Yesterday we got 14 inches of snow. If my kids were with me, it would have caused a house full of exuberant, happy kids because we always went outside to play in the snow together. As adults, it’s easy to just stay inside and let the kids and go outside to play by themselves, but let me tell you, someday you won’t have the option to go outside and play with your kids, so seize the opportunity while you can! Here are some of the activities we did in the winter:

1. Build an igloo. We went all out on our igloo, and it took us three whole days to finish it. We used an old diaper wipe container to make bricks from the snow, then we stacked them and packed them with extra snow. Our finished igloo was over 6 feet tall and big enough to house 3 adults at one time. The most important thing is that the kids had a blast!

   

2. Go Sledding Together. Find a good hill and have fun!
3. Make snow angels together
   
4. Make a snowman
5. Have a snowball fight.
6. Go walking and look for animal tracks. Feed the birds while out.
7. Go shovel an elderly neighbor’s sidewalks for free. Teach the importance of charity.
8. Have a scavenger hunt. Make a list of things for your kids to find and send them on their hunt.
9. Use food coloring to create colored pictures in the snow.
10. Ice Skate.
11. Make a snow maze. You can build one like the corn mazes in autumn using snow.
12. Make a bird feeder or bird house and hang it up outside.
13. Role play. Pretend you are an explorer looking for an ancient lost treasure in the arctic tundra, etc.
14. Leave messages for your neighbors by writing messages with a stick in the snow in front of their doors.

Most of all, enjoy being together! Someday your kids will be grown up and busy with their own lives. Cherish every opportunity to do things together now.

This activity involves dissection. My kids were 4, 6, and 8 years old when we did this. The first time we did a dissection, two of my kids were “grossed out” upon seeing the organ for the first time, but I took time to sit and explain why dissection is important in science (how else would doctors know how to fix a heart if they couldn’t dissect an organism to practice?). We discussed how new experiences appear gross or scary, but once you do it or experience it, it becomes familiar and no longer a big deal. We talked about meat that we buy in grocery stores, and how it is just the parts of animals that have died - similar to what we do here with dissection, only for a different purpose. We eat the meat, we use it here to learn. After they started the activity, they got over their trepidation and thought it was really “neat”.

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to teach kids about the nervous system (i.e., the central nervous system) and make it real for them.

Preparation

• Discuss the nervous system. There are 2 components: the central nervous system (i.e., the brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (branching nerves to organs, limbs, etc). Discuss how the central nervous system is set up, how the brain is organized into different lobes and regions, how each region controls a different function or area of the body, and how the brain connects with the spinal cord to carry information to the rest of the body. Define a nerve, talk about nerve cells and how they transmit the electrical information of the nervous system. Be as brief or as detailed as you deem appropriate for your children, taking into consideration their age, their prior knowledge, their level of curiosity, and the amount of time you want to invest. You can use:
  • a chart (for example, The Nervous System, available at amazon.com)
  • a DVD (such as Just The Facts: The Human Body - Nervous System)
  • books
  • various online sources (such as youtube.com)

Materials

This activity requires materials that you have to purchase, but everything except the organ can be set aside and re-used later on. I purchased many of my supplies at sciencekit.com because they were high quality and affordable. Check ebay, amazon.com or other science supply stores online to see if you can find what you need even cheaper.

• Book: The Sheep Brain: A Basic Guide by Richard K Cooley and C. H. Vanderwolf (2004)
• Dissecting Kit. Amazon.com sells one for $16.49. Make sure your children only have access to this kit in the presence of a reponsible parent!
• Dissecting tray. Amazon.com sells a 14″ wax-lined tray for $13.00
• Sheep Brain. ScienceShopUSA at amazon.com sells them for $11.95. Carolina sells them for $9.50.
• Latex gloves for you and your kids to wear when dissecting.
• Optional: If you have never dissected anything before and feel reluctant about the whole process, check out How to Dissect by William Berman ($14.85 at amazon.com)

Procedure

Follow the instructions and guidelines set forth in The Sheep Brain: A Basic Guide by Cooley and Vanderwolf (see materials list). They will guide you through the process.

Dissecting a Sheep Brain

I did this activity with my kids to investigate the effectiveness of different laundry detergents in breaking down proteins. Instead of spending money buying different kinds of laundry detergent, we went to our friends and neighbors and asked to use a few teaspoons of their laundry detergents. First, we discussed what proteins are, and we discussed how proteins are found in sweat, blood, grass, food, and other things that soil clothes. We also discussed how, in the U.S., about 50% of liquid detergents, 25% of powder detergents, and almost all powdered bleach additives now contain enzymes to help break down proteins. Then we tested each of the different detergents to see which one broke down proteins the best.

