Science, Knitting and Dr Who! (by sarah)

Yesterday was amazing, I came up with a solution to Matt Smiths retirement from Dr Who - it was simple really Alaric's cubs think he is an incarnation of the Dr anyway! I think we should petition the BBC ;)

Then I turned up as a last minute recruit to the Cheltenham Science Festival - I'm doing impact research - basically walking around with shiny tech asking questions for Warick University. The team are lovely - if anyone is about - come over and say hello!

Then I met a lady from Surrey University who is using knitting to explain chemistry - similar to my knitted molecules she is crowd sourcing knitting to create a giant models of minerals :)

She is giving out the patterns :) And I am going to be knitting up all my blue wool for the project! I am also hoping to catch the lovely Lizzy Burns who's molecular jewellery and glass ware I had on display in March for Science and Engineering week :)

Then to cap it all I found a welcome to UWE email in my in box - it is still stuff about processing applications but it made my day :)

For the knit wits out there it is The Perovskite Project and they are looking for more knitters :)

June’s and July’sTo-Dos (by sarah)

I am sunburnt (I was wearing factor 50!) and am tired and exhillerated! I had a fantastic weekend running craft workshops at Wychwood Festival, as a family we also took part in many of the activities and listened to an interesting aray of music and learnt new skills. I belly danced everyday of the festival and went back tonight to the classes I was doing before medical stuff hijacked me at the beginning of the year.

May was a great month with me working on children's books etc... but June... well June and July are my FiMos - Finishing Months. I plan to finish projects!

And what alot of projects I have :/ Once again they seem to have multiplied! On top of that there is more art stuff and craft stuff and festivals and poetry to do and I may also have just been roped in as of this afternoon to do stuff at the Cheltenham Science Festival :) Which is exciting!

Oh and just to be extra geeky I also signed up todo treki knitting on Ravelry :)

The summer tends to be quiet intense for me - there is also a trip to be in the Hanwell carnival and another to see Neil Gaiman and Claire Armistead at the Royal Society of Literature this month.

So here we go!

Construction Toys (by sarah)

Construction toys like stickle bricks, lego, play mobile and umpteen others are fabulous but soooo expensive. We tend to get them in lu of other gifts which seem funkier as they are the toys that just keep giving. They are not that age dependent as the older the child gets the more complex the items they build with it. It improves spacial awareness and hand eye coordination, it taps straight into engineering and with things like lego technic it begins to be something more.

But it is not just science and engineering that it feeds into, it relies on the child's imagination, it is design skills and then it is pure and simple play, once they have made the set up they want. Above is Jean's Antropolis or Ant City. She imagines all the little ants making their homes in the stickle bricks and how they would interact with each other, how they would get there in the first place. The stickle bricks were a christmas present for Mary who is happy to act as stickle brick goffer fetching the little spiked rectangles for her sisters latest piece of ant arctecture.

It has gotten to the point that I am story boarding the escapades of these ants which Jean reads when she remembers.

Maybe one day I will draw up the adventures of Ant Ee Matter and Antropolis and yes he has a cape.

The point is that we think construction toys are one of the best things to give children and we have also found a set of convertors you can print on a 3D printer so you can make lego and stickle bricks and all the others fit together into one huge great big uber construction kit!

I'm not sure who is more excited about this - me or the kids or Al!

Of course you need access to a 3D printer - oh look - hello Bristol Hack Space have we told you how much we love you?

The Dangers Of… (by sarah)

The danger of home schooling is that the kids only learn what the parents wants
The danger of forced schooling is that the kids only learn what the governments want
The danger of religous schooling is that the kids only learn what the religons want
The danger of military schooling is that the kids only learn what the soliders want
The danger of no schooling is that the kids only learn what the streets want

Teach the kids to think and question and root out the answers for themselves
Teach empowerment and watch them bloom
Teach don't preach

Find the technique that fits the kid
In a group or on their own
A mix of both
Repeating, making, playing, mimic and more

Never, Ever, Ever Give Up! (by sarah)

When my friend Charlee came to visit she bought stuff in this lovely panda bag. I love the image of the panda kicking the celestial butt and saying never to give up!

So I took a photo and posted it to facebook tagging all those people I know are having a hard to at the moment with various things :)

But I also like the style of drawing. It's got another lovely photo on the back saying Follow Your Own Star :) and other inspirational things written on it.

This appears to be the company it is from - I am trying to ignore that they have a Domo cuddly toy :)