Pre-School Science: Absorption & Colour-Mixing

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I first saw this idea on the marvellous Pinterest, and it originally came from a children's Australian TV Programme.

As far as The Boy was concerned we were about to perform magic, but then what else is Science if not a complete and utter mystery. It is to me anyway! So I posed him a question, showed him the equipment and waited to see what he'd say.

How can we make the coloured water travel from one glass to another, without touching it?

You'll need:

  • equal quantities of blue and yellow food colouring (although any two primary colours will work)
  • two glasses half-filled with water
  • one empty glass
  • two sheets of kitchen towel (absorbent but those with thirst pockets might not let it drip out again!)
  • two spoons for stirring
  1. Place the three glasses in a row with the empty one in the middle.
  2. Pour yellow food colouring into one end glass, and blue into the other end glass. Give them a stir with separate spoons so as not to mix the colours prematurely.
  3. Fold the kitchen towel strips into quarters, lengthways.
  4. Place one strip into the yellow food colouring and one into the blue. Fold the free end over into the empty glass in the middle and tuck it down to the side so they aren't touching.
  5. Wait and watch the results!

Colour-mixing

The Science Bit:

Kitchen towel is highly absorbent and the coloured water travels up the kitchen towel slowly defying gravity. It happens due to a force called 'capillary action'; a force of attraction between the paper fibres and the water. How does the water actually move up through the paper towel? The water is pulled up into the open spaces between the fibres in the paper, soaking the paper as it absorbs the water. When the weight of the water in the paper is equal to the upward attraction, then the water stops rising. In this case, gravity kicks in and because the kitchen towel is hanging down, the coloured water drips down into the empty glass.

The colour-mixing is basic science: blue and yellow makes green; red and blue would make purple; and yellow and red would make orange.

(In actual fact, The Boy asked what blue and red would make, and is desperate to try it out. I'd have obliged, but I'd bought up all the blue food colouring in our town yesterday with our playdough and preparing this!)

Colour-mixing

The end result is absolutely fascinating, even Mr. TBaM was enthralled.

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Tuesday Tots

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Perfect Brussel Sprouts

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At Christmas time I have to have Brussel sprouts on my plate. However this year I was reluctant to boil them, they just taste like old socks that way! I'd seen some recipes for them roasted with pancetta, but as a vegetarian that wasn't much good. I adapted the recipe, served them and my 67 year old father declared them the best he'd ever had. And he's had a lot!

Ingredients:

  • Brussel sprouts
  • Unsalted butter
  • Parmesan cheese
  1. Chop the stumps off the Brussel sprouts, peel the outer layers, and cross the bottoms.
  2. Melt a sizeable knob of unsalted butter in a frying pan on a low heat. Toss in the Brussel sprouts and coat them with the butter.
  3. Transfer to a baking tray and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.
  4. Cook for 20 minutes on 200°C.

Brussel sprouts

Byron Bay Cookies (Review & Giveaway)

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I have an incredibly sweet tooth and am a bit of a sucker for anything biscuit shaped. I normally refrain from buying them apart from for a coffee session, and because our baby and toddler group is a) a bit rubbish and doesn't get how these things work and b) full of working mums, no-one ever turns up so I'm forced to eat them all myself. FORCED!

Therefore when Byron Bay Cookies asked if they could send me a selection of their finest, I scrambled to my keyboard to say, 'Yes please!' and then eagerly awaited their delivery. Turns out they don't appear instantly though, so I was pleasantly surprised (because I have a memory like a sieve and forget) to see 'a selection' had been delivered a few days later.

Byron Bay Cookies

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How To Make A Snow Picture

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The Boy loves doing large scale art and when the snow fell earlier in the week, it was the perfect opportunity to get creative again. His recent painting sessions have shown that he is really keen to express himself artistically and so I wanted to allow him the freedom to make whatever picture he saw fit. I gave him the resources and let him get on with it.

