FISHY FRIES? 24thMuharram1432

Brrr, its cold out here, and when Piranis are cold, they crave SOUP! Hot soups becomes a norm at home, but Ummi will set aside the ladle for Little China's Special Hot and Sour soup. So the kitchen was closed for the night. Unfortunately, the younger Piranis believe Eating Out = French Fries, not an item on the Chinese Menu. But this time, Subhan'Allah, as the Pirani palate desired to experiment with something exotic, hence the above dish, which visually satisfied the lil ones (pure coincidence, we had no idea what it would look like) and after eating it the final verdict was "its good, tastes like prawn". The pic is a plate of chewy, tasty, fried SQUID!

NewsFlash : Persistent Pigeons

Two days ago we awoke to hear some pigeons cooing very loudly, it almost seemed as if they were within the house and they were! Two pigeons were trying to nestle within the exhaust tube of our kitchen stove, of all places. We turned on the exhaust so the air would scare them out, but a gentle breeze was not good enough so we turned on the high power switch and they promptly scuttled out.....but not for long, shortly after turning off the exhaust they scrambled back in, infact they have now taken to sitting on a neighbors' window's overhead ledge waiting for the exhaust to turn off, we can they see them anxiously watching from our kitchen window. And they seem to be getting even wiser, we can hear them cooing as we enter the room and they become silent when they hear us. Its becoming a battle of wits: Piranis vs Pigeons, who will prevail? Stay posted!

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Challenge 2 : Papercup Holder

3 BAPs, 2 paper cups, some paper, paperclips, coins, thread, a strip of foil : a challenge.


The Objective was to build a structure to elevate the two cups, within 7 minutes. Well, it took a while to work together, each BAP had a opinion they insisted was best, but Alhumdulillah they finally put their ideas together and found the simplest way to do it. That's simple BAP ingenuity.

school's OUT, Home's IN- what a relief !

As-salaam alaikum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuhu

Our family went to school for 10 years and we had been integrated into the system, breaking away did have its anxieties and a few withdrawal pains, but this July as I watched as most families making a mad dash to uniform and stationary shops, I realized there were somethings I been relieved off now that the kids do not go to school and here they are: 

 - the mad dash to the always crowded uniform/ stationary/ shoe shops before the school year begins

 - fretting over a forgotten lunch box, school badge, note book when kids have left for school

 - being stressed all day over a forgotten homework copy only to have your child come home and cheerfully tell you that the teacher did not ask for it today

  rehearsing for a spelling test all week to find out that the test is postponed to the next week and sometimes canceled with a new list to practice for next week

 - reading homework!!! "read the chapter 5 times each of five days to be tested at the end of the week" (If the teacher has time/ remembers)

 - Dress up day: "why can't i be spiderman? all my friends will"

 - Notices that say: Please send a chart paper/ thermoboll sheet / a green snack / a white tee shirt/ a white orchid for TOMORROW's activity

 - Frantic calls to other parents to make sense of homework written in kid's diary

 - Stress to locate school books when a teacher has not returned a book but assigned homework in it - yes it happens!

 - Stress when the child's bench mate has accidentally taken your child's homework book home, guilt when your child has brought home someone else's book home

 - new concepts introduced 2 weeks before examinations

 - The whole month of stress just before examination week!

 - Trying to make your child complete all the review homework then making him practice those concepts he really needs to review

 - frantic calls to/ from parents/ teachers to verify if the school is closed the following day due to disturbances in the city

 - having to insist that my child must write his speech/ essay/ poem on his own because its his work and it doesn't matter if his friend's father/ mother/ aunty/ grandfather who is a doctor/ lawyer/college professor wrote it for him and he'll win the contest

 -teachers who think your child is strange because he doesn't draw faces on pictures/ likes to draw butchers and guns/ doesn't enjoy colouring/ wears shorts that cover his knees

 - PTMs where a subject teacher addresses your child by somebodyelse's name and then tells you about his progress (is she speaking about him or the child whose name she addressed him as?)

 - Holiday Home work!!!

 ALHUMDULILLAH what a relief!
Feel free to share your experiences too.

Scrabblers Society

As-salaam Alaikum Blogger
 World, we're back and we've been busy, reading, learning... Alhumdulillah, we've been "living".

The elder two participated in a Scrabble competition a few months ago and entered in the "Recreational" category (the other two categories we're "School" and "college", and they needed a school id to register for that). At the venue the organizers were taken aback to see two kids entering in the recreation cat. and wondered if they were pros (all other participants were adults), the kids were taken about to find that some of their opponents were new to the game. Alhumdulillah they we're able to play competitively even though it was their first time competing, and even won a game.
QBAP found himself teaching the game to a mother of two toddlers and one of his opponents gave him a visiting card and invited him to drop in whenever he needed to buy a laptop or would like to join him for a cup of tea. They were often asked about their choice of category, which led to the "What's homeschooling?' and "why?" ABAP says, "homeschooling has taught me how to speak to adults, because they always keep asking me, what is homeschooling?"
Overall they both seemed to enjoy the experience and look forward to competing again.

Pirani Pizza Party!

One of the brothers from the Karachi-Home-Education group arranged a "behind the scences" tour of Pizza Hut's kitchen for the KHE families. We got to see how a "ten rupee roti" becomes into a "seven hundred rupee pizza". To top it off, each family was given the opportunity to toss the toppings onto their pizzas themselves!

Topping it up

Topping our pizza, lower pizza is stuffed crust awaiting attention

Ready for the oven

Into the oven and then onto the table: the Pirani Pizza!

heading into the oven

All Done! (pizza 1)

pizza 2

salad courtesy Ummi

Buliding Bridges

Two squares 8 inches apart, a pack of Abbi's old visiting cards, a pair scissors and 2 baps (ABAP and QBAP). Objective: to build a bridge between the two squares - without touching the table in between and to bridge a relationship between two brothers (team work) - without touching each other's nerves!

Neither task was easy but eventually........

The Bridge

suspended

Cross at your own risk!

Alhumdulillah, the bridge withstood the test of weight (toy soldiers) and the boys tempers were slight bruised but intact, Masha'Allah.

Catching a Breathe

Subhan'Allah, breathing is one of Allah's Mercies that we take for granted. Our respiratory system seems to work automatically, without any conscious effort of our own, MBAP and IBAP helped Ummi put together this lung machine to demonstrate how our lung works


MBAP presents the model of the lung (a balloon), with in a plastic bottle - the ribcage, a straw - the windpipe and another balloon stretched out at the bottom of the bottle - the diaphram.



Inhaling - diaphram going down to give place for lung to expand/fill up, as air is sucked into the lung through the windpipe.



MBAP blowns in more air for emphasis :)


IBAP explains,"When we breathe in (inhale) air goes into the windpipe and into our lungs. The air around the lungs pushes down on the diaphram when the lung becomes full of air.
When we exhale the air comes out from the lung through the windpipe and the diaphram goes up. The ribcage protects the lung from getting hurt."

Dawn Expo 2009

The Dawn Expo hosted a postage stamp competetion, where kids were invited to design postage stamps based on a theme. 3 of our sons wanted to participate (QBAP aged 10, IBAP 8 and MBAP 6). After the competition they recieved a gift of story and poetry books for participating, we then toured the exhibits and here are a few we liked best:












QBAP left the above note at the stall of Meezan Bank (an Islamic Bank) which invited its guests to express their love for Pakistan.