Materials

• 6 test tubes (or more if you intend to test more detergents) A set of 6 plastic screw-cap test tubs with stand is available from sciencekit.com for $11.95).
• Gelatin (available at grocery stores) We used Knox unflavored gelatin
• Marker to mark test tubes
• a couple teaspoons of different laundry detergents
• distilled water for control

Procedure

• Prepare gelatin and fill each test tube 3/4 full. We will test how the detergents break down the proteins in the gelatin. Let the tubes sit and gel.
• With permanent marker, mark where the gelatin ends to know where the starting level is.
• For each detergent to be tested, take 1-2 teaspoons and add to a test tube. Use the same amount for each detergent. For example, use 2 teaspoons of each detergent.
• One test tube will be the control, so put 2 teaspoons (or whatever amount you’re using) of distilled water in one test tube.
• Be sure to label each test tube. Example, one test tube will be labeled “Control”, one will be “tide”, one will be “Cheer”, one will be “All”, etc. Label with the detergents you are using.
• Put the caps on the test tubes and set aside. Each day for 4-5 days, look at the test tubes and look for changes in the gelatin. Record your results. You can choose how long you will use for the experiment. We did 5 days. You can do 3, 4, or as many days as you want.
• At the end of your time limit, mark the test tubes where the gelatin level currently is for each tube. Measure the difference between the starting gelatin line and the current gelatin line.
• Discuss. Which detergent broke down the most gelatin? Which one broke down the least amount? The ingredient in the detergents that break down the proteins are enzymes. Lookin the dictionary and define what an enzyme is. Look at the ingredients listed on the detergent bottles/boxes. Which one is probably the enzyme? *Enzyme names end with -ase). For example, the enzyme lactase breaks down the protein lactose (in milk). Suggest the name of an enzyme that breaks down gelatin.

This is an activity that engages everyone in the family.  You start with a story starter on a piece of paper, and decide who goes first, who goes second, etc.  The first person writes the first part of the story.  It can be one or two paragraphs (or however long you decide beforehand).  Be sure to end it with a phrase that encourages the next person to begin, such as “And then suddenly,”.  Then hand the story to the second person.  That person continues the story.  Repeat until all people get a chance to contribute to the story, and make sure the last person writes an ending.  For younger children who can’t read or write, have someone read what’s been written so far to them, then dictate their part of the story for them.  Some suggestions for story starters are listed here, but you can make your own.  At the end, take turns reading the story out loud.  It usually generates a lot of laughs, and it’s a great “togetherness” activity.

Some example story starters

• It was the night before Halloween, and a big storm was approaching…
• I woke up on Monday to go to school as usual, only to discover that….
• I was sitting in my room reading a book about the jungles in Africa when….
• Yesterday, the doorbell rang.  My little sister went and opened it and…
• My friend was working on his science fair experiment…
• Late at night when everyone goes to sleep, fairies wake up and visit people.  I know this because….
• I was sitting in math class when I looked out the window and started saw a group of tiny creatures in the tree across the yard…

If you do this activity, please come back and share your stories!

I am a scientist, and I wanted to share my love of science with my kids, so I did a lot of science experiments with my kids.  The science experiments required scientific supplies, which I mostly purchased from sciencekit.com because they were th cheapest.  Ebay has some good prices as well.  This experiment involves testing different areas of the home to see which areas have the most bacteria.

We took swabs from the kitchen counter, the TV remote control, the front door knob, the railing on the stairs, the living room table, the kitchen floor, and from a chin-up bar we had installed in one of our doorways that the kids used all the time to play on.  We made agar plates in petri dishes, smeared the swabs on the agar, sealed the petri dishes with scotch tape, and let them incubate for 24 hours. Then we examined the petri dishes to determine which areas had the most bacteria.  We had a microscope at home, so we also identified which kind of bacteria was in each area (Just the type of bacteria based on shape).  Even I was surprised at the results.  The kitchen counter came out fairly clean, but the chin-up bar that the kids played on daily was loaded with several kinds of bacteria.  After this experiment, I bleached every area of my house.  It made me more aware of problem areas.  The kids loved this experiment.

