Keeping you up-to-date with engaging and inspiring activities that will develop young children and encourage them to learn both at home and in the classroom
Name: Shelly from OFamily Learning Together
Age of child: 8 and 6 years old
Product testing: Mathlink® Cubes Activity Set
“Shelly is a Chartered Accountant who is now a home-educating mum to two kids. She blogs about the learning activities that they do at home and shares resources that they have used and enjoyed on the OFamily Learning Together blog.”
Fibonacci’s real name was Leonardo Pisano Bogollo. He was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1170. History states that Fibonacci was his nickname which roughly translates as “Son of Bonacci”. His father was a merchant named Guglielmo Bonaccio.
He travelled widely and traded extensively.
Maths was incredibly important to those in the trading industry, and Fibonacci’s passion for numbers was cultivated in his youth. He spent his childhood in North Africa where he studied the Hindu-Arabic arithmetic system and learnt of decimal numbers.
Name: Emma from Me and B Make Tea
Age of child: 3 years
Product Testing: Gears! Gears! Gears!® Space Explorers Building Set
“Emma is a mum of one very inquisitive boy. He is very nearly four and loves anything to do with science. She blogs over at Me and B Make Tea and loves trying anything science related! Her blog started out as a way to document healthy eating but it quickly grew to cover all things parenting and life.”
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, physician, inventor and engineer, born in Syracuse, Sicily, in 287BC. He was the son of an astronomer and mathematician named Phidias.
In the third century BC, Syracuse was a hub of commerce, art and science. Archimedes developed a natural curiosity and affinity for problem solving. He travelled to Egypt to study in Alexandria before returning to Syracuse, where he dedicated his life to research and experimentation across multiple fields.
Name: Selena Ledgerton
Title: Web, Media & Marketing Manager at All About STEM
Age of testers: 8 Years old – All About STEM Mini-STEMmer
Product Testing: Zoomy™ 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope
“Selena works as All About STEM’s Web, Media & Marketing Manager. All About STEM works on numerous projects to bring exciting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to schools across Merseyside, Cheshire and Warrington. They link schools with business, industry & expert volunteers to inspire the next generation of STEM specialists. As part of their work they have ran The Big Bang North West for the last four years, they manage the STEM Ambassador STEM Hub for Cheshire and Merseyside on behalf of STEM Learning and co-manage the Enterprise Adviser Network in the Liverpool City Region for The Careers & Enterprise Company.”
John Logie Baird was born in 1888 in Helensburgh, Scotland. He was the fourth child of John, a Clergyman, and Jesse Baird. Throughout his teenage years he was inspired by the scientific and futuristic stories of HG Wells, one of which featured a description of a table-top television.
Name: Tine from Mummy in the City
Product Testing: Sight Word Swat
Age of child: 4.5 years
“Tine is a mum of two young children, and writes the London blog, Mummy in the City.
The blog is focused on life with young children in South West London, and covers everything from London family attractions and services to family travel and children’s products and fashion.”
Marie Curie was born with the name Maria Slodowska on the 7th of November, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Her parents were poor teachers and she was the youngest of five siblings. Her father, Władysław, was a maths and physics instructor.
In 1883, Maria received her high school diploma, achieving a gold medal for excellence in mathematics. Her sister Bronia was at medical school in Paris and to help to finance her studies Maria worked as a tutor and governess from the age of 16. Maria’s goal was to join Bronia in Paris to study at the Paris Sorbonne University. In order to pass the entrance exams, Maria took night courses to learn additional chemistry, maths and physics.
Cuisenaire® Rods are a collection of rectangular rods of 10 lengths and 10 colours, each colour corresponding to a different length. The smallest rod, a white centimetre cube, is 1cm long; the longest, the orange is 10 cm.
One set contains 74 rods: 4 each of the orange (σ), blue (e), brown (n), black (k), dark green (d), and yellow (y); 6 purple (p); 10 light green (g); 12 red ®; and 22 white (w). One aspect of the rods is that, when they are arranged in order of length in a pattern commonly called a “staircase,” each rod differs from the next by 1cm, the length of the shortest rod, the white.
Product Testing: Playfoam® Shape & Learn Alphabet Set
Name: Jo from Pickle & Poppet
Age of children: Reuben is 3 and Jessica is a baby
“Jo is a Parenting & Lifestyle blogger and enjoys writing about family life. This can be anything from toddler tantrums, children’s activities and days out to reviewing books and everything in between.”