Yes, next week on February 5th it is Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day. I have to admit it is the only time of year I make pancakes, so I usually have to scrabble around my recipe books to remember how to make them. If you need a little motivation and help, check out this funky music video I came across and some simple instructions for making some tasty pancakes.
Ingredients for the batter:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter (melted)
To serve:
Caster sugar and lemon/Maple Syrup/Jam/Chocolate Sauce
Whisk all the ingredients together, grease a pan ...
I was interested to read that Nigella Lawson, not only a wealthy lady in her own right but also married to multi-millionaire Charles Saatchi, plans to leave no money to her children.
Although this story has probably been exaggerated, the subject of inheritance is always a controversial one. Everyone has very strong views on the subject (even though they might not know this until they are in the situation when they write their own Will or benefit/don’t benefit from someone else’s Will).
There seem to be two main camps. Either parents seem to want to leave as much as they possibly ...
I am not sure why the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is such a famous spectacle. Maybe it has something to do with the well known poem by A A Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh):
They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
A soldier’s life is terrible hard, - Says Alice.
Or maybe people are just curious to see men wearing tall, black, furry hats!
If you want to see the Changing of the Guard for yourself, it takes place daily at 11.30am from ...
This exhibition strikes me as the perfect day out for the family - the kids will have loads of space to charge around and everyone can enjoy a bit of culture at the same time. (I am a bit of an art lover so this event particularly appeals to me.)
Twenty-eight of Henry Moore’s sculptures have been sited around Kew Gardens and it is the first exhibition of its kind in London. All the sculptures are huge and intended to be placed outdoors. It is a great way of bringing art to life for kids:
The London Mime Festival is running until 27th January, so this weekend is your last chance to catch a couple of the shows. Mime really has moved on a bit since my day as a kid!
There are two very impressive family-friendly shows at the Southbank Centre this weekend:
Pep Bou from Spain
Sun 27 Jan 6pm - one performance only - runs approx 75 mins with no interval
Seats £12, £15, £18 (limited concs)
This master of mime creates beautiful, hand-blown bubbles in all sorts of shapes and sizes. These shimmering creations then dance to a variety of music (as shown in the above ...
“White noise is an amazing sleep inducer. Not only does it mask unwanted outside noises, creaking doors and barking dogs, but it also mimics the sound of the rushing fluids and shifting body weight that your baby heard in the womb. In one study, young babies were three times as likely to fall asleep while listening to white noise as those not exposed.”
And if you go to beprepared.net you can download some white noise to put on a CD and play to your sleepless child. Maybe worth a try?
If, like me, you are beginning to think about what to do for half-term and are thinking of taking the kids to a show in London, here are 6 ideas:
Afrika! Afrika! at the O2 Arena (17th January to 19th April)
Billed as The Magical Circus Adventure from the Amazing Continent, this show has over 100 performers from 17 african nations. There is everything from dancers and contortionists to acrobats and jugglers. Check the official website for further details.
The Lion King at http://www.littlelegends.biz/items/62069(Ongiong) A spectacular visual feast, this adaptation of Disney’s much-loved film transports audiences to a dazzling world that ...
A while ago I was muttering on about kids and reading. I was blathering that a great story was probably a better and easier way to enthuse children about reading than a designer bookshop.
But how to choose a book? This looks like a pretty good list … and certainly a useful jump off point.
If you like clubbing and you feel that your dancing days have taken a bit of a nosedive since you had kids then this is the event for you. Baby Loves Disco has events in London or Manchester where parents can groove along with their young kids and just have a bit of fun.
Baby Loves Disco is an afternoon dance party for little kids (6 months-7 years) and (especially) their parents: featuring Heart 106.2 DJs playing feelgood tracks guaranteed to get those little booties moving and grooving.
This latest and most unlikely dance craze was started ...
Keeping Teenagers amused on holiday is no mean feat, so I was pleased to read about “New on the Scene” which takes place at the Courtauld Gallery.
It is an all day painting workshop for teenagers (13 to 18yrs) where they explore the world of Manet, Degas and others. They look at the way in which the invention of photography kickstarted artists’ preoccupation with modern life.
The best bit is when they can put their newfound knowledge to use by creating their own artwork.
