Kids Blog

What is the secret of Stonehenge?

Who put up the circle of stone near Salisbury in England?

Why did people 4,500 years ago drag 35-ton rocks mile after mile and then place them to align with the sun on two special days of the year?

For centuries people have puzzled over Stonehenge – seeing it as the work of Merlin, or Druids, or even aliens from outer space. Most recently, archaeologists have come up with a completely new idea: Stonehenge was one-half of a pair of circles that marked the lands of the living and of the dead. What If Stones could Speak. They would certainly have an amazing story to tell.

I always get stuck when I try and multiply 11 with another two digit number. I can do the first nine multiples because you just write the same number twice. Like 2 x 11 = 22 all the way to 9 x 11=99. But multiplying it with a double digit number is another story until I came across this secret strategy that I’ll share with you. For example:

12 x 11 will be 1+2=3

Insert the 3 between the 1 and 2: the answer is 132!

Or 14 x 11 will 1+4=5

Insert 5 between 1 and 4 : answer is 154!

And if the two digits also add up to a two digit number, insert the second and add the first. For example:

75 x 11

7 + 5 =12

Insert the second digit as before between the 7 and 5: 725

Then add the first digit from 12 which is 1 to the 7: answer 825!

Try it: it’s awesome! If you’d like to know more shortcuts about anything check out  Thirty days has September at the library now.

Some of us would scream ourselves hoarse at the sight of  a spider, snake or bee. I for one am terrified of them. Most of us are terrified of something that would normally be fine with others. I can’t remember why I am scared of these things and how they built up to become phobias. Then I came across this cool book called Stuff that Scares your Pants Off! by Glenn Murphy and was amazed at all the other phobias that existed. I’m glad I don’t have Dendrophobia, which is the fear of trees. Yikes! I had a really good read and came away with a lot of information to conquer my fears and look terror in the eye! I still am a little bit scared of spiders and snakes but I don’t scream anymore I just squeak! Happy reading!

Come inside, Dr Frankenstein’s the name.

I’m sure you’ve heard it many times. Glad you could join me. You find me in a state of excitement. In all my years dedicated to the study of science and nature, this is the most extraordinary experiment I’ve ever undertaken.

As you can see, my laboratory shelves are bursting with body parts, Don’t look so startled – that’s everything we need to make a living, breathing human being. As my assistant, you’ll be helping me every step of the way, but be warned, this is not for the faint-hearted.

Now follow me. You are about to embark on the experience of a lifetime……

Don’t know your onions? Unable to suss your sausages, fathom your fruit or get your head around hazelnuts? If so, this may be the book for you.

This fun book is absolutely stuffed full with scrumptious stories, flavoursome facts and toothsome tales about nosh to make you go GOSH and facts about chow to make you say WOW!

From calories to allergies, this title is packed with interesting food facts, stories, quizzes, recipes and timelines through the ages.

So if you’ve got the appetite to discover:

• WHO ate an entire aeroplane
• HOW many shepherds in a sherperd’s pie
• HOW to drink from a frog
• WHY some folk just love eating mud…

Then what are you waiting for? Get How to Drink from a Frog and tuck in!

The human brain is very complicated  but there are ways to actually train it and bring out its potential. So if you are up to it why don’t you try and read Train Your Brain to be a Genius by John Woodward. It has lots of mind-expanding puzzles, games and optical illusions that can sharpen your mind. Who knows you might become as good as Einstein – you just haven’t found out yet.

Have you ever seen a  little monkey and thought how cute it is? Well hold that thought because if you smile at a monkey, it may see your teeth and think that you’d like to hurt him and it will respond violently by biting you! I read this really informative book about animal behaviours and warnings that we should keep an eye out for. The book is called Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins with a call number J591.65 JEN. So if you ever get caught out in the wild this book might prove handy.

That you sometimes get called a pig if you eat too much – that’s because farmyard pigs will just keep on eating and eating until their stomachs burst and they die.

Why you burp when you have a fizzy drink? – It’s the carbon dioxide in the fizzy drink that makes this happen.  When we eat or drink we swallow air, and the air contains gases like nitrogen and oxygen. So a burp is just gas.

That a flea market doesn’t actually sell fleas – It’s the name of a street market that sells second-hand/used thingslanglang. That an electric eel isn’t really an eel, but a long fish that happens to be electric. The South American electric eel can electrocute and knock out a horse from 3 metres away. An earthworm has 10 hearts. Tarantula spiders can live up to 20 years. The lungfish, which lives in hot, dry deserts, can live without food or water for 4 years.

That our eyes stay the same size our whole lives, but noses and ears just keep on growing.

For more interesting facts check out ‘Everything You Need to Know about the World’, by Simon Eliot.