A Mad Science Party!

March 20, 2013 · By ·

K had his first Mad Science Party experience for his birthday this year. The last birthday party we had for K, with friends, was when he was four. Surrounded by excited 3-5 year olds running amok in the estate, having to break up fights along the way, and needing to calm an over-stimulated K who threw a tantrum halfway during the party, was not exactly my idea of a great time.

Not for me anyhow.

But I am sure the kids enjoyed the party, I suppose. After all time slaving over the computer to plan for party games, creating materials to print and laminate, sourcing for decent things to fill the goodie bags. What about the cake? I am now convinced that pretty fondant cakes look really fancy and pretty, but the taste? Bland and dry.

I told myself this year that K’s birthday will be really simple, just a cake and some goodie bags. So when Mad Science got in touch with me recently, I was thrilled to be able to have a party for K, all without any hassle on my end.

All I needed to get for the party was the cake.

MS 1The red and blue thing on the chocolate banana cake is a $9.90 plastic spiderman topper. Not fondant, the kid doesn’t care for it. Who eats fondant anyway?

 

So, the key highlight of the party has to be the arrival of the Mad Scientist from Mad Science and her travelling laboratory of beakers filled with colorful liquids and intriguing gadgets.

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Have you ever been in a room with 23 kids who are fascinated and engaged with the activities for a full 1 hour 15 minutes? Then read on to see what went on in K’s party that could have enthralled them from the start to finish.

K’s Air Blast Party from Mad Science included numerous interactive experiments, intriguing chemical reactions and hands-on activities  :-

  • The first experiment was with a boiled egg (Eggbert) and a glass beaker (his house); Eggbert the two inch Mad Science assistant can’t get into his house because he has overeaten! How did the Mad Scientist get Eggbert into his house? The science of air pressure is used to solve his predicament.

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MS 7comTadah!

  • The second experiment was with styrofoam. Peggy’s apartment is a mess (of styrofoam), how can we help her to clean up? The kids learnt about chemical reactions when Mad Scientist dramatically shrink the mess to help Peggy clean up

MS 9com

MS 10Oh look! The mess has shrunk!

 

  • Create puffs of vortices with vortex generators! The Birthday boy gets to blow a candle the Mad Science way, using a vortex generator

MadScienceKParty 72

 

How about using a vortex generator for a cup on K’s head?

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I think it will be more fun to get that cup off the Mad Scientist’s head!

MS 21com

 

  • Can an ordinary washing machine tube sing? With the science of air pressure, it can!

MS 14com

 

  • Can any one challenge the Mad Scientist to blow a big airbag with just one breath?

MS 16com

 

  • Can you make 1 ping pong ball, then 2 float? These boys managed to do it.

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  • The kids learnt how to catch their own shadow

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  • As an an add on to the Mad Science Air Blast party, the Wonders of Dry-Ice give all of K’s classmates a chance to taste the Big Burp (sublimated carbon dioxide smoke), play with dry ice foam and get a Mad Science shower.

MS 25com

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  • And finally, the kids made their own goodie to take home, icky gooey slime and learnt the science behind making it

MS 31com

My review of the Mad Science Party?

Mad Science will be the highlight of any birthday party for kids between 4-12 years old. The story telling method used to teach science concepts was easy to understand, fun and engaging. K’s classmates at the party participated in at least 3 interactive activities, so they were not just spectators who watched the experiments.

And the result of the Mad Science Party?

There was clear excitement in the air after the party ended. I think the best time to have a Mad Science Party is in the late afternoon, when the kids have had their naps (which was what we did).

Do be prepared for a room full of thrilled and chatty kids who will be admiring their gooey slime and smiley teachers at the end of the session :)

As for K’s verdict of his Mad Science Birthday Party?

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“My party is AWESOME! Mummy I want have Mad Science again for my next birthday party!”

To top off a fantastic Party, Mad Scientist presented K with his own Mad Science Goodie Bag.

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What was in there?

There were 7 toys in the Mad Science goodie bag that will stick, spin and fly

– Helix Flyer

– Spin Disc (mini frisbee with its wrist launcher)

– Flip Top (watch this spin)

– Polymer Putter (splatter it and let it get back to it’s original shape)

– Soak and Grow (this grows 6x after soaking in water overnight)

– Mad Science Large Sticker Sheet

– Mad Science Tattoos compilation

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Sounds good? This very same Mad Science Goodie Bag worth $12 each is up for grabs, 50 sets to giveaway for readers at catch-fortywinks.com. All you need to do is to pop over to Mad Science Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/madsciencesingapore and LIKE their page. The people at Mad Science will send you a private message through Facebook, if you are one of the winners of the goodie bag. Giveaway to close by 22 April 2013.

K had tremendous fun with the toys in the Mad Science Goodie Bag, I am sure your kids will too. So do pop over to the Mad Science Page now to participate in this giveaway!

For more information about having a Mad Science Birthday Party, visit their website on their party Information and FAQa.

 

Disclosure – K’s Mad Science Party was sponsored by Mad Science Singapore, but all opinions in this post are my own.

