Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category
5 Cool Science Experiments For Kids
Posted May 3, 2016
on:- In: Education | Parenting | Projects | Technology
- Leave a Comment
Science is exciting, particularly when you can do it at home and make a big mess in the garden. Some science experiments are so cool that even big kids like to have a go – you know on, ‘Wine Friday’, when you are being a rebel. Science experiments don’t have to involve expensive kits with copper sulphate in them to be great fun. Kitchen cupboards and the corner shop provide the best ingredients for impromptu science afternoons.
The following five experiments are categorized into items used and different scientific concepts.
Vinegar And Bicarbonate Of Soda
These two ingredients can kick up a real stink when used in experiments, this is why it is advisable to set up a table in the garden and do it there. These two experiments are really smelly but you will love them.
Bouncy Egg
You Need: Vinegar, uncooked egg in shell, a jar and a peg for your nose.
What to do: (This takes a bit of time so you could start it at the beginning of the afternoon)
- Half fill a glass of jar with vinegar.
- Put a raw egg in the vinegar.
- Leave for two days.
- Place egg in water and remove shell.
- Feel how bouncy it is and shine a light through it.
- Put on plate and cut egg to reveal yoke still intact.
If you haven’t got time to do this experiment – this video shows you what happens.
This happens because the egg is made up of calcium carbonate and the vinegar is acetic acid. The acetic acid takes away all of the calcium leaving the egg soft.
What do you think will happen if you leave the egg on a plate for a day or two?
Inflating A Balloon Without Any Puff
You Need: Bicarbonate Of Soda, Vinegar, Balloon
What to do:
- Pour the vinegar into a bottle.
- Use a funnel to put some bicarbonate of soda into a balloon (That you have stretched a lot).
- Put the balloon on the bottle neck – making sure it is firmly on.
- Watch the balloon inflate.
Again watch this video to see what happens :-
This happens because the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the bicarbonate of soda and causes an effervescent chemical reaction.
What do you think will happen if you use more bicarbonate of soda?
Diet Coke, Mentos and Eggs
Experiments using these three ingredients cause excitement or are used as a warning about drinking Diet Coke in moderation.
Mentos And Diet
You Need: Lots of packets of Mentos, Diet Coke (still in its bottle) and goggles.
What To Do:-
- Supervise all children (and silly adults)
- Simply unscrew the lid off the Diet Coke
- Put Mentos into bottle
- Stand well back and wear swimming goggles
If you are too scared to do the experiment this video will give you a clue as to what happens:-
What is the minimum number of Mentos you need to make the fountain come out?
Egg In Diet Coke
You Need: 365 days, a jug you are not going to use for a year, a boiled egg and Diet Coke.
What To Do:-
- Boil an egg
- Fill jug with Diet Coke
- Put Egg In Jug
- Programme alarm in your phone for a years time
- Go and enjoy yourself
- Come back in a year and if it hasn’t been thrown away rince egg and see what has happened.
The egg shell is made from calcium – remember your teeth are made from calcium.
If you can’t be bothered to wait a year here is a time lapsed version of the experiment:-
Does Lemonade cause the same thing to happen?
Hydraulic Systems
A hydraulic system is used to increase or decreasing the force of a push by using different sized hydraulic cylinders. Hydraulic systems are used all around us. A good example is a brake in a car – you only put a small amount of pressure on the brake peddle but a lot more is used to make the car stop.
Children will have probably made a simple hydraulic system at school using syringes, tubing and water. Here is a video showing a girl using a hydraulic system to make a lift.
What other kinds of objects can you move using a hydraulic system?
You can find many more great ideas on the internet for wild experiments. Children please make sure that you are supervised by a responsible adult to avoid getting hurt.
- In: Parenting | Playgrounds | Projects
- Leave a Comment
Generally you don’t really take much notice of the condition of playgrounds until you get a child’s eye view. Parents of preschool children tend to spend lots of time in playgrounds giving their children fresh air and getting out of the house. Our local Sure Start centre even provide a list of the locations of playgrounds in our area to visit. Therefore it is hardly surprising that you notice how worn out playground equipment is while you sit in your shattered mother of a toddler state.
The little playground near to us is very basic with just a slide, swings and a couple of rockers. I did consider fund raising to update the equipment but only got as far as contacting Playdale and a lady who seemed to know about how to raise funds for playgrounds. My only major issue was that I didn’t know enough people to start a committee with. Unfortunately the five years you spend with your baby is very fleeting and before you know it they are striving for independence so you don’t really see the playground equipment close up any more.
