Bake Off Lab box

As P enjoys science but being busy working/riding it is hard to find the time to have ideas and collect resources so a box which has everything in it to carry out experiments is really appealing. We tried a Curiosity Box. Each Curiosity Box is packed with hands-on activities and collectable lab kit to help children explore the world around them – and beyond. The topics are curriculum linked and are ideal for children between the ages of 6 and 11. Every experiment is individually wrapped and includes all instructions, guides, ingredients and tools needed to become a budding scientist. The information in each pack is well written and explained for both little and big minds to easily understand. The experiments are fun and intriguing and really make you think about the science behind it all.

We started with the Bake Off Lab box which contains 3 delicious activities.

The first one we tried was making honeycomb. We saw that by adding bicarbonate of soda, it breaks down with heat to release carbon dioxide gas. The gas causes the sugar and syrup mixture froth and bubble. The bubbles become trapped in the mixture and set there!

 P then made a showstopper -using marshamallows and rice krispies to make different structures (P made marshmallows). The powder contains maltodextrin which joins with the fats in melted chocolate to create a powder!  

 

 Finally, she made biscuits - plain, raisin and mystery (we added chocolate) to find out which one would be the best for dipping. Biscuits are basically starch held together by sugar. Dunking melts the sugar leading to a more intense sweetness but also leading to disintegration. At the same time, the starch grains swell which temporarily helps to hold the dissolving biscuit together. We found that chocolate ones were the worst (disintegrated the quickest) and the plain were the best!

 We really enjoyed it and have ordered another one.

They also have 3 sizes of boxes for children aged 7-11 on monthly subscription:

Pico (1 activity) from £6.95pm

Nano (2 activities) from £11.95pm

 Jumbo (3 activities) from £19.95pm

There is also a CuriosiTots Box for younger children aged 4-6.

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend

The husband, myself and P visited Thriplow Daffodil Festival. Over two days, visitors walk the car-free village to look at the daffodil displays, visit the attractions and open gardens, and potter around the stalls.Thriplow is a village about 20 minutes out of Cambridge. Back in 1969 the church roof in Thriplow was in need of repair - hardly a unique state of affairs in an English village. They'd always had a particularly fine display of daffodils in the village so people decided to open their gardens to the public and to serve tea from their own kitchens. The event raised £206, and thus encouraged, they decided to do it again the next year. Over the years it has raised over £400,000 for charities. Almost everyone in the little village does something to help out - manning car parks, printing posters, serving teas and all the many tasks involved in bringing the event to life. We pre-booked tickets which was 10% cheaper than buying them on the day.

  Apart from the daffs there is much to see: horse and cart rides, the local blacksmith's shop, merry-go-rounds, morris dancers, stalls selling all manner of local produce, a punch and judy mn, folk music, rock and jazz, the raptor foundation, vintage cars and tractors,stalls selling local produce......

 We had lunch there - P enjoyed a pancake and some ice-cream!