TMX Rice Porridge

200g jasmine rice

960g milk

40g sugar

30g butter

* a little extra sugar, dried apricots and/or sultanas to top

Put everything into TMX bowl.

Cook for 47mins at 90C on reverse speed 1.

Spoon into bowls and leave to stand for 3-5mins.

Sprinkle with a little extra sugar and top with dried apricots or sultanas.

Serves 5.

TMX Porridge

180g rolled oats
460g water
490g milk

Put everything into TMX.
Cook 8 mins at 100C on reverse speed 4.
Serves 4.

Science 2012

I am SO EXCITED about science for 2012!  We just received our Science in a Nutshell Kits from Delta Education and they look unreal :D

Here you can see the 5 kits i purchased - Vision & Hearing, Body Basics, Weather Wise, Destination Moon, Energy & Motion.  There are MANY more kits available however i chose things i thought would interest my children.  I was also conscious of import restrictions on anything organic and considered a bio-security risk.  I didn't want the kits ripped apart at customs!

When planning for science for 2012 i was inspired by this post.  So i decided we would take a similar approach.  I looked through TWTM logic stage recommendations for science and decided to go with their book recommendations.

Here they are sitting nicely on my shelf waiting for next year.  We have the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science, Usborne Science Encyclopedia, DK Science (a visual guide) and The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.  I'm really pleased with all of these books and feel they will be excellent reference books for us not only for next year but well into the future.

Back to the kits :)  The kits are presented in a small plastic tub with a handle.  Inside each kit is an Activity Guide and 3! Activity Journals.  The guides provide step by step instructions on how to complete the 'experiments' and the journal provides a place to record details.  The kits also have EVERYTHING you need to complete each of the activities.

My plan is to use the books to thoroughly explore the concept before we conduct the 'experiment'.  We will do lots of reading and narration.  Hopefully i will be able to share more of how it plays out for us next year.

Miracle Babies Foundation Picnic

On Sunday we went to the inaugural Miracle Babies Foundation picnic for NICU and SCU graduates. It was a wonderful day, beautiful weather and location. The kids had plenty to do with the fire truck and bouncy castle being star attractions. They also enjoyed the face painting and for an amateur, the lady did an awesome job! Santa was also a hit :)

Glasses off while the paint dries.

I think Bugsy has found himself a new career path. He'd now like to be a fireman! He really enjoyed chatting to the firemen and being shown all of the equipment and how it all worked. They were wonderful with the children and more than happy for them to touch and try everything.

I can't help but plug the major sponsor of the event, Sutherland Rose.

I'm currently in the process of becoming a volunteer for Miracle Babies Foundation and hopefully in the coming 12 months i can be a valuable member of the WA team.

Rusty and Possum enjoying the festivities.

BUILD

Just found this post and wanted to put it here so i can come back to it. Food for thought.

Walk for Prems

Life's Little Treasures Foundation held the Walk for Prems for the first time in Perth last weekend and we were happy participants. It had threatened rain but it managed to hold off. The kids and I walked the 5km walk, and some, because we parked miles away. I estimate we actually walked close to 11km on the day! Afterwards we have a lovely picnic lunch and the kids enjoyed having their faces painted. It was a great day out and we are already looking forward to next years walk which we are hoping will be bigger and better!

Possum Update

Yes, that's right folks, Possum is crawling! He is now 13 1/2m old or 10m corrected. He weighs 8.6kg which still puts him way at the bottom of the charts but he is happy :)