Review: Ring It! by Blue Orange Games

Ring It! fun with Papa

The weather is getting cooler, wetter & we're heading to the park a bit less often these days. With more indoor play, the puzzles, building toys, & board games are seeing more action at our house. We've recently added a new one to our collection: Ring It! by Blue Orange Games.

Ring It! is a fairly simple game with a set of 90 round cards & a bell. Game play is a bit like War or Snap: you need to match cards with other players, either the numbers on the cards, or the colour.

What makes Ring It! different, & a little more fun, is that you need to do an action (clapping, or you can come up with something else like oinking) before ringing the bell. The game works with two to nine people, age five & up, though I think younger kids who know their numbers could do it too.

Last Chance to Register for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire Workshops

Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is only about a week away--it's June 6-7--& I can't wait to see everything. Last year, we walked around, looked at, made, poked, rode, tried all kinds of things there. This year I'm hoping to get to a presentation or two & maybe do a workshop with Linnaeus.

I'm particularly interested in seeing Matt Lowell talk about CycleHack (11am on Saturday June 6). Here's the blurb from the VMMF website:

As the Vancouver component of the 2015 CycleHack Global Event we are gathering together a diverse range of people with different skills, knowledge and experiences of transportation to look at cycling in our city in a new way. We are taking a bottom-up approach to innovation and helping individuals prototype their ideas, bringing them to life within 48 hours.

In this presentation, we will look at where the idea of CycleHack came from and how it has grown into a truly global movement with an ever-expanding network of CycleHackers around the world. Most importantly we will be giving details about how you can get involved with CycleHack Vancouver, so don’t miss out!

Matthew Lowell is the Co-founder and Director of Global Events & Networks at CycleHack. Originally from Scotland, Matt recently moved to Vancouver where he continues to support all global organisers of the annual CycleHack Event. He is a user-centred designer with a passion for using design as a tool for social change. He studied at Glasgow School of Art, and is interested in how design thinking can be used to give form to the experiences and interactions that make up the world around us. With a background in product and service design, he is also currently working with InWithForward, a design and social innovation agency.

The whole lineup of presentations can be found on the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire website here, 

If you're interested in more hands-on practical learning, there are also numerous workshops on topics like silicone mold making or growing plants in Lego (that one's suitable for kids as young as three!).

The workshops vary in cost between by donation to $45 fee to cover materials. They run for 30 minutes to two hours, depending on the topic. These workshops are not drop-in (though there are many other informal activities you can do at Maker Faire) so don't forget to register by June 1!

Check out the list of what workshops are available here on VMMF's workshops page. 

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Holiday Gift Idea: Vancouver Aquarium Memberships

Watching Qila in the Arctic Gallery

If you've got someone on your list who's difficult to shop for or you don't want to just get them more stuff, consider buying a membership to the Vancouver Aquarium.

Last weekend, Sprout & I were lucky enough to participate in a tour of the Aquarium with a group of other bloggers & their kids. We touched sea stars, urchins & anemones, saw electric eels helping light up a gorgeous origami jelly fish display--here as part of the Luminescence exhibit until January 22nd & got to meet Scuba Claus. Did you know that Santa could swim?

Hands-on learning with a sea urchin

I love going to the Aquarium & have been there dozens of times in the last few years. I find the stories of rescued animals like Jack & Daisy the harbour porpoises or Hanna & Helen the Pacific white-sided dolphins really interesting. Of course, these four are a minority in that they've been deemed unreleasable & now live at the aquarium permanently. Most of the animals who come through the Marine Mammal Rescue Facility recover & go back into the wild. The species they have rescued include elephant & harbour seals, sea otters, sea lions, sea turtles, harbour porpoises & other cetaceans--even killer whales.

Read more about the rescued animals here on the Vancouver Aquarium's AquaBlog.

Besides getting to go to the Aquarium whenever you want--being able to just drop in for an hour without having to stay longer to make the visit 'worth it' is a boon with small children--membership benefits also include supporting aquatic life by helping to fund programs like the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, Oceanwise & the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre; express entry; exclusive invitation to members' events; & special discounts to Vancouver Aquarium members at participating Oceanwise restaurants from November 1 to January 31.

Hi, Scuba Claus!

I could go on for even longer how awesome the aquarium is, but you're probably wondering how much by this point, right? A one-year Family Membership is $138 or $250 for a two-year, which entitles two adults & up to four children (ages 4-18) unlimited admission. If the child(ren) are under 4 years old, you could buy an adult membership for $58 for a year.

There are three easy ways to give the Gift of Membership to the Vancouver Aquarium: by phone – 604-659-3526, in person – visit the Membership Desk during operating hours, or online – on the gift membership page.


Disclaimer: I was given free admission to the Vancouver Aquarium but this is not a sponsored post. The words & opinions above are mine.






Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

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Turn Fish Poo into Pesto

You too could turn fish poo into pesto! Okay, wait, I skipped a few steps. Let me start from the beginning. I recently came across a cool project on Kickstarter: Back to the Roots' Home Aquaponics Kit. The Home Aquaponics Kit is at its essence a closed-loop ecosystem small enough to sit on your kitchen counter. Plants on top, fish beneath.

Besides the great ecology lesson for your kids, what's great about the Home Aquaponics Kit is you won't need to clean the aquarium. The fish poo gets broken down by beneficial bacteria into nutrients, then that waste-water from the fish is then pumped up & upcycled as an awesome organic fertilizer for the plants. The plants take up the nutrients &, at the same time, clean the water which then falls back down for the fish. There is no soil - the plants are growing on rocks - all the nutrients coming from the fish. With no need for any artificial fertilizers, it's all organic!

I said closed loop, but I lied. Just a little. You will still need to feed the fish, but that's about it. The Home Aquaponics Kit comes fully assembled, with everything except the fish. Here's what's included:

• The tank & garden top - food and pet safe! 
• Air pump to bring your nutrients up & oxygenate the water
• Five pots with pebbles (growing medium for the plants)
• Organic seeds (a mix of various herbs)
• Fish food & water conditioners to get started right away

Just add water, a fish & watch your system grow! Though the fish you see above is a betta, there are many other kinds you can have in the system. 

So where does the pesto come in? Well, one of the plants you can easily grow on top of your aquarium is basil, which you could now make fresh pesto out of. Mmm... pesto.

If you think this is really cool like I do & you're raring to get one, I've got good news & bad news for you. The good news: you can order one right now! The bad news: it won't arrive before Christmas.

Remember I said it was a Kickstarter project, right? If you didn't know what I meant by that, it's basically a website that allows entrepreneurs to crowdsource funding. Nikhil & Alejandro, the guys behind the Back to the Roots Home Aquaponics Kit are looking for funding to produce the first run of kits in the spring of 2013. The great thing about Kickstarter is that pretty much anybody can back a project: the minimum pledge is only $1. For a pledge of $50, you could get yourself your own aquaponics kit including shipping to the US. (add $50 for shipping to Canada) The future retail price will be $75, so it's a good deal to get in early. :)

There are only seven more days to help fund this project, so don't wait. Check out the Kickstarter page of Back to the Roots' Home Aquaponics Kit now!

For more information on Nikhil & Alejandro's project or their company, you can check out the website of Back to the Roots, on Facebook, on Twitter or on Youtube.

Disclaimer: Back to the Roots is sending me a mushroom kit as a gift, & I will be receiving an Aquaponics Kit to review when they come out in the spring. I haven't yet seen the kit, the information above comes from Back to the Roots. The words & opinions are mine, however.



Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Like what you see here? Subscribe to The Sprog & don't miss another post!