Home improvements: Salt dough can be a magnet for fun

Use the ingredients to let the children be creative making magnets for the fridge.

Salt dough is so easy to make and it's a great thing to do with kids because there are so many things you can create with it. One of the simplest and most useful is fridge magnets.

You will need one cup of plain flour, half a cup of table salt, half a cup of water and one tablespoon of lemon juice (this makes the dough set really hard).

The children can do the mixing by hand or you can combine everything in the mixer. You want a smooth dough that holds well together. If it's sticky, add a little extra flour. Give each child a piece of non-stick baking paper, a lump of dough and a rolling pin and let them roll it out (2-3mm thickness is perfect). Then get a range of cutters for them to stamp out their shapes. You can leave the shapes to dry out naturally, which will take a couple of days, or bake them on the lowest heat in the oven for a few hours. If you want to leave them plain, air-drying is best because they dry to a beautiful crisp white. Once the shapes are finished, stick little magnetic disks on the back, put on the fridge and let the children admire.

From Simply Wonderwoman: A Survival Guide for Women with Too Much To Do (Kyle Books) by Joanna Gosling, Dh103, www.amazon.com