Experimental MumScience + Children = Fun + Mess

I’ve added a clip of my daughter singing over at my website, and I thought I’d share it with you here. 

Not sure she’ll be too impressed when she comes in from school.That’s what she gets for knowing more about my mobile phone than me!

Click on the link to hear it in MP3. I’m a little scientist

I’m a Little Scientist

I’m a little scientist, young and smart

Using my brain, to figure it out

When I am investigating, hear me shout

“Sizzling Science, is what it’s all about!”

My new online shop opens next week, you can sign up for a 20% discount here.

Here are some recipes for making homemade bubble mixture and bubble wands.

Small quantity in a disposable cup.

• 20mls washing up liquid
• 150mls water
• 1 teaspoon glycerine

Large quantity for bigger bubble making.

• 1 cup washing up liquid
• 8 cups water
• 2-3 tablespoons glycerine

Homemade Bubble Wand

You’ll need 2 drinking straws per bubble blower, string or wool, baking tray

1. Drop the string down through each straw.
2. Tie the ends of the straw together.
3. Pull the knot into one of the straws so the frame has four smooth sides (two strings, two straws).
4. Hold the bubble frame by the straws. Dip the wand (both straws and string) and your thumbs and fingers into the bubble mixture. Dry hands burst bubbles!
5. Bring the straws together and make sure that the string is totally submerged.
6. Lift the wand slowly from the baking tray. Pull your hands apart until the string is taut. Let extra solution drip back into the tray.

You can use the bubble frame to make:

• Small Bubbles – hold the bubble frame by opposite sides of the loop of string and stretch it out. This will make a very long, narrow film of soap. Blow gently while moving the film from right to left in front of your mouth.
• Medium Bubbles – holding the frame as a square, blow into the middle of the soap film.
• Large Bubbles – hold your arms apart and swing the bubble frame through the air. A bubble starts to form out the back end of the bubble frame. To set it free, bring your hands together.

Photo Credit: Glenn Loos – Austin

You're It!

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Jo from Not Now, Later so here goes!

Here are the rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged you

2. Complete the lists of 8s

3. Tag 8 other bloggers and let them know.

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

1. Lunch with my sister on Wednesday
2. Finishing the re-write of Sizzling Science
3. School Summer Holidays (no more morning madness!)
4. Having our back wall re-built
5. Finishing my NESTA Starter for 6 pitch on 17 July
6. Belladrum Music Festival in August
7. Seeing Time Traveller’s Wife at the Cinema
8. A long, sunny summer spent reading in the garden

 8 Things I did Yesterday:

1. Ran a science workshop at Marymas Fair
2. Enjoyed a chat with the ladies behind Jelly and Cream
3. Met a lovely man, who used to do maths magic shows for a living
4. Bought flowers for my friend’s birthday
5. Turned up at bookclub’s pot luck dinner with M&S meringues, rather than make a pudding
6. Missed kissing my youngest daughter goodnight, she was at Rainbows Giant Sleepover
7. Drank fizzy wine in my friends garden
8. Caught a cold

8 Shows I Watch:

1. GM tv for about 15 mins in the morning
2. Loose Women when I have my lunch break (the benefits of working from home!)
3. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
4. Come Dine With Me
5. How Clean is Your House (makes me feel better for not being that manky!)
6. Lead Balloon (love Magda!)
7. Our bedroom telly  – pretty much anything on Dave (usually Jack Dee Live at the Apollo)
8. Living room telly  – pretty much anything on Pop Girl Channel  (usually Saddle Club)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Try harder at losing weight
2. Learn to love housework and laundry
3. Get my garden under control
4. Make time for horse riding lessons
5. Read 50 pages of a book every day
6. Eat out with my husband every week
7. Get my eldest daughter to eat more veggies
8. Switch off my laptop before midnight, every night

8 Favourite Fruits:

1. Raspberries
2. Strawberries
3. Melon
4. Cherries
5. Kiwis
6. Grapes
7. Banana
8. Smoothie made from any of the above…

8 Places I Would Like to Travel to:

1. Australia (to visit the cool, science centres)
2. New York (just to experience it)
3. Ireland (horse trail riding with my daughters)
4. Florida Keys (to swim with dolphins)
5. Venice (romantic 40^th birthday treat for my husband perhaps?)
6. Iceland (to see the geysers)
7. Sweden (to stay in the ice hotel)
8. Texas (cowgirl holiday, maybe this can be my 40^th birthday treat, hint, hint Stuart!)

8 Places I Lived:

1. Beauly, Scotland
2. Inverness, Scotland
3. Tore, Scotland
4. Invergordon, Scotland
5. Strathpeffer, Scotland
6. Glasgow, Scotland

I’ve always lived in Scotland then!

