The Tingle Factor Box

Roy Creates Old Fashioned Sugar Mice

Earlier this week, Roy was very intrigued to learn with the children about old fashioned Australian sweets. He was fascinated to learn that minties are such an old sweet and curious to find out about what sorts of sweets children enjoyed in the 'olden days'. One type of sweet which I told him about was the home-made variety. All my old cook books have sections on sweets, and the recipes range from the complex to the incredibly simple. Roy was desperate to try out the recipes and chose a couple he would like to have a go at. This week he is going to make old fashioned sugar mice.

Don't Suppose It's Full? Minties Tin

Imagine, you are a child living in the 1930's. You may be young, but you know that things are tough right now. Your father is having trouble finding work and money is tight. Your Mum even has you out tending to the garden at all hours, just so that you can grow some of your own fruit and vegetables - even the dreaded choko! Sometimes you think they are all you ever eat! So imagine your joy when, for your birthday, you are given a whole tin of minties. Occasionally you have a penny for some sweets, but it is unusual with things the way they are, so to have a whole tin is just wonderful!

Roaming Roy Finds A Sea Faring Cat - Matthew Flinders Cat

This week, as promised, Roy and I decided to tell you about Matthew Flinders, an important figure in Australian history, the anniversary of whose death fell earlier this week, Monday the 19th of July. The children at school already know a little bit about Matthew Flinders (they often learn about Bass and Flinders together) and his important role in the exploration of Australia, so the question was, what could we look at that the children didn't already know. Then, I remembered Trim, Matthew Flinders famous sea faring cat. After talking to the children at work to discover the state of Trims fame today, I found that he would be a perfect focus for this weeks post - the children did not know of him and were fascinated by the very idea of an adventurous, sea faring cat!

Roy Creates Kaleidoscopic Milk

This week, Roy and I decided that we wanted to keep the ball rolling with our new experiments. The days have been mostly grey lately and we really wanted to see a bit of colour. Earlier this week we were looking at Roy's Grandma's kaleidoscope and its swirling, changing colours. I remembered this simple experiment which makes milk swirl with colour, like a kaleidoscope.  So this week, for those of you who want a bit of colour in your lives, Roy and I will show you how to make kaleidoscopic milk!

You Will Need:

 

• Full cream (also known as full fat) milk. Don't try using low fat milk or the experiment won't work.
• Detergent (washing up liquid)
• Liquid food colouring - Roy and I used a couple of drops each of red, blue, green and yellow
• A plate with a rim - you need to put your milk on the plate so make sure it has enough rim that it  won't spill.
• 5 teaspoons.
• A bowl (for your dirty spoons)

Method:

• Put a layer of milk onto your plate.

• Pour a little food colouring onto a teaspoon and add about 4 drops to the milk. Repeat this for each colour, but make sure you use a different teaspoon each time. That way, if you have too much you can always tip some back into the bottle! You want to put your food colouring in the centre of the plate, as shown in the photo below!

• Pour a little detergent into your 5th spoon and use this to add a couple of drops of detergent to the very centre of your colour splodges!

• Watch as the milk seems to come to life, pulsing and moving the colours around and (eventually, if you leave it long enough!) merging them together.

What's Happening And Why?

Milk is made up of lots of different things, water, fat, sugar, protein, vitamins and minerals. The water in the milk means that it has a similar surface tension to water. This means that when you drop the food colourings onto the milk they sit there. When you add detergent though, lots of things start to happen. The detergent breaks the bonds which hold the water together so the food colouring can move about. The detergent also change the bonds which suspend the proteins in the milk and they start to move all over the place! On top of that, the soap molecules join together to form what we call micelle. These move the fat around, dispersing it through the milk. This is similar to what happens when you wash the dishes! When the soap and fat are distributed through the milk the movement stops. Normally, the whole process would be invisible but because of the food colouring, we can see everything as it happens!

Now, something for you to explore yourself - what happens if you add more detergent in spots where the colour has pooled when most of the reaction has already finished?

It's A Bit Fancy - Jabot

Imagine, it is the 18th century and you are getting dressed, ready to go to a ball. It's a high society thing and you have to ensure you look perfect. Your wife has to do the same - it just wouldn't do to appear less than perfectly turned out. Luckily, you both have beautiful new jabots to wear at the neck of your clothes - perfectly showing off your wealth and taste. They were very expensive, with the best fabric and lace, but well worth it for such an important event!

Roaming Roy Goes Ratting - The Plague In Sydney

This week, while Roy and I were searching for somewhere interesting to visit we discovered that there were two important events which happened close to today. We wanted to have a look into both, but we could only visit one place today. The question was, which one? Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the death of a very important man, Matthew Flinders, but only yesterday it was the anniversary of the end of the plague epidemic which swept through Sydney in 1900. Roy and I decided we should do both, so this week we will look at the plague in Sydney, whose anniversary fell in the last week and next Sunday we will investigate Matthew Flinders.

Roy Creates A Self-propelled Cotton Reel Car!

Earlier this week the Tingle Factor Item was an old, spring driven squirrel toy which the children at work had been fascinated by. They not only thought it was cute, but it was interesting to peek inside it to get a glimpse of its workings. I had a look at my old books and on the internet, but all the designs for spring driven toys looked so difficult to make! I told Roy and his Grandpa about this, hoping that between them they might be able to come up with some way to make a simple spring driven motor out of normal, every-day items. I was in luck - Roy's Grandpa remembered using wooden cotton-reels and rubber bands to make little 'cars' when he was a little boy and luckily, he also remembered how to make them! So this week, Roy will show you how to make these easy little cars too.

It's Like A Work Of Art! Wind-up Squirrel Toy

Imagine, you are a child living in the 1950's. It is your birthday and you have just finished opening your gifts. You got lots of practical things, like books and clothes, but there is one which you're really excited about. You have always loved Squirrel Nutkin, from the Beatrix Potter books, and you told your Mum and Dad you would give anything to have a squirrel as a pet. They told you that you couldn't have one because they belonged in the wild or in books, but now they've given you the next best thing, a little wind-up squirrel which looks and moves like the real thing!

Roaming Roy Finds A Place Where Boats Can Fly - Rathmines

This week, with the school holidays upon us, Roy and I decided to take the opportunity to get out of Sydney and visit somewhere we had been wanting to go ever since we heard about it - a town called Rathmines on the shores of Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle NSW). We had heard that this was an extraordinary place. A little known base during the Second World War where Flying Boats were based. We had also been told that there was abundant evidence of the RAAF Base left in the town and we just had to see it for ourselves.

Roy Creates Mini Explosions - Popcorn!

This week, Roy has decided to add a new section into his creations. He has noticed that the children are fascinated by simple science experiments and constantly asking how and why things happen. He decided it would be great if occasionally we could intersperse our cooking and craft with experiments and thought that the science behind popcorn would be a perfect introduction - even better, the results are edible! The children have been using the microwave popcorn bags and noticed that sometimes very little of the corn inside actually pops. Sometimes, they have tried to give the bag longer in hopes that the popping will eventually occur, but often this results in burned corn kernels with no more popping. So why does popcorn pop, and more importantly, why does it sometimes refuse to pop!