50 Outdoor Summer Activities For Kids I am seriously down to HOURS until my kids are done with school and I am getting a little nervous . . . the first few days are always fun, but then the "I'm Bored" whines and cries set in. Ahhhh! I rounded up some fun outdoor activities that would be perfect to chase the bored blues away and keep kids from turning into couch potatoes over the summer. Most can be done for free or very inexpensively and you can help the kids get set-up with these activities and then let their imaginations run wild. If you did one activity a day, it might get you through the middle of July. After that, you are on your own! 3. 12. 21. 23. 24. 25. 27. 30. 32. 37. 43. 46. 47. 48. 49.
10 things we didn't know last week 1. The French had no official word for French kissing… until now. It's "galocher". Find out more (CBS) 2. XXXXXL size is being introduced for men at department store Debenhams, a three-X leap from its former largest size XXL. Find out more (Daily Mail) 3. Find out more 4. More details (New Scientist) 5. More details (Smithsonian Magazine) 6. Find out more (Daily Mail) 7. Find out more (LA Times) 8. 6X8 is the multiplication children get wrong most while 9x12 takes longest. Find out more (Times) 9. Find out more zCush Baby Nap Mat Review & Giveaway - The Photographer's Wife If you’re new here…thanks for visiting! If you enjoy reading, we do hope you stick around and follow along as we travel, esepcially to Walt Disney World, review great products and hold awesome giveaways! Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Follow us on Twitter | Follow us on YouTube I’ve mentioned the zCush Baby Nap Mat before HERE and HERE because of how much we liked it. It really was one of those products that we honestly didn’t think about or even know about prior to Trent being born, but were suddenly so grateful to have found it. and used it every single day afterward until he ultimately grew out of it. I am seriously THE WORST at transferring Trent from one spot to another. I wish! Before he would fall asleep, we would put Trent in the nap mat and then feed him or rock him to sleep. The side zips open for easy access. It truly was a lifesaver! And because babies make messes, the mat and cover are machine washable! or at these local retailers.
HIV inner shell structure revealed Researchers have for the first time unravelled the complex structure of the inner protein shell of HIV. The US team, reporting in Nature, also worked out exactly how all the components of the shell or 'capsid' fit together at the atomic level. Until now the exact structure had proved elusive because of the capsid's large size and irregular shape. The finding opens the way for new types of drugs, the researchers from the University of Pittsburgh said. It was already known that the capsid, which sits inside the outer membrane of the virus, was a cone-shaped shell made up of protein sub-units in a lattice formation. But because it is huge, asymmetrical and non-uniform, standard techniques for working out the structure had proved ineffective. The team used advanced imaging techniques and a supercomputer to calculate how the 1,300 proteins which make up the cone-shaped capsid fit together. She added that the fast mutation rate of HIV made drug resistance a big problem.
secret agent trench coat sewing pattern | Shop Boy's or girl's coat. Classic unlined trench coat includes double-breasted button front, raglan sleeves, shoulder flap, button tabs at the sleeves, and a tie belt at the waist. The unisex version (View A) has pockets, while the ultra feminine alternate version (View B) features a dropped-waist skirt. Skills Used Each of our patterns calls on a unique set of sewing skills. Haven't ever done one of these things before? After successfully sewing this pattern, you will have developed the following skills: bias bound seams, buttonholes, collar, patch pockets, and raglan sleeves. Suggested Fabrics Medium-weight woven fabrics like canvas, corduroy, twill, denim, and coated (raincoat) cottons. Notions Coordinating thread, light- to medium-weight fusible interfacing (match your fabric with the appropriate weight of interfacing), eight 3/4" buttons.
What can we learn from children's writing? 30 May 2013Last updated at 20:45 ET A BBC Radio 2 short story competition aimed at children up to the age of 13 has had 90,000 entries. It's an exercise in creativity but the words they used have also been put into a database which gives us an insight into the way they think. Every one of the 40 million words from the story-writing competition has been collated and analysed by lexicographers at the Oxford University Press, in order to monitor and track children's language. It is the third edition of the 500 Words competition, organised by the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and the second year the OUP has analysed the entrants. Here are some of the findings. Kids write "mum" more than "dad" Mums may get more mentions but dads are portrayed as action men The most common word of all was "mum" - or some variation of it, such as "mam" or "mar" - with a total of 115,627 mentions. "Dad" trailed behind, only just scraping into the top 15 most common words, with about half of the mentions of "mum".
