New Happenings

Its been a month or more since our families last post. Life gets away from you! We have been very busy with trips to the park, movies, science museums, and of course a few trips to the YMCA. The boys have all graduated from their swim lessons and home zone courses.

Wesam has finished his first round of guitar classes and the second round of cooking! Did I tell you? His group took first place in their cooking contest! We are all very proud of him. He is now working on reading Howard Zinn's book "The Peoples History of the US".

Adnan was able to attend the Jungle Book play at WWU in Bellingham with his friend Arthur. He has had numerous sleep overs at another friends house as well. Adnan is also embarking on a new diet discovering his allergies and is now on the road to recovery.

Boo and Yusef continue to grow bigger every day, and continue to amaze me. They still enjoy playing on the computer, reading, and doing more art projects than I can keep up with. They were lucky enough to join 6 different art classes for preschoolers and kindergartners over the last month or so. They spend their days outside exploring the yard and all the creepy crawlies that live there. Today Adnan helped them build cocoons using pine cones and leaves!

Today we also read a great story called Mouse Shapes which turned into a great art project using different shapes to create different creatures and items! Some pictures of their creations and the book we read are posted above!

Abduls Art!

Some of Abdul's latest creations! The second picture is a bat on a hill and a tree, and the first is The ghost of witch number 5. Good luck watching it every time!

EMP? Think twice!

Ok, second trip to the EMP, and really, truly had enough of this museum! We were disappointed the first time since there really is a huge lack of any Seattle music scene exhibits there, except of course Jimi Hendrix, now today I head out for free Thursday evenings to find out that they don't include special exhibits during the free nights! It isn't even mentioned on their website about this policy! So today, no Nirvana :( and we are debating whether or not we really want to even support this place with any money to see Nirvana later this week! And I wouldn't recommend this place for anyone, not after two visits, and two bad ones to boot.

Days go by...

Seems like days disappear before they even come to be. Time is flying so fast its unreal! Syria is full of unrest that we are praying for a quick end to. Boys are growing and learning so much! We are finding so many resources and ideas for next year I am not even sure where to quite begin!

I did find one resource today that I thought I would share for science! http://www.nature-watch.com/ Absolutely amazing!

We have also discovered http://www.criticalthinking.com/index.jsp

for general curriculum we plan to start using for the boys over the summer and into next year!

Today Abdul Rahman and Yusef worked on finding treasures in a sensory box filled with beans and rice. I originally had it made it for the small kids to do some number recognition, but in the end even Adnan found he was loving it. They sorted black beans and garbanzo beans, found the numbers from 1-5, and even built mountains and castles. They practiced scooping, dumping, and filling. It never ceases to amaze me how much fun simple things like sensory boxes are.

Wesam started guitar lessons and has been keeping up with his minimum of 1 hour daily practice and has nearly mastered one of the power chords from Metallicas "Enter Sandman" song!

Today we also played a math game with the big boys! I wonder how many of you can figure this out:

"You are given 5 beans and 4 bowls. Using all the beans, place an odd number of beans in each bowl. Explain your answer."

Good luck! And here are some pics of today!

Children's Music

Songs for children is a great way to get kids into early literacy! Heres an amazing musician with a ton of great songs, finger plays, games, and more! Enjoy!

Our garden

This is the beginning of our garden!

Earth Science

Today has been all about the science! In particular Earth! We planted seeds and some plant starts to begin our garden and we also took layers of earth and learned how plate tectonics work to make mountains. We even got to watch our own home made earth quake! Here are two videos about mountain building and earthquakes the boys made.

Hijabi and an axe!

A video everyone must see! A petite mulimah hijabi standing at just 4'9" stands up to a thief at gun point with her 3 foot axe! Just goes to show dont mess with a hijabi!

