03/31/2014...Child passed out...

For some reason, both kids would not fall asleep last night and were both up until midnight. So, I'm filling in. Sorry - I realize I'm not as cute....

Anyway, William got a "sorry, we don't like your invention" letter from a nature reserve down in FL. It's not stopping us though! We will revise what's he's done. We were very polite in our letter and stated that we will contact them again when we've made some changes. So, today we did a ton of research and will continue to do so. If anyone knows anyone who know anything about saving the sea turtles, send them our way! I'm sure he'll fill you in tomorrow.

And for your viewing pleasure, I found this webcam today. Will spent a good part of his day just watching....it's pretty fascinating.

Enjoy!

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pgc/9106

William's Mom and editor...

March 27, 2014 This time it's from Lilly, not William

Editors note: William is taking a break today. Lilly, his twin sister (older by 2 minutes) will be filling in....enjoy!

This is me last year riding Scooter

Hi! I'm Lilly, William's twin sister. He doesn't believe that I'm older than him. But I am - by 2 minutes! 

Let me tell you all about me! 

First, I extremely love dance! Me and mom are going to go see Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a ballet. I know some of the dancers. I know Sergio - he plays Romeo - he's my teacher. I know Heidi - she plays Lady Capulet - she's also my teacher. And I know Silvina! She is professional ballet dancer and she'll dancing Juliet. I'm VERY excited about seeing this. I hope I see some of my friends. Well, of course I will see Eli - Eli is my friend from dance. She is my teachers' daughter. Here's a picture of her: 

That's Eli

I have 2 lose teeth! 1 top molar to the right and one bottom canine to the left. 

I take voice lessons. I enjoy them. Someday I want to sing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. My teacher's name is Mrs. Goodrich. I like her. Did you know there is a street named after her in Clarence, NY? That is weird. Don't you think??

Today I went to the orthodontist because I needed my braces moved to a different spot on my teeth. It hurt when they took the braces off. The good news is, 1 or 2 more appointments I am getting my retainers! MY BRACES WILL COME OFF!!!!!! Ah, oh...It hurts, very bad! But, it's worth it.

School is going great! Although I get bored at times, I still pay attention. My teacher's name is Mr. Renzo and my ELA teacher's name is Mrs. Amoia. My average is a 94.25.

That's all I have. Maybe I'll do this again sometime. The next time I do, I'll have a surprise in stock for you....

Stay tuned 'til next time!

Be cool.....

Lilly  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmSbXsFE3l8

March 26, 2014 Crystals!

 http://video.about.com/chemistry/Borax-Crystal-Snowflakes.htm

That video above is about making crystal snowflakes using borax. You should try this out! It's really fun and only takes 1 night and a few minutes to crystallize.

Here's what borax is....the chemical name for borax is sodium tetraborate. The box below shows the percent of each element. Borax has boron in it. Boron is used for many things. Borax is in your detergent. Boron is used to control nuclear reactions. Boron is important food for all green plants. Boron is the metal section on the periodic table but is not a metal. It is a metalloid - it just thinks it's a metal. Boron is very confused and complicated. But, it makes crystals.

Percent composition by element

Element	Symbol	Atomic Mass	# of Atoms	Mass Percent
Sodium	Na	22.989770	2	12.056%
Hydrogen	H	1.00794	20	5.286%
Boron	B	10.811	4	11.339%
Oxygen	O	15.9994	17	71.319%

mixing in the borax

adding coloring

sit and wait

Hay!

crystal!

kinda all over the glass. 

a red one

This experiment actually worked!!!! I'll do more of these...

I went to ballet and chess today. 

I decided that I want to go to the spring chess/soccer program. I want try and go to chess competition. I want to ask my coach if I'm good enough. I have to play a lot of chess before I compete.  

In ballet I did some barre work. And we practiced our end of year dance. At the end of the year there is a [conservatory] show. We're in it! I'm excited about it! It'll be at Nichols school in Buffalo. People should come and see me! 

That's all for now...

Stay tuned 'til tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED...

This is from Lilly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk

March 25, 2014 Have a nice day!

Editor's note: I was looking around the internet - still trying to find a link between Autism and aliens. That in itself is a story.....I found this wonderful blog and asked the owner's permission to post it on here. I hope everyone goes over and gives it a read. It's very enlightening. Enjoy!

http://diaryofanalien1.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-i-wish-people-knew-about-aspergers.html


Here's a story (about me):

                                            William   

My name is William Carl Benz. I live in Angola, New York. Angola is near Lake Erie. We’re close to the lake. It’s just one block away, one drive away. I love living here because we get all four seasons - winter, summer, fall and spring.

It’s fun living near the lake. We can swim in it! I like playing in the parks. My favorite one is the state park. We take our bikes there. The playground is fun. There are a couple of slides. The beach is big and sandy and rocky. The water is cool and shallow, and sometimes deep. It gets deep when we go into the cold parts – very cold parts. We usually go there in the spring and fall because we don’t have to pay then.