To do this experiment at your home, here are the steps:

Preparation

Teach your children about bacteria.  Use books, online videos, etc. to define what bacteria are, how some bacteria are beneficial and some are harmful, discuss some of the diseases that are caused by bacteria, discuss how small they are, etc.  If they don’t know what a microscope is, discuss that as well.

Supplies

• Petri dishes (You can get a package of 20 100-mm dishes at sciencekit for $7.15)
• Nutrient Agar (sciencekit sells already-prepared petri plates (10) for $15.75, I used a 350-mL bottle of prepared agar.  OnlineScienceMall store at ebay sells that for $14.95)
• Swabs.  You could just use Q-tips, but they’re not really big enough to collect a big enough sample.  I recommend the regular swabs.  Sciencekit sells a pkg of 72 for $2.25, but you won’t need that many!
• OnlineScienceMall has the best deal - you can get 10 pre-poured petri dishes with 10 sterile swabs for $17.50!
• Scotch Tape. Once the bacteria is collected and transferred to the agar, be sure to seal the petri dishes with tape so they can’t be opened.  Bacteria reproduce rapidly, and you will quickly have very high concentrations.  Keep the dishes sealed to avoid letting the bacteria come in contact with kids or pets.  This is important!
• Permanent Marker to label the Petri dishes.
• Warm area for incubating the bacteria.  Around 80 degrees is ideal.  I had an electric heater, so I turned that on and put the plates near it. But room temperature should do fine.
• Distilled water to moisten swabs for collection.
• Optional: microscope to look at the bacteria (through the Petri dish - don’t open the incubated dishes!)

Objective:

To identify which areas of the home have the highest concentrations of bacteria.

Procedure:

1. Get petri dishes ready by pouring the agar in and letting it gel, or just use pre-poured, ready-to-use petri dishes.
2. Figure out which areas you will test and label the tops of the petri dishes with a Sharpie. For example “computer keyboard” or “kitchen counter”.
3. Take the sterile swabs, being careful not to touch the tips with your fingers, and moisten with distilled water.  Swab various areas of your house that you want to test (one at a time).  Rub the swab back and forth and roll it to cover all sides of the tip.
4. Take the swab and swab the agar plate.  It’s best to use a zig-zag pattern, running it over the whole area.  Microbiologists swab using a different technique, but zig-zag is fine for this experiment.
5. Put the lid on the Petri plate, seal around the sides with scotch tape, and make sure it’s labeled.
6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 until all plates are done.
7. Set the plates in a warm area to incubate.  Make sure they cannot be accessed by pets, very small children, etc.  Don’t set them on a heater - the plastic plates may melt.
8. Incubate for 24-48 hours (we did 48 hours), and check them about every 12 hours.
9. After 48 hours, examine and discuss.  Which areas of the house had the most bacteria?  Note the shape, color, and amount of bacteria.  What else have you discovered?
10. You may want to take pictures for your memory book….
11. Be sure to throw the petri dishes away.

My kids were ages 4, 6, and 8 when we did this.  My kids thoroughly loved this experiment.  If you do it, please come back and share your experiences or pictures!

I often felt that kids and teens these days are modeling the wrong celebrities as their “heroes”, so I implemented a “Real Heroes” movie night at our house.  I didn’t want my kids growing up wanting to be like Britney Spears or LeBron James or the other pop-media icons they see every day on TV.  So every Friday, we watched biographies, documentaries and movies about real people who overcame obstacles, performed great deeds, helped make the world a better place, or just taught people important lessons.  After the movie, we’d sit and discuss the movie, why that person was important, and how it is relevant today in their daily lives.  If this sounds like something you’d like to do, here is a list of some of the movies I chose to share with my kids:

• Eleanor Roosevelt: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story
• Mahatma Gandhi: Gandhi
• Steve Biko: In 1978, Malcolm Clarke recounted Biko’s story in a documentary called, The Life and Death of Steve Biko, but if you can’t find that movie, Denzel Washington starred in Cry Freedom - a movie about Steve Biko.
• Helen Keller: The Miracle Worker
• Albert Einstein: NOVA: Einstein Revealed
• Marie Curie: Marie Curie
• Mother Teresa: Mother Theresa

These are the only ones I can remember, but you can choose people you want your children to know about and find videos about them online. If you do this and want to add suggestions, please come back and share your ideas!

Here’s an activity I used to do with my kids, and they really loved it.  It takes some time and preparation on the part of the parent, but it’s well worth the effort!  It is a home, kid-friendly version of the TV game show, Jeopardy.