Once your child has made the transition from toddler to infant and you are starting to foray into the adult world, the shoddy swings and ancient slide suddenly don’t seem to be important any more. New parents take your place in the playground and if they are all like minded they could work together to improve the local playground. This is exactly what happened in our area but the playground in question is to be a new one on a big stretch of road quite away from where we live. The playground project is extremely ambitious and aims to fulfill the recreational needs of all ages including adults.
The NCB has produced a fact sheet on how to raise funds for your playground. You can request a funding guide from playground equipment companies like Playdale Playgrounds who have produced a funding guide. They also follow up the request by contacting you to see if they can help with your project. Once you have read through all of the instructions you will have to form a committee and be prepared to write detailed plans so that people funding your project know exactly what they are paying for. In some cases you may need to think about why your project is more important than other people’s so you can secure grants from different organisations.
Hopefully you will have some very creative and dynamic people on your committee who will be full of ideas for fundraising events. Eventually after a lot of hard slog and dedication you will be ready to speak to your local playground adviser who will help you to confirm which pieces of equipment you would like and where you are going to put them. Once an installation date has been agreed the playground equipment installers will come and set up your playground. Most playground equipment companies provide maintenance contracts to ensure that your playground remains in tip top condition.
All that is left is for your local community to launch the new playground and welcome children and parents into your amazing play area.
These days it would seem that the Nicky Morgan and Jeremy Hunt make policies without actually talking to each other. We are given such mixed messages when it comes to developing our children’s minds and bodies. On the one hand the Education Minister wants to increase the amount of academic work our children do, including dreaded homework. On the other hand, the Health Minister keeps telling us we are too fat and children don’t get enough exercise. The amount of opportunities children have to free play and therefore exercise is decreasing with every new target that is added to the OFSTED process.
Tracey Crouch, the Sports Minister, tried to convince us that the Olympic games would make athletes of us all. There was a little increase in sports participation but nothing to get excited about. Our medalists didn’t inspire us to exercise more, rather they encouraged us to; open new bank accounts, eat Quorn and watch, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. All of these activities could be done at home on the sofa and failed miserable to get anyone excited about sport. apparently there is no single reason why people don’t participate in exercise more.
School trim trails, climbing frames, climbing walls and many other pieces of playground equipment adorn our school playgrounds now, yet children are not getting as much time in the school day to play freely. In the late 70’s and early 80’s when I was at school our playground equipment consisted of a dangerous climbing frame, a huge field, crystal draining stones in a filled in stream, grass cuttings and magnifying glasses. Incidentally the exercise we got from the magnifying glasses was running away from the dinner ladies when we used them to melt black bin bags. If it was sunny we would go out and play rounders or cricket on the field. If it was snowing we took our sledges to the nearest hill and didn’t worry that we were missing English or Maths.
These days, unless an activity has got a significant number of learning outcomes and can be incorporated into a success criteria anything that doesn’t have a box to tick doesn’t count as learning. The notion that exercise has to be formal and that you should achieve some sort of accolade for participating in it is suffocating our love of sport. My brother and I spent one summer holiday playing in our grandparent’s empty coal bunker, it was great because the adults couldn’t get to us and we got filthy. The amount of agility and strength required to get in and out of a coal bunker is quite a lot, we slept well at night and fat kids can’t fit into coal bunkers.
We all probably interfere far more in our children’s lives than our parents did in ours. For some reason we treat children like they are made of fine china and neither their feelings or their bodies should be hurt. I had bruises and scuffed knees for most of my childhood – I didn’t get upset about it and our parents were caring but accepted that it was part of childhood. Now I am terrified of my son getting bruised and scuffed simply because I am afraid of being judge as a bad parent.
Play is definitely the secret to getting children to exercise more because it is so flexible and the imagination takes away the boredom of training. When I watch my son and puppy playing together they are both exercising but because they are playing then don’t realize it.
Mud Mud Glorious Mud!
Posted February 24, 2016
on:This year nature seems to have provided us with a bountiful supply of mud. Whether we have liked it or not country dwellers have been forced to contend with muddy feet and huge puddles on a daily basis. Children have found having impromptu mud baths fun and washing machines have been working double shifts during this constant wet season. If we think that sending our little darlings to school will prevent them from getting dirty then we are going to be disappointed.
Mud kitchens are all the rage in schools now, whether a DIY plucky Governor version or bought one, your children will spend some of their school day in mud kitchens. This article from Playdale Playgrounds explains why mud kitchens are such great fun. At home children can pester Mum and Dad for old utensils, cupboards and buckets so that they can enjoy the glory of mud. As with all aspects of play, a mud kitchen provides a rich learning experience that we just assumed was mucking about.
If learning objectives and opportunities are what floats your boat then this chart produced by blogger Worms Eye View applies EYFS Learning Opportunities to playing in mud kitchens.
