"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character"

Since becoming one of the LEGO family bloggers we have been sent some amazing things to review. Recently after returning from an awesome day out adventuring with the boys we arrived home to find one of the most exciting yet. Ever since Opeie had watched the unboxing of a whole box of series minifigures on Youtube (yes he's even more of a geek than me), he had longed for the excitement of having a box ourselves. That day, as we opened the front door, there on the sofa, was one waiting for us.

The boys got stuck in straight away, feeling up the bags and trying to guess which ones were inside. I'm a HUGE 'monsters' minifigures fan and loved the Monster fighters range a few years back so for me LEGO Minifigures Series 14 was a series I had been counting down the days for. With such an amazing line up, for me they are the best series yet.

I wanted us to be a little more creative with these and rather than write a post about them all, showcase them in their own posts. So there will be a series of posts coming up this week where we have had fun with each one (yes we love LEGO that much). Plus we had lots of spares after our unboxing so stay tuned for what we did with those too...

Enjoy!

'The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review’

Seth's Laboratory - Liquid layers / Testing Density

Its been one of those lazy sorts of weekends, Mrs M  was shattered when she got in from work on Friday night and we pretty much just vegged out. Not a lot has changed since then and Ive loved every minute of it, its been a lovely change. We have done a few little things, visiting Mrs M's sister and going to see her nan but apart from that its just been us playing with Opeie and keeping nice and warm in the house. We haven't even tidied the house much which really isn't like us. Its nice every now and again to have a weekend like this.

Seth hasn't been with us this weekend and as usual we really missed him and couldn't wait for him to get home this evening. We wanted to make the most of the time before he went to bed this evening so we set up a little science experiment to keep the boys entertained and get them thinking.

For this experiment we needed:

• A tall glass or Jar
• Water
• Cooking Oil
• Treacle
• Food colouring
• Selection of small items

  

Seth's and Opeie suited up and took a moment to go over the directions, safety procedures and where the exits where in case of emergency. Treacle is very dangerous don't you know!

Using three little pieces of tape we evenly sectioned off three spaces for the liquids to go so that it would be easy for the boys to know exactly how much they should pour in. First the water, followed by a few drops of food colouring (Seth chose blue but i think a red would have worked better as we were using black treacle).

After giving the mixture a little stir we added the cooking oil up to the next line. The boys were instantly hooked when they realised the liquids had separated and they couldn't wait to get the treacle in to see what was going to happen.

Next up the treacle, we had black treacle which i thought would have worked out better but we should have used light treacle as it turned the bottom of the jar into a bottomless abyss swallowing up everything we dropped in later in the experiment. The concoction looked great and the boys were really getting into the experiment.

The liquids were complete so then it was time to make use of the selection of small items. We had had a good rummage around the house looking for bits and bobs. I found lots of them in our messy draw (well we all have at least one).

 The boys couldn't wait to start dropping things into the mixture, these included Pasta, Lego (of course), coin, chalk, almond, nail, paper clip and a grape, Seth opted for a bogey but we swayed him away from that on, god knows what would have been next. Before dropping in each item we had a discussion about what we thought was going to happen and Seth came out with some interesting ideas and views.

One of our items was a chunk of lime, Seth's hypothesis was that if we dropped it in skin side down it would float at the top on the oil and if we dropped it skin side up it would sink down to the water, so we chopped the chunk in two and started our investigation. It was great how involved the boys were getting and i love hearing Seth's ideas. 

 The experiment took us about an hour with all of the discussions in between, Mrs M pointed out that we should have made all the things we we're dropping in roughly the same size to make it more accurate but it all went well and the boys really enjoyed it. the big discussion was whether the paper clip (that was coated in plastic) would have had a different outcome without the coating, but we'll save that for another day.

All our findings were documented and can be stored away for future experiments. I'm loving all the science that's going on in the house at the moment and Seth has been getting really excited at whats going to be next so stay tuned for our next visit to Seth's Laboratory.

So how does this work?

When liquids do not mix they will seperate and the most dense of them will be at the bottom of the container used. when you drop an object in to the mixture it will only sink until it has reached a liquid that is denser than they are. The size of a liquids molecules is what decides its density. The treacle has the largest molecules and they are packed together tight making it the most dense of the three. Water molecules are small but close together so it sits between the two and Oil is the least dense despite having large molecules as they are far apart.

Seths Laboratory - Elephant's Toothpaste.

Don't you just hate those awkward moments in life...

You've got this elephant at home and the poor thing has the dirtiest teeth you have ever seen but you don't have the sufficient paste to clean them!!! what do you do???

Luckily in one of Seth's science books there is an experiment to make 'Elephants Toothpaste', so as soon as Seth was out of school today we rushed home, put on our Lab wear and hit Seth's Laboratory ready for an early evening of Science. I'd set everything up ready apart from one ingredient which i had left to Mrs M to sort (more about that later).

