Is Fimo really only for 8+?

[pantshavenames]

My DS (4.5) loves playdough and every time he makes a 'creation' wants to keep it forever and ever... which obviously results in a lot of dried out and rubbery playdough. So I thought Fimo, but the starter pack has a recommended age of 8. Is it harder to work with than playdough or is that just because it involves an oven or why?? And how robust is it once it's been in the oven?
Basically..... does it sound like a good idea

Why not try air drying clay (like Mr Maker uses on CBeebies)
You can get it at most arts/crafts shops and it's quite cheap.
It just dries out in the air - no oven required and can be painted when dry

Fimo's not as soft as playdough - more like plasticine (sp? looks wrong now I've typed it). It can be quite hard to work.

I've found the air-drying clay can be a bit dry to use and you get quite a lot of cracks in it, but might be better to start off, especially as no oven needed. Or you could make salt dough (recipes online) and pop that in the oven - you can paint that too, once it's dry.

Perhaps try a few, and see what he gets on best with.

ELC one

Can you paint that ELC clay?

What colour is the coloured ELC one? I maybe having a moment but it doesn't seem to say. Or is ita selection of colours? I was hoping to use Fimo just because I'll have a 21 month old climbing all over us so was hoping to avoid paint .
I'm hoping to get to Hobbycraft today so I'll see what's on offer there.
Thanks for all your help.

Crayola also make an air dried clay in white in bulk or with several colours available (crayola model magic I think) in a tub or in smaller single colour packs. We use it for our littlies.
Here is the white clay: [http://www.crayola.com/products/list.cfm?categories=CLAY&categories=AIR%20DRY