All children can enjoy playing in mud kitchens, as the activity provides learning experiences for children of all abilities. Aspiring artists and those who like to touch and feel the world have wonderful opportunities to explore texture, consistency and the possibility of shaping mud. Scientists will totally enjoy experimenting with water quantities and soil types. All children enjoy copying their home life and a kitchen environment is where a lot of the action happens.
Learning objectives aside playing with mud and soil is really pleasurable. I remember my mud kitchen in the corner of the garden, consisting of an old pan, buckets and a sieve. One very warm summer holidays 35 years ago was spent sieving dry mud to make a sandy dust – I can’t remember the expensive activities we did that year but playing in my mud kitchen is firmly fixed in my mind.
To make lasting memories kit your kids up with clothes that can withstand mud and frequent washing, old spoons and pans. These are the ingredients of happy childhood memories.
- In: Parenting | Winter
- Leave a Comment
When you are a child the title of this post is likely to mean playground roundabouts and swings rather than a balance of good and bad events. Some children have the misfortune of experiencing the low points of life because their families either unintentionally or deliberately expose them to chaos and disorder. These poor children never manage to get a stable grounding in life because their childhood has literally been swings and roundabouts.
We are not talking about children not receiving the presents they asked for or missing out on expensive activities because limited funds does not equal limited love. We are thinking about children who are deprived of emotion and parental guidance causing them to be let down when they need their parents the most. No parent is perfect because we are all flawed human beings so we can only do our best based on the upbringing we have had. Sadly not everyone has had the benefit of parents who have been able to give them the love and care they need so there are no good examples to follow.
Being a parent is a constant flow of making decisions that can affect our children deeply. We can sometimes qualify bad decisions by believing that children are too young to be affected by adult issues. Often hiding the normal ups and downs of life and how we deal with them from children results in them having chunks of coping strategies missing so when they come across hiccups when they grow up they don’t have the resources to help themselves. Children learn by example so they way we behave is imprinted on their minds and that is how they also behave.
Therefore if a child has not observed or experienced care and compassion they will be unable to look after their own children. While there will always be exceptions and people from such backgrounds will move heaven and earth to make sure that their children will not suffer in the way they did. Christmas is a difficult time of the year for everyone, many don’t have ‘a wonderful Christmas time, domestic violence increases and children get caught in the cross fire. The mix of alcohol and financial woes can cause emotional explosions and issues to be magnified. Children are vulnerable because they don’t have the safety of the school routine to protect them.
Life is never just going to be swings and roundabouts but as parents we can try our best to make childhood the most wonderful time in our child’s life. Children just want our time and company because we are the mist important person in their lives, the best we can do for them is to try our best not to let them down and if we do have let them know its because that is how life is sometimes.
- In: Children | Parenting
- Leave a Comment
Being a parent is a constant learning curve – you think you have got the hang of it and then your child reaches another stage of development and everything goes lopsided again. When children are very young this happens almost every six
months starting with the disruption when weaning begins. We do get a reprieve, sort of, between the ages of six and eleven where your child is emotionally balanced and satisfied with just being loved, cared for and getting toys they want. However the hormonal changes that occur during adolescence can suddenly change a contented happy children into one who needs to rebel against everything they once accepted willingly. Rebellion is a natural part of growing up because it is an evolutionary attempt to do things differently from your parents so that you can improve your lot in life.
As parents we have to understand that teenagers are going through another milestone and although they are not dinky and cute wearing nappies, they still need us to protect them. During puberty a child’s body transforms into an adult body but their brains are still not fully developed. Teenagers are very vulnerable at this stage because the image they portray is far more mature than the child inside. An adolescent child becomes a pack animal that likes to trawl the streets at night looking for excitement, they would rather hang out in the cold with their mates than stay at home with their boring parents. The only real way that we can ensure teenagers’ safety is by providing safe places for them to go without telling them to go there.
In January this year Playdale playgrounds Ltd wrote an article about Teenage shelters. Playdale reported that Thames Valley Police found that appropriately located teenage shelters resulted in a reduction of graffiti and crime in the vicinity of the shelter. Although a teenage shelter is not a total solution to teenage crime it can allow teenagers to hang out safely away from street corners. Teenage shelters located near sports fields can actively encourage teenagers to follow local sporting events and, if it is not too uncool, may inspire them to take up a sport.
Ideally (and I say that without any experience) we need to fortify our children with lots of interests and hobbies so that they are not inclined to hang out aimlessly. However the results of puberty are unpredictable and your little cutie may turn into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle when their hormones start raging.
I have got about five years to go before the first strains of adolescence strikes and I dread the battle of wills and the conflict, which is inevitable. I will be buying teenager books – just like baby books and hope that there is a proper instruction manual!