  

For this experiment we needed:

• Empty plastic bottle
• 120ml hydrogen peroxide (no greater than 3-6 concentration)
• Washing up liquid
• Food colouring
• Dry yeast
• Hot water
• Funnel
• Baking tray or shallow pan

we placed the empty bottle in the shallow pan to avoid unnecessary mess and using the funnel we poured the hydrogen peroxide in to the bottle. We then added a few drops of food colouring (the colour isn't important), followed by a few drops of washing up liquid.

This is when we ran in to a problem... the one ingredient that Mrs M was left to sort out (Dry Yeast) was missing and in its place an empty box. So off to Asda i went as Seth has been desperate to do this experiment for weeks. It didn't take me long and i managed to grab some ingredients for future experiments. When i got back Seth put a teaspoon of dry yeast into a beaker along with two table spoons of hot water (not boiling). He then stirred it and added it to the bottle.

At this point Seth's science book says 'The liquid starts bubbling before producing a foam that SPURTS out of the bottle's neck'...

Sadly nothing but disappointment. Turns out we had used a bottle that was far to big so while we patiently waited for the 'spurting' to happen we decided to start from scratch.

So, same experiment smaller bottle and we changed the food dye colour as the colour hadn't come out in the first experiment. 

The experiment turned out a lot better, but Seth being the very serious scientist that he is he still wasn't completely satisfied...

 See... Serious face! i told you!

Seth then decided he was going to add the two experiments together...

Turns out it was just the catalyst we needed to get the 'spurting' in motion

And there you go, the spurting of a toothpaste like substance fit for our elephant and his poor dental hygiene.

"A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales."

The past few weeks have been hectic, were usually so organised around Christmas time but because of the holiday late in the year by the time we got back we had loads to do, plus we've been re-tiling the kitchen and painting the house. If you are a regular reader you'll know that for the past 2 weeks we've dropped off the radar a little. Christmas has passed now, Mrs M is back at work and I've got some serious catching up to do.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Seth's Christmas list and how he hadn't asked for anything for himself but wanted Santa to give his presents to homeless children. It was so sweet of him and  the letter will be cherished. Well we made some donations and helped out at the local food bank which we will continue to do. Although Seth's jesture was truly amazing it did leave us in the position of not knowing what to get him. 

Myself and Mrs M had a chat one night and she came up with a great idea which we put into action straight away. Seth loves anything science, he could happily sit all day doing experiments and mixing chemicals (safe ones of course), so we thought it would be a really nice surprise on Christmas morning to wake up to his very own laboratory. 

We had so much fun organising things without him knowing and even managed to paint him a huge blackboard using chalkboard paint on his wall and kept it hidden a whole week before Christmas. It was touch and go a few times when we though he might rumble us but it all worked out and was kept hidden until the big day.

We found some great science things for gifts that we knew would go great in his lab and we were both really excited about setting things up while he was asleep waiting for Santa's arrival. Our Christmas Day was on Boxing Day due to Seth not being with us on Christmas morning so on Christmas morning while most people were opening their gifts we were putting the finishing touches on Seth's big surprise. A few nights back a light bulb went off in my head and I though 'I wonder if there is an 'Se' on the periodic table?' I was about 75% sure there was a 'Th' and thought it would be great to use them on the design. Luckily I was right and selenium was right up there with Thorium, it was obviously meant to be. 

On Christmas night we went to a party at Laura's folks and we took our good friend Chris with us which worked out great as he was there to give me a hand when we got home moving Seth's furniture out while he was sleeping. I had been stressing that we wouldn't get away with it as there was a huge unit to move out but we were surprisingly quiet moving it. We spent the next hour setting it up with beakers full of colourful liquids and various science equipment.

Bless Seth, when he woke up in the morning he wasn't sure what it was in the dark but after waking us up we followed him in and let some light into the room. He was a very excited boy and has been sitting at his desk ever since looking quite chuffed with himself. Theres no shortage of chemicals to mix and specimens to examine, its a mini scientists dream come true and Seth has been making the most of it.

In the past few days we have built a windmill (although we are yet to get it to work), had an Alchemy session (okay maybe that's a little OTT were no where near the discovery of the elixir of life just yet, we'll just call it chemical mixing) and Seth and Mrs M made their own bouncy balls (very clever). We've got plenty of experiments lined up for over the holiday and now we have the space and materials for Seth to let his scientific mind run wild.

The whole thing including the desk and fittings cost under £100 which was great and the look on Seths face was priceless. Its so important to get involved with the things that your children are interested in and although for Seth this is a great present its also a great way for us to spend even more quality time as a family.

Of course we couldn't leave little Opeie out, what could we have done for him to wake up to on his Christmas morning? Click here to find out.