Rashed's View » Family

Recital

rashedhaq — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:37:45 +0000

Natasha recently had a recital at her music class. Each of the students in the group took turns conduction and playing each of the instruments. Here is a picture of Natasha conducting from the platform at the back and the other students are playing the instruments.

The kids really enjoyed playing the instruments and the music sounded great. It was amazing that these little kids put this together.

You can hear the ending of the 22 minute recital by clicking the play button below.

Saturday Morning TV

rashedhaq — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:14:55 +0000

Watching cartoons over breakfast on Saturday morning. Go to the blog post to see the video.

Doing Math

rashedhaq — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:45:30 +0000

Athena has taken a liking to arithmetic. She has been using the abacus when the additions or subtractions exceed 10 and she cannot use her finders. Now 6 months into it, she has moved on to symbolic arithmetic. This is a picture of her work (on the left). I asked her what 4 plus 5 is. She wrote down “4 + 5 =” and then she moved on to the tally sheet (picture below). She added up the numbers and came back to the original equation and wrote down a “9″. Then she laughed her head off because it was “a silly nine that looks like a balloon!”

Inspiring a Shared Vision

rashedhaq — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:52:12 +0000

I was cleaning up the playroom when Athena came and offerred to help. I gave her a few things to do, which she diligently followed through on. Then she offered us a vision, “We want the cleanest rug in the world!”

This seemed to energize her quite a bit, and I thought it was a good suggestion. Then I noticed she wasn’t coming back to me to ask what to do next, but she continued cleaning. Then she enlisted Natasha, who was watching TV. “Natasha, we want the cleanest rug in the world”
Natasha: “Why”
Athena: “So we can play in it. Can you help us?”

Once she inspired us with her vision, it took the three of us no time to get the room ship shape! I thought this was a great example of leadership through inspiring a shared vision.

The Lost Souls of Black Holes

rashedhaq — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:06:42 +0000

Natasha wrote a beautiful graphic novel about a girl who is lost in a black hole. I have reproduced the pictures here. There are lots of things I enjoyed – the story, the illustrations, falling through colors, the girl’s hair – which is always shown correctly from the front and in profile!

Sorting Books

rashedhaq — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:49:52 +0000

We have a bunch of books at home. Every now and then, when we feel settled in, we think about getting them organized – so that the books are easy to find. Three things keep me from doing it:

Our collection is small enough, about 3,000 books, that once I scan the shelves I can generally remember where everything is
We move so often that we would be constantly reorganizing
Like all happily married couples with books, we have never been able to agree on how to sort and organize our books (see the first essay in Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader).

We have collected and discussed various options for organizing and sorting: by author, by subject or topic, by title, using the Dewey system, etc. Babar told us he had his books organized for him by color, and then sorted by size.

Last night Natasha showed me the most novel way to organize. Here’s how I learnt it:
Me: Why is there a pile of books under your bed?
Natasha: Those are my princess books. I was sorting them.
Me: But why didn’t you put them back on the shelf?
Natasha: I sorted them by prettiness – the prettiest book is on top and the least pretty one is at the bottom.
Me: That’s a fun way to sort them. But why don’t you put them back in the bookshelf?
Natasha: Well, I don’t know if the prettiest book should be on the left or the right side.

She eventually put the books back on the shelf, with “the prettiest ones on the left, and the next prettiest ones on the right, and the least pretty ones in the middle.” She also let me in on how a book’s prettiness is measured – how pretty she thinks the princess on the cover is. It makes me wonder if Gravitation is prettier or The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time.

Saturday Morning TV

rashedhaq — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:03:30 +0000

Natasha had a friend’s birthday to attend today, for most of the day. So Athena and I spent most of the day together, starting with watching Barbie Swan Lake together in the morning. This is a short video of her watching TV in the morning.

The player will show in this paragraph

Babar’s Wedding Preparations

rashedhaq — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:21:50 +0000

Once I arrived in Pakistan, I spent the first few days tagging along with Babar as he did his chores in preparation for the wedding – the dholki, the nikah, the wedding reception and the walima. I recorded short moments and collected them into a very short film. You can watch it below, or on YouTube, or Vimeo. Make sure to click on the HQ to watch in high definition.

Selling Lemonade in the Cold

rashedhaq — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:42:12 +0000

Natasha woke up today with the urge to sell lemonade. It wasn’t clear to Tayyba and me why she was driven to this today. The temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Although I helped her to get ready when she asked for it, I did not think she would sell anything cold today. I warned her not to be surprised by rejection because so few people were out today, and because of the temperature. She stood in the front yard for about 45 minutes with Athena, both of them shouting “Lemonade for sale!” In that time, she managed to sell to 5 people – a couple walking their dog, a neighbor who had stepped out to smoke and another older couple who were driving by, looking for a garage sale. She made a total of $1.25. Afterwards she said that she should put away lemonade sales until summer, but would think about what she could sell in the mean time.

Good Feedback

rashedhaq — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:01:11 +0000

After a rough day at work, my unhappiness evaporated when Natasha showed me her school work. It seems they had a lesson about respecting others, responsibility and doing what is right even if it is difficult and you do not want to do it:

Question: Who do you know, famous or not, who has shown responsibility? What did this person do?

Natasha: My Dad. Shows tolerance.