etc. But those are obviously at a cost but well worth it if your child likes play-doh. Of course you can be just as creative and use biscuit cutter and other bits and pieces to use with the play doh and everything can be washed.

My niece likes to keep her play-doh in their separate colours. But this dough can be mixed to create new colours. However, after too much 'blending and mixing' the dough can start to lose its colour and the fun disappears. I am quite lucky my niece doesn't do that too much and she is more into making shapes and figures rather than mixing the colours.

** Price, Availability & Recommendation **

We bought our pack of Play-Doh from Toys R Us for £2.97 which is great considering the use we get out of it. It can also be bought from Amazon for approx. £3.00. Lots of supermarkets sell play-doh and it is well worth having a shop around. At one point Sainsbury's were selling play-top for 29p! A complete bargain and we missed it! So always look around.

Play-doh is a great creative toy and brilliant for children of all ages. (Under 2's should be supervised so they don't eat it). It can used with just the hands or to add extra fun and creativity find things to roll, cut and shape it with. There are lots of colours to choose from and what you can make is limitless!
Not very messy and a great way to keep the kids occupied.

** Important Info **

Play-Doh is non-toxic and does not contain peanuts, peanut oil, any milk by-products or latex. However, the packaging states that those allergic to wheat gluten or specific food dyes may have an allergic reaction to this product.

Hasbro the manufacturer of Play-Doh state that the toy is suitable from 2 years old.