One minute science experiment

After reading my daughter's National Geographic Little Kids magazine with her yesterday, we decided to try the featured science experiment. I can't find the magazine now, of course, nor do they have this exact experiment online, so I'll attempt to explain it by memory. Hopefully, I can handle that since I'm 32 and the magazine is written for 3-6 year olds.
You fold a piece of construction paper in half and stand it up like a tent. Take in a big breath, then blow it out pretty forcefully through the tent. The paper should fall flat onto the table. The scientific explanation for why the tent falls is this: It requires a certain amount of air pressure to stand. When you force a burst of air through the tent, you change the pressure causing it to fall.
Simple but educational.
I really like reading a project idea with my kids that we can jump up and try that minute instead of having to prep for an hour only to see them interested and occupied for 5 minutes. Granted, this one only took about 1 minute to complete, but it was a satisfying process to be able to read it, suggest we try it and actually do it.
I wasn't fast enough to snap pictures of my daughter conducting the experiment, but I got my son. After he blew the tent down, he swiftly grabbed the nearest truck and conducted his own experiment by running over it.

I'm in a magazine, #2!

I'm so excited to share my second magazine appearance! Country Living, the May 2009 issue, is featuring my embroidered hand print project. This time, my project takes up the whole page. Cool.
If you happen to grab this magazine off the shelf, it's in the Idea Notebook section under DIY Made Easy, page 77. If you'd like to see the web version, you can find it here. If you'd like to read my original post, find it here.
I embroidered my kids' hand prints for the grandparents in our family this past Christmas, but this would be a great project for Mother's Day, as well. You know, for you to make for your mothers. Although making one for yourself will probably be tempting. I still intend to make one for our home. Let's see if I do that before our hands are all the same size.
Oh, and remember last time when I mentioned having a couple other magazine mentions in the works and hoped I hadn't jinxed anything by saying so? It appears I did. The article I was most looking forward to was, unfortunately, scheduled to appear in the Spring issue of a magazine that met it's demise. Darn.
Happy embroidering!

I'm in a magazine!

So, I'm not famous or anything, but I have now had one of my projects featured in a magazine. Cool! It's a little spot on the Solutions page in Canadian Family Magazine, where parents share tips on specific family life topics. I was contacted and asked to contribute a project idea on the topic of food-craft and write an accompanying project explanation. Then my idea was reenacted and photographed, printed, and readers were directed to my blog for further craft ideas. I'm pleased! And grateful to Canadian Family for the opportunity.
Happily, in addition to this little magazine feature (can I call it a feature?), I'm awaiting a couple more to run in the spring. More news on those when the time comes! (I hope I didn't jinx anything by saying that).

FYI: In case you happen to click on the picture and read the article, I feel I should mention that my 4 year old daughter's name was accidentally misprinted.