We used:

  • A2 mounting card (equally could have used a cardboard box cut up)
  • various coloured paint
  • a variety of sponges and paintbrushes of different sizes and textures
  • silver, blue and white glitter
  • cotton wool
  • metallic white, foil confetti
  • glue
  • bubble wrap
  • coloured pompoms
  • talcum powder

You could also use:

  • tissue paper
  • clear cellophane

How To Make A Snow Picture 1

It's at this point that we talked about how he could use the different materials, it was the bubble wrap that really captured his attention. We popped a load of bubbles talked about what it felt like, looked like and how when it was stretched out it looked like a load of balls. At this point it was laid over the card and The Boy commented on how it looked like snow balls. He decided to paint a garden scene (is this one of the first pictures that they like to paint at this age? It's his most common scene for paintings!) and he set to painting with the grass and the sky.

The thing that often amuses me about infant painting is the way that the sky never reaches the ground, to them it's way above their heads and as they can't see the blue around them why would they paint it down there? The other thing that amazes me is how The Boy has always painted grass as blades of grass, never once has he painted a swishy mass for the ground. He normally wants to paint mud but was distracted on this occasion!

How To Make A Snow Picture

I framed it using a child-friendly picture frame from Ikea which has plastic 'glass' (although I've actually left this out because the painting is so 3D), and I've hung it in The Boy's bedroom for him to enjoy. As the seasons change, we'll do an updated picture to reflect the changes in nature.

365 #4

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Come on then you lot, bring on the snow pictures!

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
365



Days 20-26 of Project 365 (Country Kids)

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20-26 of 365

20. 'Birdman' (Yes we had a snowball fight but who wants another picture of that? We spent time on Sunday putting out food for the pair of blackbirds and Mistlethrush which we have in the garden. The fatballs had frozen so needed crushing, and we had half a loaf of bread to distribute. The Boy then spent ten minutes calling them, before going inside to wait at the window for them.)

21. 'Heart-pressing' (The Boy is obsessed with Instagram. 50% of the likes you'll see from the little green bug are actually done by him, he particularly likes seeing pictures of other children playing and I have to tell him who they are. Daily I have to look for photos of Jenny, Burton and Jenson; think we need another playdate. If your photo on Instagram is of a child and I've liked it, it'll be him. If it's got a comment or of food, it'll be me liking it!)

22. 'Artist At Work' (We spend a long time making the most amazing snow picture today; 95% of it was done by him – the 5% done by me was the gluing because he's a lazy tyke! He then wanted to take a photograph of it because he was so proud of it.)

23. 'Meet The Family' (I was incredibly disappointed today to discover that, despite two inches of snow falling on compacted snow and ice, school was not closed. I made my way in to my job, but was out of there by 3.45. At 4pm we were making snowmen in the garden! I'm on the left, Mr. TBaM is in the middle and The Boy is on the right.)

24: 'Now, Which One?' (This giant Kerplunk we had for review a few months ago, is still one of the most played games in the house! Problem is that now he's cottoned on that he needs the least amount of balls to win, and is very competitive!)

25: 'Eat Your Heart Out, Gordon!' (Uninspiring photograph, but it's a milestone snap. The Boy made his own tea tonight: pizza pocket. He cut the pitta bread in half, sliced up the chicken and grated the cheese himself, before stuffing them in the pitta pocket. And yes that's a sharp Kitchen Devil vegetable knife. Give a child the correct tools to use – under supervision – from the start otherwise they just need to be retaught. He'd be more likely to cut himself with a blunt knife as the knife would slip!)

26: 'Birdies, NO!' (Today has been a non-day. I hate days like this; slow to start and before you know it, the weather has turned and the light's almost gone. They affect my mood greatly, pyjama days on a weekend do not help the happy family way of life for us! All too late in the day we went to feed the swans at the local country park, they must have been starving because as soon as we walked towards them and they spotted the bag of bread, they were out the water and coming! To me, it was something like a horror movie, The Boy took it in his stride, and Mr. TBaM stood there telling them off for pecking his bottom! Nutter! The Boy then made us go for a walk in the pitch-black around the lakes, luckily we had our torches!)

My favourite photo this week is Day 20: 'Birdman'

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

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The Perfect Hot Chocolate

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I recently saw mention of the perfect hot chocolate recipe and a quick Google returned a whole load of recipes to use. I've combined the basic ingredients to perfect my own mixture which has gone down a treat in this house.

