We had a few errands to run in town this afternoon, one of them meant we had to stop by Harvey Norman. Of course, there's no way we could avoid a tour of the vacuum section without Shmoo having a meltdown. While we were there we ran into the lovely salesperson that sold us our new vacuum and she remembered Shmoo and his passion for Dysons. She was nice enough to have a really long chat to Shmoo about vacuums and answer his 101 questions. She even explained all the ins and outs of the Ergorapido that Shmoo is saving up for, and let him have a go of a demo model. Shmoo was in vacuum heaven (although, he was a bit skittish when he thought a vacuum might be unexpectedly turned on). When we were leaving he told me that he was really happy :)

Science - Introduction to Chemical Reactions

 The OH and I love garlic. I've cooked with it a lot over the past 12+ years, used it in all kinds of recipes. Today, however, was the first time I've had garlic turn a vivid blue-green colour during the cooking process.

This morning I put a whole chook in the slow cooker; threw in some sliced onion and garlic; sprinkled on some salt and pepper; and then squeezed a lime over it all. Nothing special, just an end of the week, throw-it-together kind of meal. An hour or so later I was cleaning up after the kids had breakfast and as I wiped down the bench I glanced at the slow cooker. I was quite alarmed to see that all the garlic had turned green! It was the same kind of green that copper turns when it oxidises. Not the kind of colour you expect to see in food unless the ingredients list includes a whole bunch of numbers!

I called Shmoo and Loo in and they were fascinated by the strange colour. We couldn't figure out what was going on with it. I was worried that it might be some weird garlic disease/mould that only became apparent during cooking so I quickly Googled it. Turns out there are lots of people out there that have been freaked out by turquoise coloured garlic and lots of theories about why it occurs. The best source of info seems to be here...

"The colors occur when enzymes and amino acids present in garlic react with the sulfur compounds responsible for garlic’s pungent smell. The reaction causes different multipyrrole molecules to form. Different types of multipyrrole molecules are responsible for the different pigments. The multipyrrole molecule most familiar to us is chlorophyll, produced by plants in the presence of light; however, chlorophyll is not produced by the cooking or pickling processes that turn garlic blue."

 Interesting! We kept an eye on the garlic as it continued to cook and it slowly turned more green than blue and after a while the green colour disappeared.

Colour starting to fade

Then, tonight, I was preparing to cook some silverbeet and cabbage to go with the chicken. Usually I just saute the onion and garlic, throw in the veg, and stir through a splash of soy sauce and a little lemon or lime juice. I had everything prepped and ready to go. I cooked the onion and added the garlic. Then I noticed the lime sitting there, ready to be used later. Instead, I squeezed a little of the juice straight onto the garlic. Voila! Reaction replicated. Shmoo and Loo marvelled over the turquoise garlic. What an awesome colour (although not one I usually like to see in my food!).

We'll have to explore some more kitchen science chemical reactions :)

The boys enthusiastically helping The OH fix a bookshelf using the hand drill and spanner.

The (Almost) Perfect Water Bottle

I'm sure most parents have been through the same thing. The search for the perfect water bottle or sippy cup for the kids is incredibly frustrating, not to mention expensive! It has to fulfill all the criteria: leak-proof, durable, a good size, easy to clean and put together, contains no nasty chemicals, easy for the kids to drink from, and looks funky enough for the kids to want to use.

It's taken me over 6 years but I've finally found something that fits the bill. I love the Ecococoon stainless steel, insulated bottles. The only thing that I think could be improved is the lid - there's nothing to keep it attached to the bottle.It needs a loop/handle on it so that it can be attached to the carabiner.

The CamelBak kids' bottles suit Loo and Beanie really well. Unfortunately they were a complete failure for Shmoo. Shmoo is an oral sensory seeker, everything goes in his mouth and gets chewed. He could chew a silicone CamelBak bite valve to bits in just a few hours. The Ecococoon cap, however, is fairly sturdy and quite hard. It's held up much better than the Camelbak. But... as you can see from the photo below, Shmoo has given it a good gnawing. I think it would need to be coated in titanium to stop Shmoo biting bits out of it! I don't know why I was so surprised to see how much he'd nibbled off it, this was the kid who gnawed big timber splinters off the end of his cot when he was a toddler. I'm going to get a few different 'chewies' (chew toys for ASD kids) to attach to his bottle and hopefully we'll be able to get him to chew those instead.

ANZAC Day

Today was the first time I've really discussed ANZAC Day in depth with Shmoo and Loo. It's the first time I've felt that Shmoo would be able to grasp the meaning behind it all.

We had quite a few good discussions about it throughout the day, covering lots of topics including what the acronym stands for; the meaning of corps vs. corpse; what 'war' is; World War 1 and World War 2; conscription; the events of April 25th 1915; what it might have been like to be in the trenches and how the soldiers would be deeply affected by what they saw; what ANZAC Day represents for Australians in modern times; and the traditions of the day.

Shmoo was trying to understand the reasons why countries go to war (personally, I think that a lot of the time it boils down to the same reasons why a 6yo gives his 5yo brother a blood nose by whacking him with a vacuum 8-| ) I used analogies to explain some of the reasons why wars are started. One of the examples I gave him was of a hypothetical situation in which a group of people decided that they wanted our house and that they would just walk up and take it, any way they could. We would, of course, try to do whatever we could to stop them. Shmoo pondered this for a few seconds and then looked at me, confused, "But where would they take our house? How would they move it?" :)) There's that very literal ASD thinking again!

