Who wants a hygroscopic cookie?

Beth has Thursday and Friday off this week (called 'school-free days').

That usually means complaints of "Mum, I'm BORED. What can I do?"

Most of today was spent reading, watching ABC Kids and playing Monopoly with Aunty Annie and mom. The latter activity was particularly interesting because Beth finally "got it" and has started to grasp some basic principles of money and investment that her parents only learnt late in life.

Such as: if you hoard your money, it will lose value because of inflation. A better option is to invest it in something that will grow in value and give you returns, such as buying a property or a utility service and collecting rent every time someone lands on your 'square'.

In the afternoon, Beth came to me with a proposal to carry out a cooking experiment from her book '101 Cool Science Experiments'.

The point of it was to bake 2 sets of cookies, one containing sugar and one containing honey, and find out which cookies go soft when left exposed.

Pluses:

• Beth learnt something new that she is more likely to remember because of the hands-on experience.
• The day went by more quickly.
• We all got to enjoy the cookies for afternoon tea!