HRM Parent Blog

These turkey crafts are too cute not to gobble them up the first chance you get! 

It doesn't get much better than this .  An adorable turkey and a great way to teach the kids about being thankful. 

Move over paper bag princess…and say hello to the paper bag turkey .  So cute.

Kids love tracing their hands and it makes for an even more personalized turkey!

This little guy is great way to recycle a toilet paper tube and is super fast and easy.

The kids will love choosing and folding their own paper colors for this fancy turkey.

Have the kids make one of these gobblers for everyone at your thanksgiving dinner table.

Paint, paper and some hands…no instructions required, this one speaks for itself.

We often visualize science – chemistry especially – taking place in a laboratory filled with beakers and Bunsen burners. But really, you’ve got a chemistry lab right in your own home – the kitchen! There’s no better place for your kids to learn about chemistry than in a familiar environment and a great starting point is with starch.

Starches are a pretty common chemical in the kitchen; many foods we think of as “staples” are starchy ones – potatoes, pasta, cereals, rice - you get the picture. Here’s an awesome way to investigate starch at home: first you need to buy iodine from the pharmacy. Iodine is used to disinfect scrapes and cuts and you’ve probably noticed that it stains skin and clothes a distinctive yellow-brown colour. Take a dropper with some iodine in it and test small samples of foods in your kitchen: if starches are present (like in leftover pasta water), a drop of iodine will turn a deep blue-black. Try lots of things, but always remember that while starches are okay to eat, drug store iodine isn’t.

Now, let’s take a look at how our bodies handle starch. Our saliva contains a chemical, an enzyme called amylase, which breaks starch molecules into sugars. If you mix a drop of iodine with a teaspoon of starchy water and then add saliva (spit into it!), you’ll be amazed by the results.

If you’d like to see some other creatures’ digestion at work, come visit us in the afternoon and see our live worm compost bin! Or – for a truly awesome exploration of the entire human digestive system, stay tuned in late January for Grossology – The Impolite Science of the Human Body. It’s a science-in-disguise exhibit where kids get the answers to many of the slimy, oozy, crusty, stinky questions they absolutely want to know about the human body.

For more great things to discover - visit the Discovery Centre on Barrington Street in Halifax, check out their website  or join them on facebook.   

What’s a party without cake?  Watch this video for step-by-step instructions for a really cute and easy school bus cake.

This is a really cool idea for a neighbourhood breakfast celebration to get everyone prepped for rising early again.

Such an inspiring party to celebrate the End of Summer.  The little apple and watermelon boats are adorable!

The name alone gives this party an A+, get your child’s classmates together before school for a meet and greet treat party.

This site has some fun ideas for invitations, cool décor, food and more.

This amazing back to school party gets top marks from us.  Seriously brilliant ideas! (be sure to check out subsequent blog posts for tutorials and detailed info on the party details)

Halifax and Nova Scotia are defined by water – we’re surrounded by the ocean and countless lakes, rivers and streams. Most people see things that float in the water every day, but have you or your kids ever wondered how things float?  Find out through quick and easy experiments at home!

To understand the ability to float (buoyancy), you need to understand displacement. If you put something solid in water (or air), it pushes that fluid out of the way. If the displaced water weighs as much as the boat, the boat will float! Boats need to push lots of water without being very heavy in order to stay afloat.

You can test this concept at home! Take a few everyday things lying around your house – newspaper, modelling clay, aluminum foil, or anything else you can manipulate – make them into different shapes and then try floating them. Next, try adding pennies to your “boats” for some added challenge, or try changing the shape of your “boats” to see if they make a difference.

For a bonus experiment, try it without water. You will need a helium balloon and small weights (taping pennies to the balloon strings works like a charm!). Helium (the second-lightest element) allows the balloon to float because the air displaced by the balloon is denser. If you get the weight pulling down just right (add one weight at a time; it can be tricky!), it will reach “neutral buoyancy” – in other words, it will hang perfectly without rising or falling (much), like a canoe on a calm lake.

We love the penny boat experiment at the Discovery Centre – it’s just one of the awesome public programs we have here every day. Bring the kids and come on down – see what else you can learn today!

For more great things to discover - visit the Discovery Centre on Barrington Street in Halifax, check out their website  or join them on facebook.  

When thinking about providing you with some Superhero Party ideas, we didn't have to go much further than our good blogger friend at East Coast Mommy.  Her fantastic "Spiderman & Friends" themed party, was a hit with all the guests and included great ideas like:

Personalized capes for each guest to decorate - how cool are these?

A Superhero challenge that included leaping over tall buildings...hilarious!

Plus so much more - crafts, games, a photo booth and an easy Spiderman cake! But don't take our word for it, check out all the details and pictures for yourself here . Way to go East Coast Mommy - what a party!

If you've hosted a family celebration you want to share, send a summary of the party details and some photos to sarah@hrmparent.ca and your party may be featured in a future Let's Party blog.