If there was one toy that I truly adored all through my pre-school years, it would have to be play doughs. I didn’t have the fancy molds or even the fancy colors because all of my dough was home made, but I would spend hours making “meals” for all my friends, whether they were stuffed or real. Even though I remember how much fun I used to have, I must admit that I have been rather hesitant to try play dough type products with my 26 month old. This is mostly because I remember how messy those doughs could be and how they would stick to the tabletop and leave colored residue. And, because I love our dining table, I have been extremely resistant to covering it with sticky dough.
When I heard about Moon Dough, which is the newest creation from Spin Master, the makers of the wildly popular Moon Sand, I thought it might be time to try molding doughs with my daughter and see if she loved them as much as I used to. After reading that the Moon Dough was hypo-allergenic and wheat free as well as being non-stick and non-staining, I was finally ready to give in and let her at the dough.
We were lucky enough to get to check out the brand new Moon Dough Barnyard. Setup was quick and easy and we had the barn and silo ready for play within minutes and then we were ready to tear open those bags of dough. The first thing that was surprising about the Moon Dough was how incredibly light and marshmallow-y the dough is and how unlike traditional dough it is. In fact, when we first opened it up, the dough was crumbled into bits and pieces and didn’t seem like it was going to be possible to create much of anything. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to mold the Moon Dough into shapes and make animals and accessories in the Moon Dough Barnyard.
The Moon Dough Barnyard set comes with a colorful barn complete with silo and internal Moon Dough molds, two completely separate molds for making accessories, and three bags of Moon Dough. I was really confused at first to see that the Moon Dough doesn’t come in special containers to keep it from drying out but soon found out that they weren’t necessary. In fact, the claim is that Moon Dough never dries out, which means you can keep it in open top baggies or containers while the kiddos play and even for storage.
The coolest thing about the set is that you can simply push the dough into the mold on the top of the barn, pull the lever down, and wait to see what “surprise” farm animal pops out. You can get a sheep, cow, chicken or horse, and the remainder of the dough then goes right into the barn’s silo which collects the Moon Dough leftovers, a feature that I love. It’s easy to imagine that if I had owned a barn that had the ability to make surprise farm animals when I was young, I probably would have planned my day around playing with it.
The only real issue we ran into with the Moon Dough is that it has the potential to be pretty messy while the kids play, but not in the ways I expected. Because of the propensity for crumbling of the dough, the colors did mix pretty easily while you play and left dough crumbles all over the play surface. While the kids didn’t care that the dough was mixed, I was still concerned with how long it was going to take to clean up when we were finished playing. I was happy when I found that since the dough is so dry, it does sweep up pretty easily and didn’t stick to or stain the play surface at all, which had been one of my big concerns.
Storage of the Moon Dough is easy since the compound never dries out, but we did put ours into sealed baggies for safe keeping and to keep the crumbles from getting everywhere. I love knowing that dough inadvertently left out or in the barn’s silo (oops!) will still be good days later and that I don’t have to worry about dough moisture and residue being left behind while the kiddos play. Since I am increasingly more concerned about allergies and sensitive skin, I also love that Moon Dough is hypo-allergenic and wheat-free, which is great for allergic types and delicate skin. Although I couldn't find a list of ingredients of the dough itself, the package does warn not to let children eat the dough or get it into their eyes, which does make me extra cautious while my daughter plays. If you have younger children, this would definitely be an item that was played with during naptime so your younger children didn't ingest any or get the dough everywhere.
You can find Moon Dough playsets at Target, Walmart, Toys R' Us, KMart, A.C. Moore, Michaels, and online at amazon.com and etoys.com. The Moon Dough sets range in price from $9.99 to $19.99 and $2.99 to $4.99 for refill Moon Dough packs in 8 vibrant colors. Manufacturer's Suggested Age: 3 Years and Up
A big thank you to Spin Master and Team Mom for providing the Moon Dough Barnyard for this review opportunity. All opinions are 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this Rave Review.
