One of the most effective ways to keep kids occupied for the last, oh, 40 years or thereabouts has been to give them a tub or two of Play-Doh and maybe the garlic press and let them go to town. It kept you busy and out of your parents' hair when you were little and so it will for your children, too. You recognize that distinctive Play-Doh smell, don't you? Open a tub and take a whiff—nostalgia in a plastic container is what that is.

Play-Doh is, like many things beloved by small children, not without its drawbacks. Most of all, it gets everywhere. Small balls of Play-Doh scattered as far as the eye can see, and of course squished into the rug. Play-Doh of course tells you that it's easy to clean up: simply let it dry and vacuum it out of the carpet.

Of course it's not really that easy; there's a certain technique involved that I believe I've perfected. First, let the Play-Doh sit on the carpet overnight. This might be a problem if you've got an open house later that afternoon or you've got guests coming over, but you should have thought about that beforehand. Let the Play-Doh sit and dry, because all you'll do is smush it further into the carpet fibers even more, and that's going to be an even bigger mess. When it's nice and dry, get out your vacuum cleaner and vacuum up all the loose Play-Doh chunks. Now it's time to get to work on the majority of the pieces that are stuck into the carpet. Take the hand extension from the vacuum cleaner—don't bother with any of the tools at this point—and use the edge to chisel the dried Play-Doh chunks out of the carpet. Chisel, chisel, suck, repeat.

Works like a charm! Of course it's a little rough on the carpet, but then you can't have everything now, can you?

The other drawback with Play-Doh that I feel compelled to mention is the color. Play-Doh comes in many different colors, but after a half-hour of hard-core playing it all ends up in one marbelized melange of different hues. Try as I might, there's really no way to keep all the colors separate, at least when you've got a two-year-old playing with it.