You'll need:

  • whole milk (enough for each person)
  • drinking chocolate (I use Galaxy Bubbles which gives a frothy, bubbly finish)
  • 1/4 small bar of chocolate (either plain or milk; plain chocolate tastes richer, milk chocolate is creamier)
  • 1tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1tsp cornflour
  • small marshmallows (my one hypocritical act as a vegetarian; can't find veggie marshmallows anywhere!)
  • squirty cream
  • saucepan
  • balloon whisk
  • grater
  1. Heat the milk slowly in a saucepan with 2tsp of drinking chocolate per 200ml of milk whisked in, continue to whisk as the milk heats through on the lowest setting.
  2. Grate in most of the chocolate and whisk it into the milk, slowly allowing it to melt in.
  3. Add the vanilla bean paste and stir it through.
  4. Mix the cornflour in a separate pot with a small dribble of milk until it forms a white liquid and add to the milk mixture, slowly whisking in.
  5. Pour into the mug, stopping an inch below the surface.
  6. Place a layer of marshmallows on top of the hot chocolate; this creates both a surface for the squirty cream to sit on, and the heat of the chocolate melts the marshmallows directly.
  7. Squirt cream over the top, decorate with marshmallows and grate a small amount of chocolate over the top for garnish.

hot chocolate

Country Kids: In The Snow

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The Boy woke up at 6am on Friday morning. Much earlier than normal and he wouldn't settle back down to sleep.

He wasn't the only one!

I'd looked out the window and spotted my longed-for inch of snow blanketing the neighbourhood, and despite the opportunity of another 45 minutes worth of sleep, I couldn't settle for the anticipation of whether or not school would be closed. I only work half days on a Friday so it wouldn't have been so bad if I'd had to work, but the hope was still there.

7am the text and e-mail arrived, my prayers were answered and I showed The Boy the wonderland that lay outside the window. It took a few more hours for us to get organised before we descended upon the snow, but when we did we made good use of the fluffy, white stuff.

First up: snowman!

country kids in the snow 1

Then: a sledge ride around the block, followed by colouring the snow, making snow angels, and then warming up with a hot chocolate while worrying about our snowman, "Snowman, are you alright out there? Are you cold?"

country kids in the snow 2

And eventually he had his first ever snowball fight! That photo bottom left? Right down the lens of my dSLR (I had to run in and dry it off)!

country kids in the snow 3

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coombe mill

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

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I've owned a slow cooker now for a year but the one thing that I rarely try to cook in it is a pudding. Stewed fruit always seems the most obvious but I've never been confident enough to try anything more adventurous. One thing that has been niggling away at me to try though is rice pudding, perfect for Winter time, and when I saw a packet of pudding rice on the shelf in the supermarket it seemed I could avoid it no longer.

I got home to discover the recipe on the packet called for three eggs which needed separating. As I don't do eggs, I panicked until I found this incredibly simple recipe online. I decided to give it a go one evening, and even though it was quite late already to put the slow cooker on, I carried on.


Ingredients:

  • unsalted butter
  • 150g pudding rice
  • 40g of sugar (I actually used sweetener)
  • 1.5l of milk (I used whole milk for a creamier taste)
  • 2 teaspoons of spice (I used cinnamon and nutmeg)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
  • 30g of raisins or sultanas
  • 2 measures of Baileys's (optional and clearly not to be added if giving to children!)
  1. Use the butter to grease the inside of the slow cooker pot to prevent the rice from sticking.
  2. Add the milk, spices, sugar, vanilla bean paste and pudding rice and stir thoroughly.
  3. Put the lid on, turn the slow cooker onto 'high' and leave for two hours, stirring occasionally. (Every time the lid is lifted off the slow cooker, 15 minutes has to be added onto the cooking time, so keep this to a minimum).
  4. The rice will suddenly swell at around 1hr 45, it may need more milk added. This was also the point that I added the Bailey's and the fruit (30 minutes before the end of the cooking time).
  5. Serve immediately with grated chocolate sprinkled on top

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Also linking up to Funky Foodies

Prezzo Lighter Menu (Review)

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prezzo banner

I was invited to sample out the 'Lighter' menu at Prezzo this weekend, and it was a very much welcome intermission from snowball fights and building an army of snowmen using rapidly freezing snow.

We often visit Pizza Express for a family treat on the weekend as the children's menu is such good value, but I'm not too keen on their lighter options as they seem a little uninspiring. As we're creatures of habit, we'd never ventured into a Prezzo restaurant before, I must admit that I'd thought them to be more of an adult restaurant, and hadn't realised that they had such a good children's menu with an extensive selection of child-friendly meals available.