This game works better with more kids, so I talked to other parents in the apartment community where I lived, told them that we were having a Jeopardy game at my house every Friday, and asked their children to join us.  Since the game is based on topics the kids are learning at school or at home, ask the parents to share what their kids are currently studying in school (last week’s homework, etc) or at home.  Note which grade they’re in to make age-appropriate questions.

Materials

Jeopardy Board with value and question cards (see “Setup” below)

Paper and Pencils for score keeping and for writing Final Jeopardy answers

Buzzers (I used pans and spoons)

prizes

Setup

For this activity, you will have to make a jeopardy board for repeated use.  Poster board will fall apart too easily.  Cardboard or foamboard is better.  If you’re able, it’s better to take a big board and make it out of wood.  But if you’re not the carpenter type, cardboard will work fine.

I used foamboard.  You may have to connect a few pieces together to get it big enough.  Mine was about 4 feet by 5 feet, for easy viewing, even from afar.  Make 25 square holes - 5 columns across and 5 rows down.  Each column will be a category and each square in the columns will be for points - 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500, for example.

You will need to make “holders” for each square to hold the cards.  I just used more cardboard to make card holders in the back of each square hole.

You can be creative and make your board out of anything.  You could use a magnetic board and make your columns and rows using magnetic (erasable) squares that you write the amounts on.

Preparation

Preparation takes a bit of time on the part of the parent, but I liked preparing for our weekly Jeopardy game.  To prepare, know what grade levels of each child that will be participating.  You also must find out what they’ve already studied, preferably something they’ve studied recently.  Also, you have to choose your categories, such as “Science”, “Math”, Music”, “Famous People”, “History”, “Vocabulary”, “Art”, etc.

Make value cards to put in the square holes in the board.  You can use points or dollars.  For regular Jeopardy, that’s 5 cards that say “$100″, 5 that say “$200″, and so on.  For double jeopardy, you will need 5 $200 cards, 5 $400 cards, etc.

Then, make your questions for each category.  If you do a round of regular jeopardy and a round of double jeopardy, as I did, you will need 10 questions for each category.  I always tried to make questions to review what they learned in school the past week.  Write the questions on a card, and put the question cards behind the value cards.  We had neighborhood kids from kindergarten through grade 7 participating in our game, so you need to write questions for each grade level that’s participating.  You can put older kids in with younger kids and play all at once, but that can be difficult on question difficulty, so I divided the kids into grade levels and played separate games for K-2, 3-5, and grades 6-7.  It’s a lot easier that way.

Order the questions from easiest to hardest and put them behind the value cards, making the easier questions worth less and the more difficult ones worth more.

Get something for each child to “buzz in” with.  I gave each child a pan and a spoon.  When they wanted to buzz in, they just hit the pan with the spoon.

I wanted to reward the kids for participating, so when I had the money, I stocked up on toys, books, and gadgets from the $1 store.  Other times, I baked cookies or treats for prizes.  I wanted every child to get something in the end, so I had something for each participant.  The winner got first pick, then the second-place winner, and so on.

Now, it’s time to play!

Playing the Game

Play the game just like Jeopardy on TV.  To choose who goes first, you could pick a number and see who gets the closest, or draw straws or any number of methods.

The first person to play picks a category and an amount.  The parent takes the question card from behind the value card and reads the question.  Participants “buzz in” and phrase the answer in the form of a question, as in the TV show.  Whoever answers the question correctly gets to keep the value card, to be added up later.  It’s also a good idea if the parent writes down each child’s score as the game goes along, in case the cards get shuffled around in the excitement, preventing an accurate count at the end.

Whoever answers the question right gets to pick the next question.  For example, “I’ll take Music for $300″. Everyone has the chance to buzz in and answer any question.  Remind them that they have to buzz in first!

Once all questions are done in regular jeopardy, reset the board using the double Jeopardy value cards and question cards.  Play again.

For final jeopardy, have the kids vote on a category and provide a final jeopardy question.  Have them write down their answer.  They must decide and write down how much they want to wager on their final jeopardy answer.

Winning

The person with the most points or dollars at the end wins.  That person gets first pick from the prize bag.  Then it goes to the second place winner, and so on.  Make sure every child gets something.

If you do this activity, please come back and comment to share your experiences!  Have fun!

Here’s an activity I did with my daughter when she was 5 years old. We throw lots of things away but have no real idea of where it goes or what happens to it after we take it to the curb. I wanted my kids to understand what happens to all our trash and why recycling is important, so we investigated that topic.

