Activity Review: White Mud

Do you remember when I said I found that list of toddler activities from the Family Fun website? Well, we tried one of them, so I figure I should let you know how it went! One day last week, while I was sick, I needed an activity that would keep Ellie busy, but wasn't TV. So we made "White Mud."It was fun, really. We sat on the bed and she had fun tearing up a roll of toilet paper and putting it in the bowl. She really likes destroying things right now, so it was fun for her to be ALLOWED to tear something up for once.

Once we had the right amount of toilet paper torn into bits and put in a bowl, I shaved a bar of ivory soap into the tp. If you're not familiar with Ivory soap, it's really soft, so you can just shave it with a regular old table knife, like I did. Easy peasy. Then I added the right amount of water, as per the directions, and mixed away. I didn't really have Ellie help with the mixing part, which was just as well since she was still having so much fun tearing up the rest of a roll of toilet paper.

Even after I mixed everything up, I still felt like it was too soggy, so I squeezed the excess water out of the mixture into the sink. When I got done, this is what our "White Mud" looked like:

It sort of reminds me of cauliflower. Yuck. But it smells like Ivory soap, so that's okay. Now for the real test...

I gave some to Ellie at the kitchen table, though the article recommends using it outside. Since I was sick and wanted to be in bed, outside wasn't really an option for us. At first Ellie wasn't sure what to think of it.

She sort of poked at it a bit before she finally picked some up and started squishing it about. Then it was fun.

She has since asked to play with it a couple times and I am happy to let her. It doesn't require much cleanup, it doesn't stain her clothes, it doesn't get ground into the carpet... really, as far as dough goes, it's great! You can't really make anything with it, other than little snowmen, but she doesn't really care about that right now, so it's great for sensory play!