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All Natural Homemade Rosemary & Lemon Scented Playdough

We love making homemade playdough and I will often add elements of texture or scent to a new batch of dough to enhance the sensory input of the play experience – for example, you can check out our textured funfetti playdough here, our herbal tea scented playdough and our delicious mulberry playdough (and we’ve also given Ali’s peppermint scented version whirl!)

I prefer to stick to all natural ingredients when making playdough for young children, especially those who are still likely to mouth what they are playing with, which is what makes this recipe for Rosemary & Lemon Scented Playdough perfect for little ones. The bonus is, it’s also great for bigger kids as rosemary is believed to boost memory and focus (and lift mood) and lemon to improve concentration. So I am thinking this playdough would be great for making letters for sight word and spelling revision and as a tool for math learning too. Perfect for homework, I think!

All natural Rosemary & Lemon Scented Playdough

To make this playdough, I adapted my favourite homemade playdough recipe. But before I started, AJ and I went out to our two big rosemary bushes to find some rosemary. We cut about eight large sprigs and roughly tore off the leaves and snapped the stems into a bowl before I added 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and left it to steep. The longer you leave it, the stronger the rosemary scent will be but I would recommend leaving it for a minimum of two hours. Once it is ready, strain the rosemary water to remove all of the pieces of leaf and stalk.

Rosemary & Lemon Scented Playdough

Then it’s time to make your playdough. Into a large saucepan place;

  • 2 cups of plain flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
  • 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
  • 1 1/2 cups of rosemary water
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
Follow the cooking directions found here. I coloured our playdough after cooking, dividing the dough into two halves and colouring half yellow and half green.
Homemade Rosemary & Lemon Scented Playdough
And then it was time to play!
What is your favourite type of playdough?

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Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Jenni says

    March 29, 2015 at 11:16 PM

    Ooh I can almost smell it :-) I think playdough is our most played with material! We've recently made cinnamon playdough and at the moment we have sand playdough and shells -inspired by my son's beach birthday party.

  3. Stephanie says

    January 3, 2016 at 12:58 PM

    Thank you for posting this idea! I have a son with sensory issues and one of the things his therapist like for him to do is play with play dough to help his fine motor skills and stimulate his nerves in his hands. I've been also researching for a few years on how Essential oils help with the sensory system, stimulate the brain and help with cognitive development. Following your idea of adding rosemary and lemon to play dough helps get the best out of both of these things in one fun way! Awesome idea! I can't wait to.make some for my son!

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