Thanks for reading, I tag the following 8 bloggers, feel free to play along or ignore if you’d rather!

8 People Tagged:

1. The Idea Room
2. NotSuperMum
3. Home Office Mum
4. Another Day in the Mad House
5. Working Mum on the Verge
6. And One More Makes Four
7. Freelance Mum
8. Mummo Mia

Cheese Dreams is a bit of an obsession in our house at the moment. Whenever we can’t find daughter number 2, chances are she’s jumped onto Dad’s PC to try and conquer the next level of cheese ball heaven.

Freya’s description of the game doesn’t really explain the appeal.

“Ehh. Well, basically, it’s like Super Mario but you’re a ball of cheese. You have to complete different levels and not get captured by the spacecraft thingies. If you get spiked you fall to pieces and you have to do re-entry. That’s basically it.” Right. I can really see why it’s such a big thing at school.

I love Cheese Dreams too, but my variety were invented by my late Granny Rosa.

Step 1: Make a cheese sandwich

Step 2: Dip sandwich in beaten egg

Step 3: Fry sandwich till cheese melts

Step 4: Enjoy its calorific yummyiness!

Last week I embarrassed my children. I’m sure I’ve embarrassed them before now but this was the first time they’ve ACTUALLY told me. Mam. You. Are. Embarrassing.  A horrible glimpse into the teenage years to come perhaps.

My misdemeanour was to walk them to school whilst drinking a cup of tea. Written down it does seem a pretty daft thing to do!

But, see we usually drive to school and at least once a week I eat my breakfast in the car. Like many working mothers, my working day is pretty frantic from the minute I drop the girls off, as I cram a million tasks into 5 child free hours. So at pick up time I can often be found clutching my second mug of the day in my faithful travel mug.

And there lay the reason for the embarrassment – I walked up the street with a cup from the house and that in the words of an eight year old, was JUST TOO MUCH. Oh Joy to the tweenage years.

Photo Credit: I Love Tea Sleeve  (purchase here)

Opening a new packet of Twinings tea today, I noticed it was covered in a gold shiny wrapping with the words biodegradable on it.

Cool, now you can put the wrapping as well as the tea bag on the compost heap!

The NatureFlex ^TM film is made by Innovia Films and is said to break down in a home compost bin in a matter of weeks and has been well received in Which? Gardening magazine.

Makes you think that now that technology is available, why don’t more companies follow suit?

Photo Credit: Twinings

Here’s a cool experiment, where you get to see the bits that make you, you.

What You Need:

• Water, Salt, Dishwashing Liquid, Ice, Purple Methylated Spirits
• Bowl, Jug, Glass, Spoon
• You

What To Do:

• Add the ice to the bowl and sit the bottle of methylated spirits in the ice. Leave it to cool for a couple of hours. It is best not to place the methylated spirits in the fridge or freezer, as a spark could ignite fumes.
• In the jug, add 1 tablespoon of salt in 500mls of water, stir well. Place 3 tablespoons of this solution into the glass.
• Gargle with the salty water, swishing it all around your mouth. Do not swallow the solution, after about a minute; spit it back into the cup.
• Add a tiny drop of detergent to your cup and stir very gently, you want to avoid bubbles.
• Holding the glass at a 45 degree angle, slowly dribble the ice cold methylated spirits done the side of the glass. You want the alcohol to sit on top of the salty water. Pour until you have a layer 1-2cm high.
• You should notice, thin strands of DNA collect in the glass.

What’s Going On:

• Gargling with the salty water released some of your cheek cells. The detergent breaks the cell walls open, releasing the DNA within. As DNA is not soluble in alcohol, we can see the solid strands at the interface of the two solutions.

Glasgow Science Centre are hosting the Inside DNA exhibition, until 18 October. I hope to take a trip down to see it.

If you fancy some more, DNA activities, there are some cool ones here; we’re planning making the sequence bracelets.

Although I love Lego, don’t think I’ve got enough patience to spend quite so many hours creating a Lego Double Helix.

I am delighted to receive my first ever award, big thank you to Little Mummy for being so kind!

The rules are that we must link to the blogger that gave us the award and give the award to up to fifteen blogs we have recently discovered. Gulp, well I’m new to blogging so I’ve only chosen five. This past month, I’ve really enjoyed these bloggers.

I sympathised with Mother at Large’s husband, as I too love my little laptop!

I could relate to Perfectly Happy Mum’s post about how different siblings can be.

Sticky Fingers made me feel all broody; just as well my sister is due soon!

Are We Nearly There Yet - made me laugh out loud!

More Than Just A Mother - reminded me of the days when I was trying so hard to be super-employee when in reality I could barely keep my eyes open, don’t think I ever took a nappy to work though!

I look forward to discovering new blogs this month, can it really be June today!!