If you let your DC use play dough...

[petesgirl]

Do you have a 'one color at a time' rule or other rules? Or do you just let them have at it and do what they want as they play?
(I'm sure you all have obvious rules about keeping it on the table, etc)

[TwoBees]

I try to separate the colors before they put them away, but DD recently got the ice cream shop set which twists the colors together and I have given up. I just look for sales to buy more for when the colors all become brown.

P.S. it drives me nuts that the colors get mixed but I'm trying to let it go.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I try to separate the colors before they put them away, but DD recently got the ice cream shop set which twists the colors together and I have given up. I just look for sales to buy more for when the colors all become brown.

P.S. it drives me nuts that the colors get mixed but I'm trying to let it go.

Yep. Play Doh is cheap. Play away.

[belovedgandp]

It's a free for all on the colors. I have three kids, one of them likes to keep things neat, so when that child wants to play with play-doh I'll try to keep a few cans separate or break open a couple new ones. But a majority of the time it is just deal with what we have.

My kids LOVE the stuff. I HATE it in my house. It is an outdoor toy. I have the awesome folding picnic table in my garage. They play with it in the driveway when the weather is nice. When it gets really cold, I will set it up in the garage when one of the cars is gone.

Only rule is to keep it out there and close up the cans before moving to other activities to keep it from drying up.

Play-doh can entertain my kids for hours.

[maestramommy]

It's a free for all. They general keep the colors separate, but over time it just gets mixed together.

[JBaxter]

Pretty much us too. I dont micromanage the kids playdoh time. LOL
Yep. Play Doh is cheap. Play away.

[3isEnough]

It's a free for all here too. I just replace when necessary.

[Simon]

I keep it to one color per kid at a time, but we mostly are just rolling and cutting or shapes. Nothing fancy. I find this rule helps end squabbles about who took what from whom.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Free for all here too. i'm just happy if DD doesn't eat it :) also, the one-color-at-at-time rule would NOT fly with my DS. DS loves to get all the colors of everyting (i did as a kid too, so i understand that)

the only thing is i make sure it is put away after they are done and doesn't just sit there to dry out. DS is fairly ocd about this thankfully so that helps :)

[wellyes]

I consider play-doh a 2-3 time use product.
One color at a time if it's the good stuff (aka homemade).

[american_mama]

Yes, they use more than one color and it does get mixed up. It used to bother me until I realized it was a losing battle that missed the point of creative play anyway. And it dries out eventually, whether it's mixed up colors or solid, so you'll end up replacing it occasionally no matter what.

I agree with others - Play Doh doesn't need tons of rules, at least not to me.

[carolinacool]

OMG. I totally micromanage Play Doh. Growing up, it drove me batty when my brother would mix the colors, now it drives me batty when DS does it. He doesn't play with it often at all, but the other day he asked for it and I had to do some other stuff. When I came back, there was a big ball of color. I picked it apart as best I could and threw away the parts that were too far gone. :ROTFLMAO:

[hellokitty]

I tried to micromanage it and of course, all it did was drive me nuts. Now all of their playdoh is just a yucky looking blob color, but they don't care, so I let it slide off of my back.

[Neatfreak]

Well, no. I usually only ever make one colour per batch, so it's a non-issue. My kids are free to mix away with the store-bought dough that comes with the sets because I really don't think that I should be telling them how to play with playdough. I'm more concerned on how they clean it up!

[A1icia]

I like to get out just one color group at a time to avoid yucky combos. For example I'll get out red, orange and yellow or various shades of purples and blues. DS is 3yo and is still thrilled with just a few colors at a time. I'm probably more guilty of color mixing then he is - I like to make snakes and then braid or twist them and give them to him to use with an extruder. He love making multicolor spaghetti.

[athompson]

Free-for-all giant mess here. That reminds me, I need to buy more play doh!

[BabyBearsMom]

My rules are have fun and get messy. Once the colors turn muddy I just replace them. It's cheap and I like the kids to have a blast

[Binkandabee]

I try to separate the colors before they put them away, but DD recently got the ice cream shop set which twists the colors together and I have given up. I just look for sales to buy more for when the colors all become brown.

P.S. it drives me nuts that the colors get mixed but I'm trying to let it go.

This is me, too. DD has more fun when she can mix the colors, so I've let it go.

[hillview]

I used to but quickly moved to toss it after.

