Tuesday 30 September 2014

Monday back so soon....

Yes I know it's been posted on Tuesday, that's because I was sooooooo busy yesterday I didn't have a chance to finish in time.

Well the freebie Lego kit arrived and I left it on the shelf for later.

The sun was shining so off we went to the park, where we watched a HUGE sign being made for the Art Festival. Typically I forgot to bring my mobile so no pictures.
The girls had a great time exploring and climbing trees, pretending to be Koalas. We read all the lovely chalk writing and looked at the pretty pictures then it started to rain gently so we carried on to town.

We had a great time at the charity shops, Shaz got a lovely jacket.

She wanted some matching shoes we found too, but I said no, it would take her a good decade to fit into them and the heels were about 4 inches high, she insisted she would be able to walk in high heels and started walking on her tippy toes giving us all the giggles. She also found a really funky Autumnal handbag.



We found lots of interesting supplies.....



 Shaz has already read 'There's a Pharaoh in my bath' which she enjoyed immensely and has written about it in her reading diary.
















We also managed to get both a flower press and a book to display the flowers in.


When we got back we opened the Lego


The 2 of them have been playing, and making up stories ever since.


Fantastic freebie from Lego, story starter sample kit
http://marketing.legoeducation.com/acton/form/7842/0013:d-0001/0/index.htm
We also signed up for the free Lego magazine
http://club.lego.com/en-us/join/



For lunch we had pitta, grapes, cucumber, cheese, tomato's, humus, ham & chicken and the girls decided to get creative, here is Ariel's attempt, it's a princess. Fantastic job!!


Shay decided to make a shark in her sea of humus..


After lunch we did a spot of Maths then Shaz played Mineplex for a while, all I could hear was her laughing.



Shazzy has now started my fave ever, ever, ever book when I was a girl, none other then 'The Magic Faraway Tree' all 3 books in 1.



 I had to shoo her off to bed, she is on page 86 of 675 :) I knew she would love it.

Bit behind on the OU course because I didn't realised we had 2 experiments to do last week so Cucumbers and Osmosis it is for tomorrow (now today) after math and another science experiment using spaghetti to build a bridge strong enough to support 2lb bag of foodstuff....

I'm sure I have a stinky cold coming and all, it's been building for weeks and I still have the whitlows


Even the cats are not impressed.......


Monday 29 September 2014

R.I.P. Fellow warriors of the Tinnitus Battle. Please sign and share the petition. Thank you

Lost 2 fellow warriors in the Tinnitus battle this week.

Please can you sign & Share this petition which is to draw attention to the severity of the condition and have it recognised as a disability.

I have 24/7 Tinnitus and Hyperacusis it is incredibly debilitating. I am also partially deaf so although  I have hearing aids with white noise and see a therapist.
The hearing aids are for the deafness alone.

There is no cure for tinnitus.

Tinnitus and Hyperacusis (extreme sensitivity to sounds) are not 'ear' conditions but a malfunction within the brain.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/63884

And for fellow suffers out there, a link for you too

Saturday 27 September 2014

Visiting an asteroid as you do

Well the girls got their certificates today which will be laminated and put in the 'special' box for when they are older.

Thank you for joining us on the Osiris-REx asteroid sample return mission to Bennu


Your name will reside on one device placed in the sample return capsule for a round trip journey from Earth, to Bennu, and back.; and on a second device affixed to the spacecraft instrument deck for continued travels in space.

Osirius-REx is a NASA mission. The messages to Bennu! program is part s part of the Planetary Societies Messages from Earth program.

If you would like to take part visit
http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/bennu/


and




So true


Friday 26 September 2014

Packing for Mars, The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Ok so this week on our travels to the local charity shops, we managed to get Ariel (aka The Voice) a kiddie type lap top thingy for £2, Spotted by Shazzy (aka 8 yo).  Ariel loves it.




We found 3 great books (total £2)



We also found a lovely piece of cloth, I am going to teach the girls to use my new sewing machine (Have been trying to get one for ages and finally was able to) So far I have opened the box and read and re-read the instructions, I will check YouTube when I get a chance for any relevant videos. It looks like a great machine and has fantastic reviews, but it has been so long since I have used one I want to be sure what I am doing first.



The material is like a giant Iggle Piggle blanket.. 



We had a vote and decided not to use it for our sewing projects, instead we will wrap ourselves up in it when it gets cold.


We have also have signed up for 2 Open University Courses

Shazzy is doing the Basic Science Understanding Experiments (with my help!)

Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Observation, Note Taking, Look/Discuss Data, Experimentation and Design.



This weeks experiment was to find out how much water a potato contained. This involved weighing the potato, then nuking it for a minute at a time and writing the weight down after each minute.



Even Poppy cat was intrigued.


Shazzy took notes, while I nuked the spud...




The potato started out weighing 212g and after nuking it for 17 minutes, it weighed 50g , so we worked out it originally contained 162g of water.


50g
I think I need to practice my graph's it's been a while...



(Note to self: Remember to get digital scales asap)

(162/212) x 100 = 76.4% was water

The second course is for me only, Teaching Computing Part 1 to go with the Coding I am learning. deep Joy.



Ariel was in a creative mood this week (yes that is Upsy Daisy's legs to the left) and for all the parents out there ....



She made some lovely creations  and pictures 










Well we finally made it to Friday, Ariel is relaxing on my bed with her Leapster and Shazzy is enjoying a Minecraft video.

(Latest Minecraft news:

British Museum to be digitally recreated in Minecraft and Minecraft map of the UK upgraded to include houses).



Have a great week-end <3











Poplar Leaf Rust

Well the weather is on the turn, it's getting colder. The leaves are falling from the trees out back, sadly not just because of the weather, they have a fungal disease, Poplar leaf rust and they have it bad. 


Everything has been covered in what we thought was orange pollen for months now, really thick orange powder, we have never seen it like this before, all over window sills, tables, clothes hung out to dry.
The forestry people have been contacted we are waiting to hear back.

I noticed this one a couple of years ago.


This year the bark is coming off in chunks and this is the tree next to it.



The 2 together


Next tree along






All the trees are showing the same symptoms




Very sad, lets hope something can be done and it's not too late to save our trees....