I was there to sample the lighter options menu, which was launched to kick off the New Year for a limited period and comprise a starter, four main courses and a dessert, each under 600 calories each.

prezzo banner

This limited edition menu (available until 4th February 2013) comprises of: a starter of chunky tomato and oregano soup; four main courses – buffalo mozzarella flatbread, super detox salad, grilled vegetable flatbread, chicken Andria; and a dessert of a choice of sorbets.

I was really pleased to see that the main courses contained four vegetarian options, it's often the healthier option anyway, and although I am not a fan of tomato soup I was happy to give it a go.

prezzo starters

Starters:

  • Me: chunky tomato and oregano soup (130 calories)
  • The Boy: Garlic bread with cheese (from children's menu)
  • Mr. TBaM: Mozzarella in Carrozza (Mozzarella cheese deep-fried in breadcrumbs served with pomodoro sauce)

I was really pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture of the soup. The tomato soup I've had in the past has usually come from a tin, or of a similar consistency: like thick passata, gloopy and overwhelmingly strong in one taste. This soup was so far removed that it was a pleasure to eat. The chunkiness proved that it had actually once contained whole tomatoes (something I am normally left wondering!) and the oregano really added an extra dimension to the dish. I suspect that there may have been some form of spice or chilli in there as well because, as well as it retaining its warmth, it also had a mild, spicy glow. It was a huge portion and I managed two-thirds of it before having to admit defeat.

prezzo mains

Main Course:

  • Me: grilled vegetable flatbread (482 calories)
  • The Boy: Penne Carbonara (children's menu)
  • Mr. TBaM: Pollo Carbonara (Seasoned chicken, pancetta bacon and spaghetti in a creamy grana padano cheese sauce)

I was astounded with my main meal. The quality of all three was excellent, but mine was really superb. The flatbread was the perfect size and depth with the right amount of tasty vegetables; aubergine, courgette, peppers, onion and mozzarella drizzled with basil pesto, served with a side salad and low calorie Italian dressing. The pesto over the top added another layer of flavour that made the pizza-style bread lip-smackingly delicious. It was also beautifully presented on a wooden board that I knew my woodturner father would have approved of!

As an aside, it's worth nothing that quality of the meat in the other main meals was excellent; the ham and bacon were thick quality like gammon, and off the bone not processed. The chicken in the Pollo Carbonara was large chunks that were tenderly cooked.

prezzo puddings

Dessert:

  • Me: Lemon sorbet (129 calories)
  • The Boy: chocolate ice-cream
  • Mr. TBaM: Honeycomb Smash Cheesecake (Blended and topped with crunchy honeycomb pieces coated in chocolate)

I tend to find that sorbets can be either wishy-washy in flavour or basically an ice-cream labelled incorrectly. Lemon sorbets can be so sharp to eat that I normally admit defeat amidst a gallon of water trying to revive my tastebuds. Not the case with this one which was delicately flavoured to truly clean the palette after a delicious meal. It was very enjoyable. I'll admit that I only ate half of it before having to surrender it to Mr. TBaM, as lemon sorbet is his favourite pudding.

While I was not there to review the restaurant as a whole (my remit being the 'Lighter Menu') I do need to point out how impressed I was with the branch we went to (St. Mary's Street, Cardiff). The blanket of snow over south Wales ensured that Cardiff's trade experienced a quiet day generally, and this obviously meant that there were more staff to serve the tables in the restaurant. However all staff were friendly and courteous (even when I had to answer a phonecall at the table), chatting easily to The Boy. Yes, they knew I was there to review the menu (and yes I felt like the food critic in 'Mystic Pizza'), however I could see from the surrounding tables that the quality of the food and service was consistent across the board. It was a pleasure to find a decent selection of healthy meals for children, food that didn't patronise their young appetities.

The value of this meal and drinks was approximately £59.00 which is a little more than we would normally spend on a three course meal for the three of us. However, the quality of the ingredients and cooking combined with the excellent service and pleasant surroundings means that we will be returning to Prezzo in the future. And I will be trying out the lighter options which are available on the normal menu because this has proven to me that it's the calories that are reduced, not the taste!

The meal and drinks were complementary in order to review the lighter menu; this does not affect my opinion in any way.

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