Heidi and her two children have been making some great salt dough treasures. Let’s take a look in more detail…
What did you do?
My method for making the large salt dough family handprint is as follows.
What you will need:
- 500g plain flour sifted
- 250g salt
Instructions:
- Mix those both together in a large mixing bowl then add a cup of water bit by bit until you get a dry dough consistency.
- Add more flour or more water until you get the consistency right.
- Once you’ve done that, flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to about 1.5cm thick.
- Press your handprints firmly down into the dough.
- Place on greaseproof paper in the oven at 100deg fan. for around 6 hours.
Any tips to help others wanting to make their own?
Mine took about 6 hours to bake fully. You are looking for it to feel rock hard on the top and bottom before removing it from the oven to cool.
I wouldnt suggest turning it over during baking just incase it effects the hand prints!! It does take a long time but it’s very worth it.
I used normal children’s craft paint to decorate mine.
Once totally dried, I varnished it with a clear Matt varnish to ensure it lasts forever 🙂
I also wrote a little message on it “The Kay’s – Lockdown 2020” but you can write whatever message you like.
These make great gifts for friends and family too.
My children and I have also made Easter Egg shapes which we decorated and used for an egg hunt in our garden over the Easter weekend. We baked and decorated salt dough treasures which we wrote little notes on and hung in the trees around our local park for other children and families to find on their daily walk, and the most recent one we made was a birthday present for their Grandad which meant so much to him.
Do you have any other projects lined up?
Our next project is making planets from paper mache balloons. It’s something I used to enjoy doing as a child so before the lockdown came into effect I made sure I had all of the stuff needed to make a whole Solar System.
Tell us all a bit about yourself…
My Name is Heidi Kay. I have two children, my son Miles who is about to turn 5 on 13th May, and daughter Aubree who is 2.
Being at home during the lockdown with my children hasn’t been too much of an adjustment to my day to day life really. I work as a waitress in the evening so I am used to being home with them during the day.
The only struggle I can say I’ve had is not having the freedom to go out to a shop and take the children with me if I need to – and not being able to take my daughter to her usual playgroups to see friends. Instead, I have to wait for my husband to get home from work then go out on my own.
I’ve also struggled with a lot of guilt about my son missing out on his time in Reception. He really enjoys school so to miss out on so much of his first year of school life does upset me if I let myself think about it.
Any tips in general for others?
My tips for fellow parents in lockdown with young children would be this:
- Pick your battles – something I tell my Husband a lot!
- Don’t stress about schoolwork! All children are going to be in the same position when they return to school regardless of how much or how little school work they got done at home.
- Let them make a mess. No one is coming into your house so who cares what it looks like!
- Have fun with them. We won’t be in a position like this again (hopefully) so read, paint, play, build a den, play hide and seek, ride a bike and just enjoy nothing but total family time with no outside distractions.
Have you found the Housebound With Kids community helpful?
My Husband actually invited me to join the Housebound with Kids page and I couldn’t be more grateful for it! I have found and used so many fantastic ideas from this site to keep my children entertained.
I can honestly say I have laughed out loud at some of the posts on there and the amount of support you can get from people all around the world is just amazing!
Thank you for setting up a page that likely provided sanity for a lot of us during such a crazy time! I don’t think there is anything i can suggest you do to improve it, it is excellent! Thank you!