My house is cozy. It’s big. I don’t really know how I feel about it. I just feel cold right now.

My favorite room is my bedroom. First of all, I have my own room. I don’t have to share.  My bed is comfortable. It has a lot of games in it. I have my own desk and nightstand. The nightstand has all my precious things in it and my sticker collection. The nightstand used to be Daddy’s when he was a little kid. That makes it special to me. It makes me feel better when my Daddy doesn’t snuggle me at night and I’m about to go to sleep. I feel safe in my bedroom.

I believe in aliens. At night, sometimes I think I see a couple outlines of shadows. I think there are monsters in my closet. I sleep with my teddy bear named Teddy, which I had since I was a baby and he helps me sleep. I like to set up security in my room at night and in my bed. I bring swords, guns and alarms in my bed – they’re toys. It’s in case I need to scare an alien or two. The toy guns are in case I have to shoot some darts at a few monsters. And you won’t want to scare me when I have a sword in my hand! I’m a fencer and I know how to fence.

Fencing is one of my favorite hobbies. Fencing makes me calm. Fencing also makes me excited.

My favorite books that I read is Geronimo Stilton. I like them because they are funny. The main character is a mouse. That's Geronimo. These books are fiction. They are adventure books. I have a collection of the books. And you hardly see any people except for the hardcovers. His hardcover books are in the kingdom of fantasy. It's a place where he ends up when he has a stomach ache.

I wanna talk about my family. My sister has wacky hair – the one that thinks she older. But, we're the same age! I love my mommy! My mommy cooks good food. My daddy? He works with computers. And then there's my big sister. My big sister is the coolest. Now for Brad. He's my big brother. He's more of a sith than a jedi. Just like I'm more of a jedi than a sith. My whole family? Both the White's and the Benzes? The Benzes are small – that's my Dad's side. And the White's are my Mom's side – they are HUGE! And I mean that side is big! I mean number of people. I think they're all cool.

William likes to:

Read

Watch tv

Play video games

Swing

Eat

Wrestle

Sleep

Time4learning

Chemistry

Fencing

Dancing

Chess

Good at:

Most of Above

Spanish

Chess

imagination

A work in progress....

My Imagination by William Benz

Where do I begin? Do you know what I said that? I have way too much in my head.

My imagination is big. It has all of outer space in it. It even has aliens in it, friendly aliens like from Star Wars.

I close my eyes and I see space gas stations. Which I have to say is pretty weird. Unless you have a star ship and run out of gas on the way to the Star Wars galaxy. It looks the same as any other gas station on earth. It is possible, except the people who work there are aliens.

I close my eyes and I see a lot of super heroes. One of them is Iron Man. Captain America too, Superman and Batman and all of the Marvel and DC super heroes.

I make up a few super heroes. They are a bit unusual. There are about 100 that I make up. One of them has the powers of a penguin, except he can shoot fish out of his flipper. Very unusual.

I close my eyes and I see lots of friends. I have multi imaginations for each friend. My favorite is where everybody meets. When we meet, we all fight super villains because all of my friends are super heroes.

I close my eyes and I see space thruways. I know that sounds pretty strange, but it's true. Personally, I have a star fighter of my own. I go visit my friends on Coruscant.  We fight the Sith. Apparently, we're Jedi.

I close my eyes and I see dragons. Some are evil and some are good. I lost track of them. I'll have to check in my imagination tonight and see where they are….

March 20, 2014 Spring Finally!

The weather outside was snowy although it was the first day of spring.

Today was the science fair! My jaw got a workout from talking. Everybody seemed to like my invention. Mrs. Eastman (principal) told me that she loves turtles, especially loggerheads. She has a tattoo of a loggerhead turtle on her wrist! She said that if there were prizes, I'd be in first place because I want to save her favorite animal! That made me happy! And the science teacher from high school recognised me from last year!

I got to see my friends Josh and Kaden. They had science experiments too. My favorite experiment was the one that Josh's brother was doing. It was kinda like a telephone, but it was a cup phone. It was 2 red solo cups attached by a string. You speak into the cup and the other person can hear your voice. There was a rock candy demonstration. Someone made rock candy from scratch! I wonder if it took awhile for the rock candy to harden. People liked Lilly's game too!


Here's some pictures from tonite. There were many people there.

That's all for now...

TO BE CONTINUED...

March 19, 2014 FINALLY

Editor's note: Didjya miss us?? Sorry - we've been busy working on our science fair projects. They are finally finished! Instead of William writing tonight, I'm posting short (5 minute) videos of each kid giving a presentation. This was mostly so I know, THEY know what they're talking about tomorrow night....Good luck, kids!

William's invention presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDll7Kf1UP0&list=UUmespFLVIr20hxV37o2orWg


Lilly's presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P83T0PJL-yo&list=UUmespFLVIr20hxV37o2orWg

Lilly's game for those who haven't tried it yet....:

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/18849369/#fullscreen


That's all folks...