Overview

There are two parts to this activity, and it requires an adult’s help. The first thing I did was to look in the phone book and call our local landfill. I told the people at the landfill that I wanted my kids to learn what happened to garbage after it gets thrown away, and I asked if they would give my kids a tour of their landfill. They were happy to help. In fact, when I took my kids to tour the landfill, the guy told me, “I’ve worked here for 18 years, and this is the first time someone has called and wanted to come and see what we do here!” They were very friendly. They took the kids around, showed them where they bury the garbage, told them about the methane gas that escapes and how they deal with it, and showed them models of how they layer the garbage underground. They even gave the kids some free gifts. The kids loved it, and still remember that trip to this day.

The second part of the activity is an experiment:

Materials Needed

• Three types of garbage (at least 3 of each): paper products (e.g., paper, cardboard egg cartons, etc); plastic garbage (e.g., those plastic grocery bags you get at the grocery store, etc); organic garbage (eggshells, banana peels, etc).
• shovel
• nail and hammer
• bucket of water

Objective:

The object of this experiment is to show how different types of garbage break down and IF they break down. In this experiment, we put three different types of garbage in three places - buried in earth, exposed to the sun and air, and immersed in water. After several weeks, the garbage is examined to see how much, if any, broke down, and which method helped it to break down.

Procedure:

1. Make three piles of garbage. It’s best to have three of the same things. For example, 3 plastic grocery bags for plastic, 3 cardboard egg cartons for paper, and 3 banana peels for organic. Put one of each type of garbage in each pile. So, you can have three of the same piles: Each pile will have a plastic grocery bag, a banana peel, and a cardboard egg carton.
2. One pile will be used to investigate how garbage gets broken down in the earth. Take the shovel and dig a hole somewhere outside and bury one pile (a piece of paper or cardboard, a piece of plastic, and a piece of organic matter). Cover it up with dirt, and be sure to mark the spot so you can find it again.
3. One pile is used to investigate how garbage breaks down when exposed to sun and air. Take your three pieces of garbage from the next pile and hang it on a tree by nailing it to the trunk. Alternatively, you can just leave it outside in the sun if you have an area where it won’t be disturbed or blown away by the wind.
4. The last pile should be submersed in the bucket of water to see how water alone breaks down garbage. This can be put inside or outside, but it should be kept in the dark or shade to eliminate the effects of the sun.
5. You can choose your own time limit. We checked the garbage once a week for 6 weeks to examine if and how much the garbage broke down in the three different venues. At the end of your time period, be sure to remove all the garbage and throw it away.
6. Then it’s time to discuss what you learned with your kids. Discuss which garbage broke down and which did not. Why do you think that was? Thinking about all the things people buy and the packaging they come in, what do you think that means for our environment? How could we eliminate the problems presented by so much of the trash we generate in America daily?
7. Here are some pertinent facts to review with your kids and some websites for more information:

Plastic Garbage bags

Newspapers take two to five months to biodegrade in a compost heap; banana peels take several days, but plastic grocery bags show no decomposition because they are made of polyethylene, a man-made polymer that microorganisms don’t recognize as food. Some scientists estimate that it takes 500 years for a plastic grocery bag to break down, while others say it’s closer to 1,000 years old. Since these bags were only invented about 50 years ago, we don’t have first-hand data to determine their decomposition rate, so scientists rely on tests using respirometry *you can look that up online if you want to explore that).

Paper and Organic Matter

Sometimes, even banana peels don’t decompose once they reach the landfill. For sanitary reasons, modern landfills are lined on the bottom with clay and plastic to keep waste from escaping into the soil and are covered daily with a layer of earth to reduce odor. The landfill, then, acts like a trash tomb—the garbage within receives little air, water, or sunlight. This means that even readily degradable waste objects, including paper and food scraps, are more likely to mummify than decompose.

You can further this lesson by watching an online video about recycling or landfills. You can tell the kids about the ocean currents and how there is now an area in the Pacific Ocean of plastic garbage that’s as large as a continent. ( http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans-Plastic4nov02.htm).

If you do this activity with your kids, please come back and post a comment about how it went and whether the kids enjoyed doing it!

Before my kids were kidnapped, I spent all my time and effort coming up with fun and educational activities to do with them.  I love spending time with them, and I wanted them to learn and experience as much as possible about the world they live in.  As time goes by, we tend to forget things we used to do together.  So, I’m starting a new category here in my blog where I’m going to list activities that we’ve done together.  Maybe other parents can find some useful ideas and do similar activities with their own children.

