There are a ton of home made play dough recopies out there but the best play dough is the one someone else made and gave to you. A friend of mine shot me some homemade play dough to take baby sitting with me. We all enjoyed playing with it and the kids especially seemed to enjoy shouting out things I should make:

a flower

various shapes

numbers

 pizza

 a caterpillar

that turns into a butterfly

a cat (though it kinda looks more like a mouse)

    I forgot how much fun playing with play dough can be. It doesn't matter if you can't think of what to make. It doesn't matter if it turns out badly, you just smash it into oblivion and start over. Heck, just smashing and rolling the dough can be cathartic, can be enough to get the creative juices flowing. It's a great and freeing exercise to do either alone or with the kiddos. Fun and forgiving. It doesn't get better than that.