Teaching Children How to Raise Urban Chickens The increased interest in consuming locally and sustainably produced food has spawned a thriving locavore movement. (“Loca” meaning local, “vore” meaning eat.) Locavores include commercial growers interested in keeping the environment as clean as possible, farmers selling food close to where it’s grown (an oft-cited number is no farther than 100 miles from the point of purchase.) Being a locavore can be as simple as using your own food grown in your really kick-ass veggie garden or being committed to only buying locally produced food. My dog recently discovered the locavore culture. So maybe chicken-tending is best left to those parents with children who won’t go all feral and drooly around backyard fowl. Before starting your own coop, here are a few reading assignments for the kids: Try Nikki McClure’s To Market, To Market. The book teaches kids (and maybe their parents too) that food comes from somewhere other than just the grocery store. The Hen House The Chicken Run The Perch or Roost
Brain cells give insight into Down's syndrome Brain cells have been grown from skin cells of adults with Down's syndrome in research that could shed new light on the condition. US scientists found a reduction in connections among the brain cells and possible faults in genes that protect the body from ageing. The research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives an insight into early brain development. Down's syndrome results from an extra copy of one chromosome. This generally causes some level of learning disability and a range of distinctive physical features. A team led by Anita Bhattacharyya, a neuroscientist at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, grew brain cells from skin cells of two individuals with Down's syndrome. This involved reprogramming skin cells to transform them into a type of stem cell that could be turned into any cell in the body. Brain cells were then grown in the lab, providing a way to look at early brain development in Down's syndrome.
a sip of summer {and a ten on ten reminder} It's the final days of summer friends, time to soak in the last few lazy moments before the kids head back to school. Time to use the grill for dinner, camp in the backyard, make a big messy outdoor project and eat popsicles until your hearts content. I am taking a few days this week to soak in these moments with family but not to fear a few of my sweet friends will be here keeping you company and sharing a little sip of summer with you to help you drink in the last of summer's goodness. And of course I had to leave you with a tiny little summer sipper project inspired by the mason jar sippies I made for Simon's birthday. I am loving how it turned out and have been enjoying my favorite summer sipper, an iced soy Irish cream latte in it ever since! So what's your favorite summer drink? Happy monday everyone!
Terms of endearment: The many languages of love "Chouchou" is Carla Bruni's term for her husband, the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Samantha Cameron was heard on microphone saying "I love you babe" to her man, Prime Minister David Cameron - and Michelle Obama described the most-tweeted picture ever (above) with the words, "That's my honey giving me a hug." Some terms of endearment can be used in many languages - "baby", "angel" and "sweetheart" for example. But some don't travel as well as you might think. And how would you react if someone called you a cauliflower, a flea, or a baby elephant? 1. Petit chou "Chou" (cabbage) is the French equivalent of "sweetheart". 2. Chuchuzinho "Chuchu" is the word for "squash" - but strangely similar to the French "chouchou". 3. Tamago gata no kao In Japan, women are frequently called "an egg with eyes" by those who love them. 4. Terron de azucar Like "honey" in English, sweet foodstuffs of one kind or another make popular terms of endearment in numerous languages. 5. Buah hatiku 6. Ma puce
Letter Maze . Activities for Kids: Adventures In Learning . PBS Parents Pin It Learning letters doesn’t have to be done with flash cards or worksheets. For preschoolers, I like to incorporate learning into our everyday fun activities. I sneak in learning with the mazes I make for the kids. This particular maze, I had my son connect the letter Bs through the maze from start to finish. How to Prepare: Pin It Tape a maze on your floor. The tape is the path through the maze (not the lines around the path). Taping the maze doesn’t have to be complicated. Write the letters of the alphabet on all the turns and intersections. Fill in the rest of the intersections and turns with random letters of the alphabet. Time to Connect the Letters: Have your child grab something to drive through the maze, or they could walk through it too! My boy goes for anything when it involves driving a vehicle, so I had him grab a car of his choice. And with that, he was off to connect the letters to find his way through the maze! My older son is in Kindergarten and he still had fun with this.
Neuron growth in children 'leaves no room for memories' The reason we struggle to recall memories from our early childhood is down to high levels of neuron production during the first years of life, say Canadian researchers. The formation of new brain cells increases the capacity for learning but also clears the mind of old memories. This could be behind the absence of long-term memory events from early childhood, known as infantile amnesia. The findings were presented to the Canadian Association of Neuroscience. Neurogenesis, or the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus - a region of the brain known to be important for learning and remembering, reaches its peak before and after birth. Dr Paul Frankland and Dr Sheena Josselyn, from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the University of Toronto, wanted to find out how the process of new neuron generation impacted on memory storage. They carried out their research on younger and older mice in the lab. "As new neurons are generated, memory may be compromised by that process."
Centuries-old frozen plants revived Plants that were frozen during the "Little Ice Age" centuries ago have been observed sprouting new growth, scientists say. Samples of 400-year-old plants known as bryophytes have flourished under laboratory conditions. Researchers say this back-from-the-dead trick has implications for how ecosystems recover from the planet's cyclic long periods of ice coverage. The findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They come from a group from the University of Alberta, who were exploring an area around the Teardrop Glacier, high in the Canadian Arctic. The glaciers in the region have been receding at rates that have sharply accelerated since 2004, at about 3-4m per year. That is exposing land that has not seen light of day since the so-called Little Ice Age, a widespread climatic cooling that ran roughly from AD 1550 to AD 1850. "It's a whole world of what's coming out from underneath the glaciers that really needs to be studied," Dr La Farge said.