We read a library book together about Gallipoli. The boys were fascinated by the pictures of the soldiers holding their bayonets; the photos of the boats landing at the cove; the story of Simpson and his donkey. Shmoo couldn't understand the picture of the ANZACs helping the wounded Turkish soldier. I tried to explain but he couldn't get past the fact that they'd been trying to kill each other and now they were helping him.

Shmoo loved listening to a few pieces of music that are traditionally played during commemorative ceremonies, and he listened to them 4-5 times each... The Last Post, The Rouse; Reveille; and the Australian national anthem. He was quite curious about the bugle.

In the evening the boys got to watch part of the live broadcast of the Lone Pine service. They were pretty excited to be able to recognise the bugle calls!

Makers' Workshop

   

[Makers' Workshop, Burnie]

Diagnosis

So... Shmoo had his autism assessment with TASDAS this week and now officially has the Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis: Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Which basically means that he's been assessed as being on the spectrum but didn't quite fulfill enough of the criteria for them to give him either a 'Classical Autism' or 'Aspergers' diagnosis.

I strongly suspect that had he been assessed 3-4 years ago he would have easily fulfilled the Asperger's diagnostic criteria. He's come a long way in the last couple of years, just from imitating Loo's social interactions. He's learnt a lot about what is socially expected. I'm still kicking myself for not following my instincts in relation to my concerns about his behaviour as a toddler. If only I'd pushed harder and gotten someone to take my concerns seriously. An Asperger's diagnosis would have enabled us to access so much more assistance; not to mention the early intervention that would have been available to him if he'd been diagnosed earlier. I see how much the ECIS sessions have benefited Beanie and I feel sad that Shmoo has missed out on that.

Anyway, we were given a lot of info and contacts, and will receive a copy of the official report in the next few weeks so there's still a lot for us to wade through.

Most young kids save their pocket money for a fancy toy or game. Maybe some of them save up to buy lollies; or to go somewhere special. My nearly 7 year old is saving for his first major purchase. Shmoo is saving up for his first real, working vacuum cleaner.

Ideally, he'd love to have a working Dyson but, short of saving up for the next 3 years, that's a little out of his price range. Instead he's settled upon the Electrolux Ergorapido. He first saw one of those at one of Beanie's Early Intervention sessions and the staff, knowing about his passion for vacuums, allowed him to take it for a 'test drive'. Shmoo was quite impressed at how quiet it was and the fact that it was a 2-in-1 upright and handheld vacuum.

The other day we sat down and worked out a bit of a plan. I wrote down the things he needed to figure out and he filled in the answers. He now know exactly what he wants to buy; where he will buy it from; how much it will cost; how much he has saved; how much more he needs to save; and he has a few ideas on how he can earn the money he needs.

Usually Shmoo tires quite quickly when it comes to writing. He writes very slowly and carefully and it takes a lot out of him. I thought it would take us a few days to work through the pages I'd prepared but he was so excited about his vacuum that he happily completed them in one sitting. He even tackled the maths side of things rather enthusiastically!

Now I just have to figure out how to relate every KLA to vacuums... :-?

MS Volendam

Driving through Burnie today, the boys were delighted to see a huge cruise liner in port. The MS Volendam is the biggest ship they've seen and they were very impressed (actually, we all were LOL). After a bit of quick Googling (gotta love smartphones!), we discovered that the ship is named after a town in North Holland; it's port of registry is the Netherlands; and it's on a journey around the Pacific from New Zealand to Canada and lots of places in between.

I think we'll have quite a few countries to research next library trip!

ICT

Shmoo hasn't had much to do with computers or the internet to date, only emailing family and playing around typing words a handful of times. As he's fast approaching 7 years old, we're starting to allow him some occasional (supervised) computer time.

And guess what his favourite thing to do online is... researching Dyson vacuum cleaners and exploring the James Dyson Foundation website. When we explained how to use Google to search for information, suggesting that he could research various animals or explore different countries, he looked at us blankly and said "But I only like vacuums." Uh huh. :)

We're Up For Review!

We got a letter from THEAC today notifying us that our next monitoring visit will be coming up soon and requesting our 'Family Report' detailing our homeschooling year be sent to them within 3 weeks. :-SS

Eh. I'm not too worried about it, we knew it would be coming up. It's just, it's been a hell of a year, and we've all had to adapt, change, grow and learn. Putting it all down on paper feels a little overwhelming!

Patterns

  

We often find things left lying around in patterns, carefully arranged by Shmoo. It's often the spare rolls of toilet paper. Today it was pegs.

Homegrown tomatoes! Shmoo, in particular, was very excited to taste tomatoes from our very own garden.

The boys had lots of fun doing some Easter-themed creating, using foam craft sheets, to send off to the relatives... 

They were delighted to be able to 'crack' their egg open to see the chick inside. Shmoo was able to neatly write the 'Made by...'  bit on the back of his card all by himself; Loo wrote his name by himself; and Beanie assisted me (ie. grabbed the pen and scribbled) with the writing of his name.