 

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When to tell the teacher and when not to

January 15, 2013 · By ·

Starting a new school usually means changes in routines, new friends and teachers. Frankly I dread having to start the whole process again, since we have just changed K from a Kindy to a Childchild in Jul 2012. We are moving (again!) to a new/temporary home, and the poor boy needs to make the adjustments as a result of our nomadic lives.

When K first started out school in his childcare last year, he complained about being bullied in school. My first reaction to that was, “Whose son is so ill behaved? How can he be bullying my son. I have to speak to his teacher!” Until I found out that the bully in school is a girl named M. I probe further and I realized that she has been only pinching him, and when he complains to the teacher, she continues pinching him.

So my response to him was; I am not going to address this with the teacher. He has to learn to stand up for himself, and tell the girl in a loud and firm voice to stop. And if all else fails and a fight breaks out, all the better. Maybe the sting of the bite/scratch/slap might be a painful for that moment, but it will be a good lesson for both kids.

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So I am not the best at managing conflict resolution.

But I have learnt that in certain incidences when it comes to solving problems, a child needs to learn how to manage it himself. I am not going to be everywhere with him 24/7. School is probably one of the best place for a child to experience real life situations to learn how to manage social interactions. A child needs to understand that there will always be some who will not like you very much, and others whom you will find hard to get along with.

It is going to be the same, when he goes to primary/secondary school and eventually when he starts work as an adult. When can we ever choose to work with the people whom we like and we want to work with? Only few are blessed with that.

So for this instance, I kept my mouth shut and did not mention any of this to the teacher. Well, she will just have some explaining to do when he comes home with a black eye, scratch or bite.

I did, however told the teacher when he was back to school with his new glasses to help him ease into the changes and to requested that she shares with his classmates why he had to wear glasses. I figured that this would prevent endless questions from his little friends about why is he wearing glasses and to prevent hurtful statements from some not so polite ones, “I think you look stupid/ugly in spectacles.” We get children like that in schools every once in a while, and you wonder how much time their parent spend time talking to them about not saying such hurtful things. Of course we did rehearse some of the answers to prepare him if he encounter questions like that from other kids.

So how do you determine when you should tell your child’s teacher and when to bite your tongue? This is a valid consideration for most moms especially when you are starting your child in a new school.

I think the more serious the issue, the more the teacher need to be briefed about it. So if it concerns the child safety, learning problems or difficulty or emotional issues, by all means talk to the teacher about it. But if your child is left handled, have certain seating/food preferences, do consider letting your child speak for himself and maybe it could be time for the parent to take a back seat.

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Your child might even respond quite differently in the school environment. For instance, K detests porridge to the core and I can never get him to ever swallow a spoon of it at home. But he has no issue finishing the whole bowl of chicken porridge at lunch in school, as he knows that chicken porridge will be the only selection for the day. He has learnt that he needs to finish the food in school, or go hungry.

Good advice that I have once heard, “It is not a problem, unless you make it into a problem.” Some of us do over-analyze issues, and the micro-manager and control freak mom in us will want everything to fall perfectly in place. But at what expense? Potentially at the expense of not having your child learn how to speak up for himself.

When will you tell the teacher and when will you keep you mouth shut? Do share your experience!

 

 

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Categorized: Parenting · Tagged:

Bonding Day

March 11, 2012 · By ·

No disappointed or teary kids this year.

All I saw was elated faces, kids whose eyes lit up when they spotted their moms and dad (yes, there was 1) walked in to their classroom. It was a perfect turnout at Parent-child bonding day on Wed, unlike last year. See this post

 

 

It was a thoughtful effort that the school made to invite the parents to the environment where their children spend 3 hours daily on the weekdays. Parents sat in for a session of story-telling and reading, watched how their kids interacted with the teachers and their classmates, and did craft afterwards with their kids. During the session of group instruction by the teachers, you could easily tell which were the little ones who were more responsive, enthusiastically answering the questions posed by the teachers, or the distracted ones who were playing amongst themselves. Kyle was one of those who periodically drifted between the two.

Kyle and I got to fold and decorate a cardboard box together, after which when the box was completed, he went to his cubby hole to get a little something to be placed in the box and presented it to me. I opened it the box, unfolded the piece of paper and saw this. It didn’t matter that the word ‘jacket’ got randomly added to the note, what mattered was the "I love you, Mum" and the funny looking stick woman figure with strange looking boxes around her.

The session ended with a little song presentation from the children to their parents. The teachers actually bothered to teach the kids this song in appreciation of them being at the school with them. With such thoughful teachers, it is no wonder that Kyle hardly even complains about attending school.

We walked home that afternoon with one of his friends and his mom, who stayed near to us. Incidentally, this was the same boy whose parents did not attend last year. Our conversation went like this;

Me  :  I did not remember seeing you at last year’s bonding session…

Boy’s mom :  Oh yes, but I realised that I have to attend this year. Last year, he was so upset about it, he was upset for 2 days, so difficult. These days, boys are so sensitive.

I know Kyle will be so upset too, if I did not make that effort to be there with him for Parent-bonding day. But really, Mummy will not miss it for the world. Times like these are just too precious.

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