Experimental MumScience + Children = Fun + Mess

Throughout June, Inverness is hosting its very own Monster Science Festival.

There are a whole range of science events planned both for schools and the general public.

You can check out the website here, where you can download a PDF of all the events. Many of which are free.

Sizzling Science (that’s me!) is running a Forensic Science Workshop as part of the Biodiversity Day on the 4th and 5th June.

I’m very exicted to be taking part in my first science festival, so please say, “Hello”, if you come along!

I’ve got a new toy piece of kit for my science workshops, a cool USB digital Microscope.

With x200 magnification it captures photo and video images. I got it here for £25.

Erynn's scratch

Yesterday morning the girls and I spent about an hour magnifying everything nearby.

I stuck to household objects, they mainly magnified themselves!

Erynn found a teeny, weeny scratch on her leg, you could barely see it. The magnified healing skin looks pretty amazing, if slightly gross!

So here’s wee quiz for you.

Below are 3 objects I found in my handbag, can you tell what they are?

It’s pretty easy – answers tomorrow!

As part of the #guestpostday organised by Little Mummy via Twitter, I’d like to introduce Sarah who is my guest blog swap.

Sarah runs a shop called Made on Fifth Street. She is also a home school mom to the funniest kids she knows.  She’s currently redoing an entire farmhouse along side her husband Craig.

Ocean In A Bottle

I totally loved this craft and so did my son, Hudson. He made an ocean in a bottle as a gift for his sister’s birthday. Now I know I got this idea form someone elses blog but I really can not for the life of me remember where I found it. Here is my tutorial.

Materials:

• plastic bottle
• water
• food coloring
• cooking oil
• sparkles, sequence and other small trinkets
• glue gun
• funnel

1. Start by filling a plastic bottle 2/3 full of water. (We started out using a measuring cup but found that pouring from another bottle was much easier).

2. Add some drops of blue food coloring and little green if you want as well.  Put the cap on the bottle and shake to mix the color.

4. Top up the bottle with cooking oil.
5. Place a circle of hot glue inside the bottle cap and screw on tightly.

Voila an ocean in a bottle!

I hope you enjoyed her post, do take a pop along to her blog – she has a load of home schooling ideas for pre-school children!

Ecover Stain Remover

Ecover Laundry Products

Now, I’m sure like me you do enough loads of washing a day to find laundry products about the least exciting thing on the planet. However when Ecover sent me their Stain Remover, I knew I had the perfect tough stains to test their product.

First up was my brand new pair of jeans that had been delightfully decorated by my darling daughters (see yesterday’s post!). Mmmm…metallic paint and really dark denim, as I scrubbed on the stain remover with the little brush, I didn’t hold out much hope. I was sure I’d be left with a faded patch at best. Amazingly they survived and the stain was gone – result!

Oil Stain?

Next up was my daughter’s pink jacket. It’s had this dark stain on it for months, really not sure what it was but it looked like oil. I’d tried to remove it a few times using Oxiclean but with no luck. Although it took two washes at 40 degrees, it removed the stain almost completely with just the tiniest suggestion of a remaining mark. Well done Ecover – I’m very impressed! A 200 ml bottle costs around £2.80 and you can buy it here.

Freya has lost her 15th tooth today and with each tooth lost her letters to the tooth fairy get more and more elaborate (as do the tooth fairy replies!)    ; )

Love the extra paper for the expected answers and starry “shrine” to the lost tooth!

I’ll miss this when all her adult teeth are in.

15th Tooth Fairy Letter

Hotter Terra Walking Boot

Hotter Shoes

I reviewed the Terra GORE-TEX® Walking Boots from Hotter, who claim to deliver happy feet.

Well, they truly are the most comfortable boots I’ve ever owned and the lovely teal colour is wearing up well to the harsh weather we’ve had.

Tiny niggle – I do find the laces get a wee bit loose during the day maybe that’s because they tend to focus on wider feet.

That said, they are still so comfy I’m planning to purchase some sandals during their current 3 for 2 offer for our upcoming holiday (Orlando –  5 weeks to go – yeah!).

Kids Party Quiz

Kids Printable Party Quiz

These are children’s party quizzes, which are sent to you by email in a PDF format.

The price is £7.99, which initially I thought was a bit steep, but you do get 10 quizzes and you can print as many copies as you need. Although the quality of the quizzes was good, I did think that some of graphic quality was a little on the weak side but this doesn’t affect the play quality.

I printed out the file and took it along during our weekend caravan break. The forecast was for rain and I was sure we’d soon need indoor games. On the first afternoon we played the bingo quiz and the girls loved it, taking turns to be the caller.

After a couple of games  the sun came out, the girls made friends and spent their time cycling until bedtime, so the rest of the print outs are still in the caravan locker awaiting another rainy day. I’m sure I’ll be glad of them!

UMI Tabitha

UMI Children’s Shoes

My youngest daughter was sent some lovely sandals from Umi’s Spring/Summer Collection. Erynn has a high instep that gives her a wide foot and so getting shoes that don’t rub and cause blisters can be a problem. These sandals are very padded and soft and they are so comfy Erynn has already had loads of wear out of them considering until recently it was still very wintery in the North of Scotland! We’ll be packing them for our summer hols, comfy footwear while trawling the theme parks will be a must!

Umi’s Autumn/Winter collection will be released shortly and you can follow updates on their Facebook page.

Don't waste a drop

Fairy Liquid – 50 years old!

To celebrate 50 years of Fairy, we were kindly sent a craft kit to decorate the vintage style fairy bottles. My kids firstly thought the “old” bottles were hilarious but then decided them super cool as they would make cool dog squirters for Fern, our loopy spaniel who loves all things water.

Before the mayhem ...

I left the girls enthuse enthusiastically decorating away and pottered off to do a bit of housework, thinking that at 7 and 9 years old they didn’t really need my input and the finished result would be “all their own work”. OMG – when I returned there was paint, glitter and glue everywhere! I couldn’t believe it, it was on the couch (thankfully leather, so wipe able), underneath the table, the carpet, even the cupboard that was on the other side of the room. After lots of swearing, “how b****** old are you” comments and baby wipes, calm was restored…

Until I went to bed, took off my brand new jeans and found that somehow in the clean up I’d managed to sit a puddle of purple glittery paint. Scrubbing my jeans with stain remover at midnight, not my idea of Saturday night entertainment. Grrr …

P.S. Was so busy cleaning, I forgot to take an after photo of the finished creations – the dog enjoyed them!

Fairy’s site has had a retro makeover and it includes a great range of craft, outdoor fun, music and recipe ideas and you could win a dishwasher too!

Back in March, McCains kindly sent us some seed potatoes, they are coming on great! This inspired the girls to plant some more vegetables and they carefully helped fill the reusable grow bags, plant out the seeds and they are very proud of their handiwork.  I love our wee patio veggie plot. It’ll be interesting to see how much veg we manage to grow in such a little space. Looking forward to bumper crops!