One of the difficult parts of parenting is when your children constantly come to you saying, “Mom, I’m Bored”.  So, I compiled a book full of activities, with instructions and materials needed (if any), made a copy of each book for each child, got the book bound, and gave each of my children a copy.  I then told them, “Whenever you’re bored, here’s a book where you can always find something to do”.  The activities are not all my own ideas - I scoured the internet and took the best ideas from various websites and books to incorporate into my “Mom, I’m Bored Book”.  Eventually, I will put the book here on my website in Word format for parents that find it useful so they can download it, print it out and use it.

I firmly believe that the best way for a child to learn to is do things hands-on and to have fun while learning, so I chose activities that incorporated that credo.  My children were all under age 10, so some of the activities are geared for younger children.  Others are for older children as well.  Some require the help of an adult, but most do not.

I called my kids yesterday and got to talk to them.  My son was 5 years old when he was kidnapped by his father, and he’s now 8 years old.  He is attending a school in Yemen, but the schools there are quite different than the schools in America.  For one thing, all instruction is in Arabic, which my son can barely understand.  Second, the schools in Yemen are, on average, three years behind the level of education at an American school.  And most importantly, the kids at the schools in Yemen hit and bully other kids without any intervention from teachers or adults.  Unfortunately, all the kids at my son’s school are calling him names and beating him up.  He comes home angry and just wants to hit his sisters as a result.  He is suffering, for sure.  When I was in Yemen, the same thing was happening.  When I wanted to talk to his teacher, my husband would not let me go to the school. When I asked him to intervene and stop the kids from hitting and beating my son, he said, “That’s the way things are here.  They’re just being boys”.

Before my son got taken by his father, he was absolutely the sweetest, kindest little man you’d ever meet anywhere.  I called him “My tumor”because I couldn’t go anywhere without him following me.  When I slept, he slept next to me.  When I went to the bathroom, he went with me (he was young, and he never wanted to  leave my side).  When I sat to watch TV, he sat on my lap.  When I got up to go to the kitchen - he went with me.  He would never, ever be more than 3 feet away from me.  He was my shadow.

He has an awesomely creative mind.  He would always ask “Why” this or “why” that.  Sometimes I’d get tired of answering the “why” questions, and when I’d say “I don’t know”, he’d make up an answer himself.  I bought him a new pair of tennis shoes one time that had zippers.  The zippers kept falling down, however.  He said to me, “Mama, why won’t the zippers on my shoes stay up?”  I said, “I don’t know, Sweetheart”.  So he thought about that for a minute and said, “Oh, I know!  It’s because there are tiny little bugs that live there and they keep pulling the zippers down!”  The funny part was that he truly believed his explanations and said them with all sincerity.  He is extremely creative and curious, and I love him so much.

He has the most awesome laugh.  I miss so many things, but his laugh has to be one of the things I miss the most.  He just opens up and lets out this hearty laugh that pulls you in and makes everything seem wonderful, and you have to laugh, too.

He’s a math genius.  He just intuitively knows the answer to any math problem I give him - even multiplication and division.  He’s very amazing with math and calculations.

Before he was taken, I was starting to teach him how to read.  He hated books, though, and it wasn’t an easy task.  He’s very intelligent, but he has no fondness for books.  When he was taken, he had learned to write the alphabet and was learning to sound out small words.  Now he no longer remembers the English alphabet at all and can’t write any words in English - or read any.  That makes me very sad. His father won’t work with him or teach him English.  I used to read stories to my kids every night before bed.

My little guy was my closest buddy.  We went everywhere together and did everything together.  I miss him so very, very much, and I know he misses me just as much.  He keeps asking me on the phone, “When are you coming?  Please come before 2009, Mama”.  I don’t know what to do.

He has so many talents and, before he was taught how to be angry and fearful in Yemen, he was the sweetest, kindest, most effervescent little guy you’d ever meet.  He was fragile, though - very shy and wanted to be protected by his mom all the time.  Afraid of speaking around other people and afraid of being away from his mom.  Now he feels so alone and much more scared and insecure.  It breaks my heart.  I need my little guy almost as much as he needs me.  Please Go, bring my little guy home so I can hug him and keep him close.  I want him to join Cub Scouts, and I want to read him stories and teach him to read.  There are a zillion things I want to do with him.  But mostly, I want to help him to know and understand that he is very special, and that he doesn’t deserve the bullying and the hitting that he receives daily now.