Nearest Tube: Temple/Charing Cross
Saturdays 10.30am to 4pm
£10 each (booking advisable)
Tel 020 7845 4600 or email familyandlearningbookings@somersethouse.org.uk
Was shopping at Amazon.co.uk this evening when I noticed that they’ve got a new baby section to their site. According to the Amazon Associates Blog it’s been there since October, so this is really just for people as blind as me.
De-scarifying anatomy When I pinned the human body poster to their wall … they all said that they are “scared of it” and want it put down immediately. They were right, I can see why two 7 year olds might not want a skeleton, and a man with muscles exposed looking at them. Tags: scienceposterscaredchildrenhumanbody
If you are looking for something different to do with the kids in London then don’t miss this bizarre event. It takes place on 5th February 2008 at 12.30pm. The location is Dray Walk by the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane E1. So what happens? Well, teams of four people, some in fancy dress, race up and down whilst flipping pancakes! All the teams are sponsored and proceeds go to Save the Children.
The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane E1 6QL
Situated close to the junction of Hanbury St and Brick Lane.
By Tube: Liverpool ...
What can you do with a swanky electronic toy that a child’s become bored with or broken? The obvious answer is to tip it or give it to another child: next door, for instance, or to a charity, or via eBay. (There’s a useful strategy for that here)
The less obvious answer is to get out a screwdriver and hack it. As Kaitlin says,
“with a few simple tools and some instructions, you can break into the brains of electronic toys and make them do things their manufacturers never imagined”
These guys made a Laserquest style game from electronic cats and LEDs.
J.J.Abrams is one of the guys behind the TV show Lost. Here, he traces his inspiration back to his grandfather and one particular, peculiar box. And it really made me think how the presents we give children influence them. One of the things he nails is that effective gifts are effective because they represent something lasting. Which in turn, erm, makes me wonder whether I could have given my godson something a little better than a Transformer helmet.
Blimey! I never knew Lego storage was such a science. Evil Mad Scientist has an in-depth article on how to turn this (the more common sight):
into this:
and why various stacking systems make building with Lego a whole lot quicker. Scientific, yes. Mad, possibly. Evil, hardly, but perhaps not for 5 year olds :).
Freshome’s posted a wonderful collection of the 8 best treehouses. Definitely worth a look. I remember building my first treehouse with my friend Marios. We were about 10, he had a tree in is garden, and we nailed in some planks. If I’m really honest, it was a tree platform. Or tree two-plank. But it dictated most of a summer for us, because those when we clambered up and sat on those two badly nailed planks, we thought we were here
This is beautiful. “… Like road accidents, disability is what happens to other people. But it isn’t. It will happen to you. You will be brought to the depths of despair and your heart sent soaring … But you will deal with it because she is your daughter and you will love her unconditionally Tags: lettersageexperiencehonesty
In December the NUT published a report called “Growing Up in a Material World” [PDF].
“Companies [it says] are unashamedly targeting their campaigns to exploit children’s “pester power” on every level, from day to day purchases of food and drink, through treats, such as meals out, to clothes and toys, which can include expensive electronic equipment.”
And the increased commercialisation of children is having some grim effects. The Telegraph have summarized some of the findings
Children are bombarded with “unrealistic and unachievable images” of what they should look like, leading to an increase in anorexia, bulimia and eating disorders.
Can Atheists Be Parents? - TIME **sigh** Looks like an upright, normal couple in New Jersey have been refused adoption rights after 6 years of trying for kids on the grounds that they were atheists. Happy 2008! Tags: atheismadoptionUS
Until now, to comment on any of the places people have listed on Little Legends, you had to log in. It’s a little later than expected [ahem, … I had reports to write], but I’ve changed things so that now anyone can comment on our main site, just as they can here on the blog.
As I said then
there are some obvious spam issues, but opening things up as much as possible is - we believe - good news for everyone. If it’s easier to share your views then it’s easier for others to benefit from reading them.
It hasn’t been particularly easy finding British parents who blog. Last May, Vicky
“was beginning to wonder where all the UK parent blog activity is.”
And that’s a shame, because reading what others have to say is at least half the fun. [British Parent Bloggers is doing sterling work to rectify this, of course!]
Anyway, I thought one things that could make the process easier is for us to share our subscriptions in a way that others can easily access. And here it is: our OPML file
An OPML file is just a list of blogs and news feeds that you can ...
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