Taste of the Forest

Today the boys and I met friends at Hamlin Park to look for baby bracken ferns . These are traditonally a Japanese delicacy. I wasnt keen on the idea of eating them, but I wanted the boys to enjoy a walk through the forest and learn to identify something edible in the forest. It was really beneficial, and amazingly the boys actually enjoyed eating them. Wesam even had seconds and declared that the ferns were far better than brocoli! We had the ferns sauteed in soy sauce with some sesame oil, onion and garlic! We served them over a bowl of sticky rice and even I had to try some after smelling the sauce! To my amazement they were really quite good! We first had to blanch them before stir frying them, and while they simmered it smelled like Marzipan. I expected the ferns to taste woody and bitter after smelling them blanching. But all in all they were tender, almost like a zucchini in that they really had no flavor but took on the flavors of the sauce! Bracken ferns are really only available for about 2-3 weeks during the year and I think we may have to just go look for some more of those before the season is over! It would certianly make a nice presentation for a dinner party! Heres a few things we learned about harvesting Bracken ferns: 1) Harvest only the new sprouts that are still curled up. Once they open they become very tough. Harvest the stems also, but not all the way to the ground. 2) Once harvested, wash them well, then blanch in boiling water 2-3 minutes until they are tender. If you pull one out of the pot and squish the end of the stem it should be soft and pliable. During the blanching process a lot of the brown fuzz from the fern will float to the top which is a good thing. The brown fuzz is supposedly a stomach irritant. 3) You can then drain and rinse the fern once blanched and stir fry in a sauce of your choice but we did veg oil and sesame oil in equal parts, sauteed onion and garlic, black pepper, and soy sauce. 4) You can also drain your fern and lay out to dry or dry them in a dehydrator to eat later after rehydration. It was not recomended to freeze ferns since they have a tendency to become slimy. I thought about pickling, some one said they had tried pickling and it didnt come out well, but they pickled before blanching so that is a thought for future use. I regretably did not bring my camera today :( Next time!

Seattle Field Trip

Today we joined two other home school families and hit the road to see the Star Wars exhibit at the Seattle Science Center! It was incredible! Our bonus for the day was spring like weather and it was sunny! We enjoyed hummus in the food court, and let the boys run through the fountain. We finished our day at the Seattle Troll under the Aurora bridge. We enjoyed climbing the troll and of course, as boys will always be boys, had to enjoy picking the trolls nose! There is a real VW Bug under the hand of the troll, and a hubcap of some sort as one of his eyes. Or maybe its an eye patch! Either way it was quite cool!

New Friends

Adnan and Wesams new friends! We haven't named them just yet, suggestions always welcome!

11 life lessons that I’ve learned from raising a child with autism

Just a great little article from Laura Shumaker.com

11 life lessons that I’ve learned from raising a child with autism

1. There is no such thing as a “weirdo”. People that seem weird have challenges that are hard to understand.
2. People who seem different are probably very lonely.
3. There is nothing more valuable in this world than a well trained and compassionate teacher.
4. There are many more nice people in the world than there are not so nice people.
5. It’s important to be flexible.
6. There is a fine line between patience and anger.
7. The house doesn’t always have to be clean. And neat.
8. Yelling is bad. It always makes things worse.
9. Humor helps. A lot.
   
10. Everyone you meet has a story of their own.
11. Kindness and praise can defuse a difficult situation magically.

Laura Shumaker, author A REGULAR GUY: GROWING UP WITH AUTISM

I found this here:

http://www.laurashumaker.com/10-life-lessons-that-ive-learned-from-raising-a-child-with-autism/

What is Steam Punk? by Wesam

An essay in progress by my eldest....feedback always appreciated!

Steampunk

By: Wesam Alkhani

Steampunk is a sub-genre of Science Fiction, which is a crossover of Sci-Fi and the Victorian Era, referring to a setting where steam power is widely used, but with more advanced technology than the real world steam power. Steampunk is widely used in theatrical performances, books, and movies. Steampunk is well known sub-genre of Science Fiction, and is a model of expressive art forms.

