The vicious gnomes of Shinrin Koen

We have a great park, Shinrin Koen, about an hours drive away, it really has something for everyone, whether you are a dog lover, a family with small kids, tweens or keen explorers, there is something to jeep every family member happy.

Last time we went, we tried out hand at orienteering, this time we just rocked up and wandered. We kept seeing these little gnomes and what started out as one or two daft pictures anded up as a whole series...

I'm going to print the photos out and see if Ebi-kun will write a story to go with them. He is very much on a maths kick at the moment so I'm not sure if there will be much interest, we will see.

And the buggers have learned to drive now....

No end of amusement! And now when we think about this particular day at the park, it will be remembered for the vicious gnomes... you have been warned!

The Secret Den Command Centre

Remember Ebi-kuns den? Well, he decided he needed a command centre, the den is the headquarters for the local spy ring apparently - of course, you will have to forget that I told you that!

So he got out the recycling basket - we save anything that might be handy for crafts, and set to it. I can't remember why we had a big sheet of hologram sticky backed paper but it came in very handy. I also have a box full of pictures cut out of magazines, that is where he found the men in the hazmat suits. You can't really tell from the photos but he placed a piece of wavy plastic over the top to give it a proper TV feel to it.

He added various other bits and bobs, I'm sure they all have a function, I have no idea what they do - I'm not a member of the spy ring! But there are lots of buttons, dials and levers.

I did say he needed a Big Red Button - because, well there is always a big red button, that is what is inside the black box, to prevent accidental firings of missiles, we wouldn't want that would we!

As a kid, I would spend hours making things from the recycling (well back in the day it wasn't recycling, basically stuff saved from going in the bin!) and it makes me happy that Ebi-kun is happy to do the same. A load of junk + a vivid imagination and some decent glue/tape!

Speedy Science - mobius strips

Another fun and quick science activity.

What you need:

• Piece of paper
• Tape
• Pen
• Scissors

We didn't have a long piece of paper handy so we cut 2 strips of A4, about 3cm wide. Then taped the short ends to make one long strip.

Then hold one end of the strip and give the rest a half twist and tape the two ends together (if you imagine the paper has a front and back, you tape the front to the back)

This will give you a loop. 

Put the pen in one spot in the middle of the inside of the loop and draw a line through the middle, don't take the pen off the paper.

Magic! The pen has marked both sides of the paper!

How does it work?

What will happen if you cut along the line?

Does this trick have any practical applications?

For older kids you can get into the maths behind it all, it's a good springboard for many activities.

It is the same principle that they use in conveyer belts, audio tapes and typewriter ribbons (OK your kids might not know what they are, get some history of machines in there too!) because it uses both sides equally, so equal wear and tear.

More recently infinite scarves have been popular - same thing! So your speedy science experiment can now be a knitting project!

Speedy Science - step through a postcard

More speedy science experiments!

What you need:

A postcard
Pair of scissors
A volunteer

This can be done like a magic trick, pick up the postcard and ask if it's possible to step through it, of course, everyone will say no!

Fold the card in half lengthways, then make cuts from the folded edge, stopping about 1cm from the edge of the card, each cut should be about 1cm apart.

Then turn the card around and repeat from the other side, so you are cutting between the cuts you have already made. Open the card out again.

Now, be careful, you don't want to cut from the very edge, so put your scissors over the very first (edge) strip then cut through the centre, be careful not to cut the last strip (the other edge) too.

You will end up with a piece of card looking like this...

Carefully open it out, it will be a big hoop of card and then step into the middle.

Pull it over your body....

Steady as you put your arms through....

And taa-daa, take a bow and collect your winnings - assuming you have taught your child how to place bets!

Fun For Free - statue abuse!

I saw a post on somewhere like Buzzfeed a couple of weeks ago, basically with people doing stupid poses with statues. I showed it to Ebi-kun and he decided it would be fun to do. After our trip to the Star Wars exhibit, we popped into the TV studio lobby to see if there was anything interesting and so the fun begins....

Punch To The Chin

Hair grab!

Doremon getting handy with his mic

Punch to the stomach!

Kick in the head

We ran out of statues to abuse so it was time for a bit of a rest. Ebi-kun has recently gotten into Doremon. A lot of the stories are history based, I'm not sure how accurate they are but the kids love them!

We had a wander outside for more statues but could only find this heart! We will definitely be doing more of these, I can see Paris being a fun place to do it, as long as we don't get arrested! If you want to join the fun, follow me over on Instagram!

Speedy Science - The Uncontrollable Arm

Another fun one, I thought everyone knew this trick but it appears not!

What you need:

Small or large person
A wall

Stand about 6 inches from the wall and push the backside of your hand against it...

Push as hard as you can, using your arm muscles for at least 30 seconds, longer if possible!

