A Trip to the Moon, Sort Of

Around here, we try to do some kind of art every day, I mean, I was an art teacher after all (regular readers are probably sick to death of hearing this--sorry!). Sometimes we color with crayons, sometimes we paint with watercolors, but the thing we play with nearly every day is dough. Mostly the familiar stuff that comes in plastic cans, but sometimes homemade stuff that might taste good to a toddler.

So imagine my excitement when we were sent a Moon Dough Barnyard Playset, via Team Mom.
I had seen Moon Dough in stores before, but figured it was just another dough. But I was wrong! Moon Dough has a weird, crumbly texture but at the same time it sticks together easily. It never dries out, unlike other doughs when left out in the air, and is hypo-allergenic and wheat-free. Moon Dough is kind of like those marshmallow Circus Peanuts, but drier and more powdery.
Of course S loves it, especially the crumbling part. He could sit for minutes just squeezing it in his hands and making little bits. As a 2 year old, he was more interested in the properties of the Moon Dough rather than the farm, unless of course I was helping him load the dough into the farm molds. To explain, the farm has molds of animals that you crank out of the barn after filling them with Moon Dough.
There are also other free-standing pieces, like a hay bale and fence.
I brought the Barnyard Playset on our front porch for both Soren and our neighbor kids (ages 3 and 5) to play with, and the neighbor kids loved it, especially the 3 year old girl. She spent an entire hour busily making animals for the farm. If we had more dough, she would have probably played for another hour.
The drawbacks that I've found with Moon Dough is that it's messier than other doughs. Because it crumbles so much and is pretty dry, not sticky, it seems to get all over the place. It's easy to sweep up, however, and can be reused again and again. It was a bit frustrating for the kids when the colors mixed together, especially because it's hard to keep them separated. Though one would experience this problem with other doughs too.

There are a few other Moon Dough playsets to choose from, including a Moon Dough Diner, Pizza Shop, Doghouse, and individual color refills. You can find it at Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, Amazon.com, and other stores. We'll definitely be picking up some more dough to play with during our art making time.
Disclosure: As a member of Team Mom, I received a Moon Dough Play Set for review purposes.