I'm a full-time mummy

During the recent 1 week quarantine period in our 6 years old boy's kindy (few kiddos in the classes younger contracted hand foot mouth disease hence the kindy decided to shut down for a week while the staff disinfect everything. But that doesn't mean learning should stop.

So I continued teaching at home. Our boy loves to draw so I tested him on his drawing skill. I named something and he is supposed to draw it. It accidentally turned into an additional learning opportunity, homophone.

According to Wikipedia:

"A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, and may differ in spelling. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too."

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I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this.

For your convenience, I have copied some of the excerpts from the article here:

Image credit: Group Of Crayon Colorful by mark yang

"The EWG Action Fund is calling for a ban on asbestos in consumer products after it found traces of the carcinogen in children's crayons and toy crime lab kits.

Four of 28 boxes of crayons tested positive for asbestos, according to the newly released report from the advocacy group. A private lab hired by the EWG Action Fund, a sister organization of the Environmental Working Group, also detected and confirmed asbestos in two of 21 toy crime lab kits it evaluated.

Breathing in microscopic asbestos fibers has been linked to serious health problems, including lung disease, lung cancer and mesothelioma. The Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to asbestos only occurs when asbestos-containing material is disturbed, and when the particles become airborne.

Package labels indicated that the crayons and toys containing asbestos were made in China and imported to the United States, according to the report. Affected crayon boxes included Amscan Crayons purchased at Party City as well as Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons and Saban's Power Rangers Super Megaforce boxes purchased at Dollar Tree.

The two toy crime lab kits with contaminants included the black fingerprint powder in the Edu Science Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit, purchased at ToysRUs.com, and the white fingerprint powder from the Inside Intelligence Secret Spy kit, purchased on Amazon.com.

However, the EWG Action Fund report does not list the amount of asbestos found in the products. Paulson, who is not affiliated with the report, said that powder from the crime lab kits was of particular concern."

For further resources, check out:

• http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/08/health/crayons-toys-asbestos-report/

• http://www.asbestosnation.org/facts/tests-find-asbestos-in-kids-crayons-crime-scene-kits/

• http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/03/what-are-the-health-risks-of-asbestos/
  

Do share your thoughts on this!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been seeing articles about the planets Venus and Jupiter closely together and wanted to share some shots I took during our recent family holiday in Thailand.

According to DailyMail,

"The planets, which are hundreds of millions of miles from each other, will for a short period of time seem to be galactic neighbours, passing so close they seem to merge.

 The line-of-sight illusion is caused when the orbits of Venus and Jupiter line up on the same side of the sun as seen from Earth.

 As Venus orbits in 225 days, Earth in 365 and Jupiter in 4,330, the chance of such as alignment occurring is fairly rare."

For more pictures you can see them at here, here and here.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.