To celebrate, the girls and I investigated how tricky it is to hop while holding your toes.

Erynn Jumping Frog

1. Crouch down and hop like a frog, (come on Mum – you can do it!)
2. Repeat, but this time hold your toes and try and hop.
3. You should find that it is much harder (if not impossible) to hop forward now.
4. By holding our toes, we can’t shift our balance to change our centre of gravity.
5. Our leg muscles aren’t strong enough to lift us off the ground and compensate for the unbalanced position too.
6. You might find that young children are still springy enough to manage it!
7. Mummies on the other hand fall over, that’s why there isn’t a photo of me trying it…

If you haven’t had enough hopping, you could try making some origami jumping frogs, from the great team at www.instructables.com

Next Time: Fizzy Fountain Mess: requires: two excitable children, one loopy dog, soda, mints, pebbles, dog biscuits, raisins and a sunny afternoon!