Family Life Archives - ET Speaks From Home

Pepper Mint: The Magnificent Mars Expedition Review

Come and explore the world with Pepper Mint who goes on a mission to Mars, making all sorts of out-of-this-world scientific discoveries along the way! This STEM experiment kit will help your child to discover the basic principles of magnetism and invisible magnetic forces in a fun and engaging way. There are a total of seven exciting experiments to do: magnetic field detector, weightless Pepper, a compass, magnetic elevator, Mars rover and magnetic slime. This kit is suitable for aged eight and above.

National Geographic Play Sand & Dig Kits Review

This is our last month working as Bandai STEM Ambassadors and we are so pleased that Bandai is giving one of their fantastic dig kits to one of my readers. We have reviewed quite a few kits like the Gemstone & Shark Tooth, Geode, Build Your Own Volcano and Growing Crystal & Sea Monkeys and they have never disappointed me in quality and for the educational benefits.

National Geographic Mini Dig Kit Review

This month’s review as Bandai STEM Ambassadors is one of my favourite kits and there are five kits to collect: Dino Poop, Fool’s Gold, Gemstone, Shark Tooth and Treasure. These mini dig kits might come in a small package but they have everything you need to learn and to excavate. Also, what I like about these kits is that they provide genuine items and not those cheap copies that you sometimes find.

Garden Family Sleepover – Wild Night Out

Did you know that a quarter of UK adults are classed as physically inactive and only a third of children in Britain spend more than an hour a day outdoors? This is why, in 2016, Explorers Connect founder Belinda Kirk started the Wild Night Out. Millets have gotten behind it and once a year, they encourage people of all ages to get outside and enjoy the outdoors for the evening. This year’s Wild Night Out fell on the 29^th June 2019. Did you join in too?

National Geographic Build Your Own Volcano

This is our fourth month of being the Bandai STEM Ambassadors and we have received the Build Your Own Volcano kit! Both of my children love science projects, especially those experiments that they can make a big mess and this is one of those experiments!

Thames & Kosmos Science Kits Review

STEM is so important as it pervades every part of our lives and by exposing young children to STEM is one of the greatest gifts of knowledge we can ever give them. This Easter holiday, we are thrilled to be able to experience a brand new range of science toys from Thames & Kosmos and also divert the children away from their screens and learn something.

Thames & Kosmos has launched a series of eight exciting science kits that are designed to introduce various topics with interesting experiments and fun facts. Each kit is priced at just £8.99 which is very affordable and delivers genuine learn-while-they-play experiences for young ones. These lovely collection kits cover minerals, planets, crystals, pre-historic crustaceans and more. The kits are suitable for age eight and above.

National Geographic Geode Review

To kick off this coming Easter half term, we received this National Geographic Geode STEM set as part of Bandai STEM Ambassadors. In case you didn’t know, National Geographic makes a huge range of STEM sets which allow your child/children to explore, create and discover something amazing about the natural world! There is so much out there for us to discover and learn about our amazing world!

Chinese Easter Word Hunt with Peter Rabbit

To celebrate the Cadbury partnership with the blockbuster motion picture, Peter Rabbit, we were invited to take part in our very own Cadbury Easter Hunts! Look at what we have from the Cadbury Peter Rabbit themed range!

Tips for Parents to get their Girls into a STEM Career

During my school days, I never had an opportunity to learn about Technology and Engineering. All the girls at my old school were made to learn home economics like sewing and cookery, whilst the boys were given the opportunity to build their own stuff. I recall a teacher told me that I should choose nursing rather than accounting as it is more suitable for a girl.

The truth is, I always scored the highest for my accounting and maths subjects in my class but I was never encouraged to pursue it. I was never encouraged to look outside the socially acceptable roles and I want to see that changed.

I want my daughter to be given an opportunity to question and know those important skills. As a parent, I want STEM to be made accessible to girls.

STEM should be gender neutral and everyone should have equal opportunities to be able to learn and develop their knowledge. This is why I was especially interested and excited when I first heard about EDF Energy Pretty Curious programme. It focuses on raising awareness of the under-representation of girls in STEM. The programme aims to inspire girls to pursue STEM-related subjects at school and in their future careers. Did you know just one in four people working in core STEM roles in the UK are women?

Young Driver Electric Firefly Review

Young Driver Electric Firefly is a one of a kind two seater car designed specifically for children aged five to ten, to help them master the basics of driving. If you are looking for an ideal Christmas gift this year, why not treat them to a chance to get behind the wheel of a car! Young Driver is offering my readers 15% off for a Firefly lesson using code ET15, valid until 22nd Dec 2017 online or over the phone.

UK Speedcubing Championship 2017

Are you a huge fan of Rubik’s Cube? Then don’t miss the UK Speedcubing Championship 2017 that will be taking place at The Forum, Stevenage on 27^th – 29^th October 2017. As this is the UK Championship, only competitors representing the United Kingdom will be eligible for prizes. However, the competition remains open for all nationalities to compete. Do check it out!

There will be 18 official events to be held. There is a time limit and if you take longer than this on a single solve you will be stopped, and given a DNF result for that attempt. For more information, do check out UK Cube Association.

Rubik’s Cube is incredibly addictive and has fascinated fans since it arrived way back in 1980. I think most households have had at least one at some point! It was my sister’s favourite puzzle of all time.

The Walking Dead mazes open at Thorpe Park

Two new exclusives for 2017 are themed around The Walking Dead mazes, to mark the launch of the Thorpe Park’s annual ‘Fright Nights’ season which had started on 29^th September 2017. Have you been yet? Unfortunately, we are not able to make it this time but wanted to share this news to my fellow readers!

UEFA Women’s EURO 2017

This year, the UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 tournament kicked off in Holland on the 16^th July and will continue until 6^th August. It is the perfect opportunity during the summer holidays to celebrate the game and get the children involved. Ms C loves a kick about in the garden but is reluctant to take it any further because none of her friends play football. However, with the UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 tournament underway in The Netherlands, this is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the game and inspire the children to get involved. Have you and your family been watching it? We’ve been supporting England and hope they can go all the way!

Add colour to my Garden – After Transformation

I’m taking part in the Garden Goals challenge with Homebase and Mumsnet. This is my second post for the ‘add colour to my garden’ project. Today, I would like to show you what I have done for the three different tasks that we had set out.

As I had mentioned on my first post, I’ve not been happy with my garden since all my lavender plants in my back garden died two years ago. I wanted to create a new border and inject some colour into my garden with plants and shrubs.

Get on with it Challenge with Ronseal

Recently, Ronseal set us a ‘Get on with it Challenge’ to encourage us to get the job done before the summer comes! I am so glad that I did it last weekend as we have put it off for almost two years now as the fence panels were looking rather dilapidated!