Which sounds easy but actually, it's not...

When the time is up relax you arm and put it back by your side, it will lift itself, just like magic. To make this more impressive you can utter a spell and demand that the arm rises!

Archery madness

Ebi-kun is still keen as mustard with the whole knights thing. He has a thing about archery at the moment and found the bow my brother made him in the shed (out of a garden cane and a piece of twine). Ebi-kun re-strung it and made himself some arrows and I have to say, he is getting quite good!

Practising on the green, don't worry, the arrows don't go past the first tree, never mind hitting the road!

5 quick ways to keep the kids entertained

Just a quick note to say, over on MOC I have a free PDF today with 5 printable scavenger hunts, lots of fun! Pop over and grab your copy...

boredom busters for the 2012 Olympics

I usually share what we have been doing after the fact but since the Olympics kick off tomorrow I thought you might want to join in the fun. I made up a PDF so that you can make up your own family Olympics. This afternoon we will decide which 'events' will take place in ours. Hoopla is definitely on the list but I'm not sure what else yet. 

So, print out the sheet, you might want to print out a few copies, write in the events, they can be as serious or as silly as you like, we will probably be leaning towards the silly side, then pop them on the fridge or up on the wall. When you have one of those 'I'm bored' moments, pick an event and go for it. 

When you plan your events make sure you include ones that even the littlest kids can win.

As you know the actual Olympics will be running over the course of a few weeks, you can do the same with your family Olympics. Record who has won what and either award medals as you do the events or have an award and closing ceremony at the end of the holidays.

Need some event ideas?... hoopla, thumb sumo, tidily-winks, skipping, hula-hoop, ping-pong, egg and spoon, ball toss, long jump, sprints, balancing a pencil on your nose, juggling, standing on one foot....

Family Olympics by Jojoebi

What fun events will you be doing? Share in the comments section below and if you have friends that you think would like to join the fun please share this post!

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bubble snakes....

I have seen this on several blogs and popping up all over Pinterest and so I'm not sure who started the craze so giving credit is difficult but a big thank you to whoever it was. 

This is incredibly easy to make. Cut the bottom off a PET bottle then either pull a sock or cut a piece of sock to cover the bottom, and hold it in place with tape. To make the snakes use washing up liquid and a bit of water in a bowl, dip in the blower and blow... and then collapse into a fit of giggles, M-chan looks like she is going to pee herself!

The kids played with this for well over an hour and would have played longer if they had more time. We also ended up with several other kids from the street wanting to have a go. Baby T-kun and baby M-chan loved just playing with the bubbles, it was a bit windy so they were blowing all over the place too adding to the excitement.

So if your kids say that dreaded 'I'm bored', first get them to do some cleaning... I find that usually fixes the problem! and then make them some snake blowers.

I should say that we did try with coloured bubble solution too but it ended up staining the kids T-shirts so I don't recommend it and really, they were having so much fun they didn't need the added colour.

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The Spanish Armada Inspired...

Ebi-kun has recently had his nose stuck in a Spanish Armada book, I'm not sure what it is that draws him so much into the book but he loves it. After making the ship from the food tray he decided he wanted a whole fleet of ships so he could re-create big ship battles in the bath!

Luckily, I didn't have a massive pile of food trays but what we do have is a bag full of PET bottle lids (they get recycled differently to the bottles). So we got to work....

First he picked out enough lids to make two fleets of matching colours, red vs white. Then using the glue gun, he squirted in the glue and I held the toothpick in place. I think a child would find this difficult to do alone but an adult can manage it. After testing the first couple of boats we decided that the 'mast' in the middle of the boat wasn't very stable and if the mast was on the side the boat tipped. So, I asked Ebi-kun what we should do to solve the problem and he suggested adding another blob of glue on the opposite side of the mask - works a treat.

We finished off by making mini sails from sticky tape.

And, off to battle they went, apparently there was only one white ship left after the battle, the rest sank!

Fun for free! Can't complain about that.

Ice Cooking

Ice Cooking On A Hot Day

I gave BabyEbi some bowls, spoons, ladles, you know, general kitchen bits and a bowl of ice and a bowl of water.

He spent a good hour 'cooking' with it. He hasn't shown any interest in spooning for quite a while but he really enjoyed this. He also liked the challenge of walking up and down the steps with a bowl of water trying not to spill any. He loved it so much that he asked to do it again the next day rather than go down to the park.

This is a great activity on so many levels. Apart from keeping cool, there is spooning and stirring, pouring and learning about water and ice, and how they react to each other.

Add coloured ice cubes for some colour mixing fun too!

Here he decided to try drawing with the ice cubes...



Mixing...


More pouring...



No need for any fancy equipment, just good old simple fun for free.

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