Experimental MumScience + Children = Fun + Mess

According to a recent survey carried out by McCain’s the food producers, out of 1500  7-11 year olds questioned, 10% of them believed that potatoes came from chickens!

In a bid to educate children about our food sources they have set up an excellent website with great resource sections for kids, parents and teachers. It includes everything from recipes to lesson plans.

Throughout the month of March they are also touring schools with the Potato Bus which judging by the photos looks a lot of fun! Here is the Scottish School Itinerary – hopefully your children will be getting a visit.

McCain’s kindly sent my girls their own gardening kits and seed potatoes, which are sprouting happily by the patio doors. This ” tattie holidays” my kids will hopefully have their own crop to pick.

P.S. Here’s a definition of  the tattie holidays and here’s a very Scottish description!

Just before Christmas I read a science story that I hope might just change life as I know it.

Scientists at Touch Bionics based in Livingston, Scotland unveiled the world’s first bionic finger. It can even be fitted with LivingSkin to match your other hand! I’m loving reading their Twitter updates, and keeping up with this amazing invention.

This truly life changing technology will transform the lives of people like me who have damaged or missing fingers due to injury or birth defects.

I was born with amniotic band syndrome (ABS) a congenital birth defect which results in damage to body parts (usually limbs) due to being caught up and entangled in string-like bands will in utero. These strands are caused by a chance accidental tear in the amniotic sac. No prenatal factors have been associated with ABS, although our family have reason to believe my ABS resulted after exposure to strong farming chemicals.

Although ABS is not genetic I requested 20 week scans during my pregnancies to determine if my two girls were affected as amazingly fetal surgery is now possible. Melbourne surgeons were able to save this baby girls legs while her Mum was 22 weeks pregnant!

Luckily both my girls were born completely healthy, in fact my eldest daughter has the most beautiful long slender fingers with gorgeous shaped nails that grow super fast. They look simply stunning with nail polish on.  And Freya that’s why you can’t stop piano lessons  – your fingers were born for playing!

In my case the ABS resulted in two missing toes from my left foot, some constriction bands on my left hand which means I can’t bend my middle finger and teeny tiny baby sized fingers on my right hand that have no nails or knuckles.

Sorry no photos at the moment, although I hate to admit it, I’m still self-conscious at the grand old age of 38. If I’m lucky enough to be able to go ahead with this technology (as it’s so new, and each device is unique, it’s very expensive) I’ll be delighted to share my BEFORE and AFTER photos with the world!

2010 might just be the decade that I become not only Experimental Mum but Bionic Mum too!

I’ve sent off an initial enquiry to Touch Bionics for their review and hope to hear from them shortly.

I’ll keep you posted, wish me luck!

Thank you to Tom at Shine Communications for sending us the brand new Nintendo DS Flips to review. Flips are a new range of interactive books designed to get children exicted about reading.

The video below gives an overview of the cool features.

We received the Cathy Cassidy Flips and here is Freya’s unedited review:

I love Flips, I think there very good.

My mum got sent a Flip for free and they asked me and my sister to try it out.

Flips is about making kids enjoy reading by the more you read the more games and puzzles you unlock, plus you probably want to play games.

Also if you’re not a big fan of reading like me Flips will help you enjoy it.

I’ve been reading Scarlet and I think it’s very good. It’s so good!!!!

My favourite bit about Flips is when you read more you unlock more games and puzzles…

My worst bit is nothing, I like all of it.

That’s why I enjoy Flips and I think they’re very good!!!!!!!!!

My Mum hopes they makes some adult ones too, she thinks they’d be cool at her bookclub!!!

Writing by – Freya Riddell (age eight)

Cling Film Boots!

My Mum is a very inventive women!

In the last week of the Christmas school term the girls had a unexpected day off school after being snowed in at Grannies house. They celebrated by having a snow day, whereas me and their Dad celebrated a further night without children by going out for dinner – thanks Mum x!

The girls were keen to  fully embrace the snowy fun but there was one slight snag, Freya didn’t have waterproof boots with her. So clever Granny made her some…

Here is Freya wearing her suede boots wrapped in cling film and topped with a pair of slipper socks!

Tara over at Sticky Fingers has started a photo meme and is going to compile a photo gallery of all the entries.

The challenge is simple, choose your favourite photo and tell us what it means to you. Then invite someone else to join the fun.

Like most Mums I have 1000’s of photos of the kids, so choosing just one is pretty tricky.

But the photo below is stuck on our fridge and makes me smile each time I look at it.

Frozen Fern

It was taken in Abriachan Wood in February 2009 and it is a picture of my girls Freya, Erynn and our cocker spaniel Fern.

