
We live in “the house for playing”. My home is the one where children cry when they have to leave because they have settled so solidly into a world of play that removing themselves is a physically painful experience. Mostly, it’s the kids playing, but every once in a while I discover a toy that both parents and children find irresistibly charming. Thinking Putty is one of these toys. Highly engaging in terms of both sight and touch, this toy provides an awesome creative sensory play experience for all ages. Especially when you design your own Thinking Putty using the Mixed by Me Putty that Timberdoodle sent us to test!

Designing Thinking Putty: An Awesome Creative Sensory Play Experience for All Ages
What You'll Find on This Page
We already owned four large tins of Thinking Putty (all purchased from Timberdoodle – I only work with companies I believe in personally) when we were sent this set to review. The tins you received with the Mixed by Me Putty set are much, much smaller than the standard size. It is a small amount of putty, but enough to manipulate and conveniently sized for sticking in your pocket or purse.

The magic of the Mixed by Me Putty set is that you get to design your own putty! I took a photo so you would see what the set comes with. You get the three primary colors as well as putties to add to make your putty shimmer, sparkle, or glow in the dark.
Designing Thinking Putty

This clear putty is what you get in the tin. Ten-year-old Emma mixed a little bit of white, a bit of GLOW-izer, and quite a bit of the SHIMMER-izer putty to her tin to get this new color, which she named “Pearl”.

Lily added a bit of red, a tiny bit of yellow, some GLOW-izer, and a lot of SPARKLE-izer to get the coral putty you can see her playing with at the top of this post.

Since there were five tins and four kids, I go to mix some of my own Thinking Putty! I used most of the blue, a little red, some SHIMMER-izer, and a little bit of SPARKLE-izer to get this galaxy-themed putty. I actually liked the feel of the putty better before I added in the SPARKLE-izer, but it does look pretty cool with it in.

Eight-year-old Johnny used most of the GLOW-izer, a little bit of SPARKLE-izer, a tiny bit of blue, and mostly red and some yellow for his putty. It looked very cool while he was mixing it, and then evolved into a soothing rust color.

Anna mixed most of the yellow putty for her tin. She has a little bit of SHIMMER-izer in there, too. We wound up with a nice range of putties, and the kids enjoy playing with them!
How to Use Thinking Putty
Mixed by Me Putty is so popular that Timberdoodle has added it to several of their Curriculum Packages. Besides being fun to make, we find that Thinking Putty is a soothing sensory play experience that helps kids calm down, while also encouraging focus while listening or discussing serious topics.
More Creative Sensory Play Ideas
Looking for more creative sensory play activities for your kids? These are favorites in our home.
What Thinking Putty tins would you design with a Mixed by Me Putty set? Do you have a favorite creative sensory play activity that we should try?
We received this Mixed by Me Putty set as part of my participation in Timberdoodle’s Blog Team. I received no other compensation. All opinions are my own.
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Well, that looks like fun! And so great that your house is the house of play where kids don’t want to leave!
We have Thinking Putty too, and A has on again/off again relationship with it. She loves fiddling with it, but knows that we are not pleased if she does not put it back where it belongs. Nothing like finding Silly Putty in the dryer ;)
That looks fun! I haven’t seen any kind of putty toy like that before!
I’d want to make something like your galaxy putty, but without the sparkles. Actually, I think my kids would end up with very similar colours as your near-in-age kids made, too. I find that fascinating!
That is fascinating! We need to get our kids together, someday…
I saw this at our local toy store and was intrigued by it.
I think your family would love it.
This looks so fun! I just love the colors you guys made!