My daughter is also a Play Doh and Lego fanatic, although in the last several years as she’s gotten better manual dexterity, it’s Webkinz. I was reluctant at first to get involved with those things because their original design in the olden days was that parents put money on your account so you could buy your pet fake crap. Now, the child earns “money” through tons of awesome games. Some of the games are more educational than others, but all of them help her eye-hand coordination, processing skills, etc.
 
I stopped by to make one note about Play Doh. Carrie is on the GFCF diet and she would eat Play Doh by the handful if I wasn’t sitting right there every single second. If I so much as reached to grab the phone, she would shove it in her mouth. It’s full of wheat flour! We HAD to make our own, like another commenter suggested, so I used rice flour. It didn’t mess up the texture at all IF I used a recipe (found online by a simple Google search) that was meant for GF flours. We, too, added glitter, scents, neon colors, etc.

I know that money is tight for your family right now, so maybe you could start making play doh. It’s so easy, SO cheap, you can get your boys’ help with measuring and stirring, and you can add things that may appeal to your boys’ sensory needs or just general curiosity. We’ve made it with sparkles, seeds for texture, extracts for scent, etc. Just some ideas 🙂