This slightly crazy dog  had managed to find the only unfrozen puddle of water and rolled in it, only to instantly freeze herself. She was covered in icicles and we had to defrost her in a warm bath when we came home. Which resulted in a very muddy bath chock full of forest twigs! The girls thought it was hilarious and Fern loved the pampering, especially the blow dry.

I love the expression on the dogs face, the kids rosy cheeks, the frosty scenery, even Erynn’s wonky fringe following a rather rubbish haircut by me!

I’d like to invite Kathryn at Crystal Jigsaw to submit a photo too. I’ve just discovered her blog but enjoyed reading very much.

About a hundred years ago I replied to a request on British Mummy Bloggers to put Ecover cleaning products to the test alongside some well known brand name cleaning products. Ecover have developed a range of ecosurfactants that they claim to be extremely powerful and supremely ecological. They have a cool website too, love the wipe effect!

Although I like the environmentally friendly idea of Ecover products I was sceptical that they could work as well as the petrochemical alternatives. I know it’s clever marketing but brand name cleaning products like Flash are so shiny looking and clean smelling they just “appear” as if they will work better.

Now where to start in my cleaning spree! First up was the gas cooker top and hood which was in need of a good scrub. In this test I compared Ecover Power Cleaner with Cillit Bang. I’ve always been rather wary of Cillit Bang after once leaving a permanently “clean steak” while over zealously scrubbing a plastic shower cabinet. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the Ecover product worked equally well in this test even on the greasy cooker hood. I did take before and after photos but managed to delete them seconds later. Which is probably just as well, it was pretty embarrassingly crusty!

Time for a tougher challenge…Next up was the very grotty jacuzzi bath vents. I had only just realised (after 3 years of use) that they were removable so they were revoltingly manky and I can’t quite believe I’m posting this photo! To tackle the grot I used both Ecover Multisurface Cleaner and Flash Multisurface Cleaner. Both effectively removed all the hidden grot pretty easily, in fact I had to fill the bath and run the pump to get rid of all the scale which floated away. I had a bath that night to celebrate it’s shininess! I must admit I did prefer the stronger fragrance of the Flash product, although I notice both are fragranced with Liminol. Again clever marketing makes us believe if it smells clean it is clean!

Bath - Before

Bath - After

Lastly I tackled the back door, which has a glass panel that is constantly marked with our spaniels muddy paws. This time I compared Mr Muscle Window & Glass Spray with Ecover Window & Glass Cleaner. This time Ecover won hands down, it polished the glass up really quickly and without any streaks, unlike Mr Muscle and lots of previous products I’ve used. I’ll definitely buy this one again.

Enjoying the Skating Rink!

Happy New Decade Everyone!

After an unplanned long absence, the reasons being far too boring to document, I’m back.

The last few months have been a bit of a juggling act and one of the many things that didn’t get done was the emptying of the paddling pool, which is now frozen solid and been enjoyed by the girls during this very cold spell!

Sometimes not getting things done can have unexpected advantages …

The Bang Goes the Theory team are conducting the biggest brain training experiment ever undertaken. They want to discover can you really improve your brain function by carrying out a series of simple exercises 3 times a week.

If you are over 18 and can spare 10 minutes, 3 times a week for 6 week, why not try it out. I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

Techfest is September is an annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Festival held in Aberdeen. We’ve been a couple of times and always really enjoy it.

From 11-28th September they are hosting a fantastic range of topics. There are Family Shows, Evening Lectures and a Family Activity Weekend. The programme can be downloaded here  but here’s a wee taster of what’s on:

Family Shows

• Dr Bunhead You Tube’s True or False (we saw this at the Edinburgh Science Festival – it was excellent!)
• Visualise Reloaded: Live Science and Mischievous Theatre (with techno clowns?)

Evening Lectures

• Mathematics and Sex – discover how dating services work, and why there are only two sexes?
• Murder, Mystery and Microscopes – see behind the scenes and separate crime from fiction…

Family Activity Weekend

• Here the kids can explore the physics of the circus, make their own lighthouse or hold a rock from the moon and many, many more….

I think it’s safe to say Freya is enjoying her first term in Primary 4, she has written her teacher a poem.

Dear Miss Gray

Oh Miss Gray
What you say
Is so clever
I’ll remember it forever

In Crown School
It’s so cool
In the playground
I run around

You have a dog
I have a blog
Your favourite colour is green
You’re certainly not mean

I just want to say
I love you … MISS GRAY!

Oh…to be so adored! We used Digital Scrapbook Artist to make the card. There is a great forum for the software at DaisyTrail.