Steampunk was mostly developed in the 1980’s through 90’s, but settings have been used in earlier times. H.G. Wells sets a good example for this. In his novel, ‘The Time Machine’, many of its settings are considered Steampunk, although the actual mechanics were built on electricity. When he leaps into the future, the futuristic setting is one different than today. It is the true definition of Steampunk, because in his future, most everything floats, glides, or teleports.

The actual term ‘Steampunk’ is derived from Cyberpunk, which is a futuristic computer setting. It seems to have been coined by K.W. Jeter, who was trying to find a name for works by artists such as Tim Powers and James Baylock.

Steampunk can be used in many different time periods and settings within the steam power period, but the Victorian Era is most commonly used and most accurate for steam power. The Victorian Era was the era in which queen Victoria ruled Britain from 20 June, 1837 until her death on 21 January, 1901. In this era, steam power was widely used, for electricity was still not widespread and there were no major organized electric sources. This was a time of growth and prosperity for Britain and America, who were both developing mass steam power sources.

In modern art, Steampunk uses such elements as Brass, Valves, Meters, and many pipes. It has inspired many artists with sculptures such as Tetroscope, By Paul St George, at London Hall of Arts. Kinetics is also a very important element in many Steampunk sculptures. Clockwork Universe by Tim Whetherell is a Kinetic clock that uses steam power and does certain movements in the background.

Steampunk is widely used in fantasy performances. League of STEAM are a performing group that specializes in Steampunk. They perform several acts, all based on Steampunk stories.

Many movies could be considered steam punk as well, such as Atlantis or The Polar Express.

There are also many television series that are Steampunk. Nadia: Blue Waters is very extensive in the Steampunk genre.

Steampunk is a signature of art, and since it started, there is a growing interest to make Steampunk a larger form of art, and a form of life.

Math, that thing that makes Wesam scream!

As of right now Wesam can no longer talk in human. He is speaking in cave man. Why you might ask? Well I just finished enrolling him in an online math class. We are going to try out

http://www.liveonlinemath.com/

for the next few weeks and see how things go. The instructor is promising as is the method and what is offered. Fees couldn't be cheaper so that was our bonus for the day!

To Canada and back!

A trip to the Pirates of Penzance at Western Washington U, led to a side trip to Canada, to see the Peace Arch, and what a border looks like! It was freezing!

Pirates of Penzance was absolutely wonderful! The boys enjoyed it a lot!

http://news.wwu.edu/go/doc/1538/1024807/

Adnan enjoyed seeing all the mountains on the way and Wesam even got to see a deer on the side of the freeway!

We finished our trip with a great burger and shake at Boomers Burgers!

Great Deal for Education Materials

This deal was far to good not to pass it on and advertise for :D Plus you get $5 for signing up you can use towards the purchase of these vouchers! You also get 5% donated to the school of your choice.

$15 for $30 Worth of Kid’s Educational Products From Twin Sisters Productions

5% of your purchase goes to Ridgecrest Elementary or another school of your choice.

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Mamapedia Sweet Deals offers you incredible discounts on family-friendly products and services in National. Plus, when you purchase a Sweet Deal, 5% of your purchase goes to Ridgecrest Elementary or another school of your choice.

Check out Mamapedia Sweet Deals here:
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Shaving Cream delight

A couple of place mats, a can of shaving cream, fingers and some chopsticks, coupled with a load of imagination meant an hours worth of sensory fun! Boo and Yusef practiced writing their letters while Adnan built a mountain.

Here we are

So here we are. Four and a half kids, one mom, one dad, one house, and a whole lot of learning! I started this blog hoping to get some of our daily education and activities organized and better documented. Bare with me as I am still trying to figure out how to do this. I am far from the creative blogger, but I seem to be full of ideas with no where to put them. We are busy everyday exploring our environment through any means possible. I hope in some way my ramblings may benefit someone.