[AshleyAnn]

I let DD enjoy her playdough and mix colors. Life is too short to micromanage playdough!

[petesgirl]

OP here--
Thanks for the responses! DS has *just* started mixing colors and I've tried to tell him not to, but really I feel like that defeats the purpose of creative play. Drives DH nuts though. :)
As a side note, we had an EI specialist here for an evaluation a few days ago and she said that play dough is one of the very best developmental toys for children--it helps with gross and fine motor skills and imagination.

[Meatball Mommie]

Free for all in my house (back when my kiddos played with it). They loved having massive amounts of play-doh at one time, so I would make our own in largish batches. The best is when I scented it with cinnamon & nutmeg - yum! I can't stand the smell of "real" play-doh so I preferred to make my own really. Both boys loved to make mountains and drive their Matchbox cars over it (and use their mini construction equipment).

[TwinFoxes]

Pretty much us too. I dont micromanage the kids playdoh time. LOL

:yeahthat:

[Momit]

I try to separate the colors before they put them away, but DD recently got the ice cream shop set which twists the colors together and I have given up. I just look for sales to buy more for when the colors all become brown.

P.S. it drives me nuts that the colors get mixed but I'm trying to let it go.

This, exactly.

[123LuckyMom]

I tell DS as I'm opening the cans that if he mixes the colors up, they will have to stay mixed, because they will blend. Then I let him have at it knowing the consequences. Some colors he preserves, others he mixes. It's up to him. Occasionally he'll ask for new colors because he's mixed them too much. I get them the next time he's earned a reward for exceptional behavior (which is a system we do for above and beyond kindness and helpfulness. We all get stars awarded by each other, even mom and dad.) I feel like play doh is supposed to be messy and creative. I am strict about taking care of markers, but not play doh.

[azzeps]

This reminds me of the time we made play dough together and spent lots of time kneading the food coloring into six different balls of dough. I swear it was only 10 minutes later and it was one giant blob of purplish brown! I wondered why we had spent so much time coloring it different shades if all they wanted was to mush it all together!!! I just chuck it all in a big gallon size ziploc bag now, all the colors together, and all the homemade mixed with all the commercial dough. Sorry. I bet that makes all you play dough micro managers cringe. It's ok. I used to be one too.

[ArizonaGirl]

Maybe I need to bring this up at my therapy session :hysterical:

Ok so I am only partially kidding about that, but we do NOT mix play doh here, I can barely stand to bring it out because of the mess it makes and cleaning those darn toy assemblies (yes I am talking about you Ice Cream Maker).

I'm having palpitations just thinking about it...

[#2ontheway]

Things you don't realize about yourself until you become a parent... I hate playdoh. It's messy, it stinks, the annoying plastic stuff that it comes with gets all gummed up and is a pain to clean, little bits of it get on the floor... I hate it all. I honestly might throw it all away sometimes when the kids aren't paying attention. Love the idea about making it an outdoor only toy. I'd love a good homemade recipe... that might help.

[fedoragirl]

Hate Playdoh but love homemade playdough. It's softer and I don't have to watch DS like a hawk in case he eats it. My kids love play dough so we do it a lot. I have a washable rug underneath so I don't care about clean up. There is no way I could make this an outdoor activity--we'd be without it for 6 months.
I used to keep the colors separated and now DD does this herself. DS likes making combinations so I put out 3 cans at a time.
This is one of my favorite "toys" to play with the kids. And I hate messes but this is so tactile and fun.

[s7714]

Mix away! As an artist I think mixing the colors is a great way to develop some color theory knowledge. My 8 and 10 year olds loved mixing Play Doh colors as toddlers and to this day love seeing what new colors they can come up with when mixing their Model Magic. My toddler DS is a fan of eating Play Doh, so he doesn't play with it much right now! I view Play Doh as a limited use product like other PPs. After 5 or 6 uses it's usually crumbly and dry so it gets tossed.

[Globetrotter]

I just let them mix to their heart's content. I wouldn't want to limit their creativity.

[wendibird22]

OMG. I totally micromanage Play Doh. Growing up, it drove me batty when my brother would mix the colors, now it drives me batty when DS does it. He doesn't play with it often at all, but the other day he asked for it and I had to do some other stuff. When I came back, there was a big ball of color. I picked it apart as best I could and threw away the parts that were too far gone. :ROTFLMAO:

This was me when we first got into playdoh with DD1. Once DD2 came along I conceded victory to my master mixing kids.