I admit it…I browse around Pinterest quite a bit. This stay-at-home-mom thing still doesn’t come naturally to me, so I have to steal other people’s ideas. And I’ve seen of lot of pins for Cloud Dough. There are people who, it seems, do this on a regular basis. They add different scented oils or extracts – peppermint seems to be the flavor of choice around the holidays – and have different toys in the dough for different themes. So I figured this was going to a really good time.
I mixed a batch up one morning. I didn’t do anything fancy…just flour and oil. I mixed until it was firm enough to stick together, but it was still really soft and fluffy. And this is where I had my first concern. This is basically flour. Flour is messy. So I decided to strip Lucy down to her diaper for this one. (If you only read these posts to see cute pics of my beautiful daughter, you’re out of luck here, as I didn’t want to post too many naked pictures.)
She started out cautiously drawing in the bucket with her finger. But it wasn’t long before she was picking up handfuls and spreading them on her legs, like lotion.
She lost interest pretty quickly…I’d say less than five minutes. But this is the first activity that the cat enjoyed.
Overall, I’d say this was a huge fail. It was neither interesting or educational, and it was a huge mess.
I don’t know who these people are that are making this stuff by the truckload, but I’m a little bitter that I was led to believe this was going to be so much fun. It sucked. And it took forever to clean up, because although it looks like just flour that you could sweep up, the oil made it just sticky enough to require mopping. UGH. Never again.
2 + 2 
I’m sad your daughter didn’t like. My students love it!! I teach a preschool special education class. We provide little cups with it and they like it because it molds into “sand castles”. Ours is made with baby oil and flour, and we fill our sensory table (it’s pretty big.. we make a whole bag of flour..). Sometimes we put a small amount in a tray at the table too. Right now their are plastic coins (treasure in it). I do agree though, it’s pretty messy!!
You are a good mama for trying. I tended to leave the messy crafts for school to deal with rather than have them at home. You can make playdough with scent too, and it is easier (a bit) to clean up. Frozen bread dough is a good activity – you can thaw it, play with it and at the end bake it and eat it (even if it is a bit grey from dirty hands). I used to do this with day camp kids and their hands were DIRTY. For messy crafts like this and others, sitting in a big cardboard box dishwasher or refrigerator size, or a small kiddie pool) is great! It contains the mess to a set area and you can pick it up and shake it out. A total and complete hit at our house was the year round use of plastic easter eggs – they can be filled with anything and opened and shut over and over….my daughter would fill them with grass outside, bugs, things in the house. Good luck.
Sounds like a mess! Those curls are IRRESISTIBLE. Darling doesn’t even start to describe it 🙂
I think the the Pinterest Moms are moms with nannies and cleaning ladies. No one who tried this once AND had to do the clean-up would think, “This is a great idea! Let me share it with the world!” Thanks for the heads up; we will not be trying it here!