He slept between us on the big bed. I squeezed in next to him when I went to bed, so he was right up against me. Sometime around 2 he woke up and asked to go to the bathroom. I took him, then Carly put him back to sleep on the lower bed. He was up at 6:35, right as I went in to take a shower. I came downstairs to find him asleep again on the couch.
He slept. And slept, and slept, and slept. I was afraid he had a cold. Finally, I started waking him up at 8:10. It took him a few minutes, but then he was full of energy and feeling fine. I got him ready to go quickly and we walked to school. I dropped him off about 8:50. We met the sub for Anna, another teacher named Ms. Karen. He wanted to look at the schedule, then he needed something to do, and I walked him around. The purplish clay was out, and I suggested he make a monster. He wanted me to help, but after half a minute he was working on it and I was able to leave. Blanka went over to talk to him as I left. It was the first time I’ve left and he hasn’t been with a teacher.
I went to the library and did a couple of things, then Carly came by at 9:15. We had a meeting in the elementary office with Shary, the principal, and Maaian, the preschool director. The meeting went well. They were open to more volunteering than 40 minutes a week, but just weren’t (mainly Maaian, was my impression) with how to do that. We came to some agreements on how to do so, which was good. Left unexplained was how, after being very clear with how we wanted me there for the transition, and Maaian being very clear about how I could be there weekly/daily from the beginning, we are now three weeks into his actually schooling and she hasn’t given me one concrete way to do so.
After the meeting I took the car down to the complex where Ace Hardware is. I went to the Apple retailer there and got a new charger and cable, and went and shopped at Fox. I thought I’d drive the back north way into town. The shortest route that way has been closed via court order for a couple months, necessitating a drive through north Even Yehuda, which is longer. Well, I get to that intersection to find that that one other road is now also closed due to construction. The short route is also closed, requiring that you drive a couple miles farther south again to get to the highway that I took in the first place. To make things even better, the street from our place up into town is still closed, making it harder to get to downtown for us.
I stayed at home until going to pick August up. Dealt with condo stuff, as our current tenant is moving out. Went to pick him up and got there a little early, so I sat on a bench in the tunnel area through the elementary school. It was one of the students that was getting ready to go to the bus that spotted me and told August I was there. He came out, nice and happy. Myriam was reading a story to the kids that weren’t going to the bus, but he wasn’t interested. Karen said he’d had a really good day. So we packed up his stuff and got a glue and glittery thing picture that he had made. We helped spread out the rest so they wouldn’t glue together.
We then went over to Bat-Chen’s classroom and had a Hebrew lesson. He had a lot of fun. His favorite part was a toy phone thing that would play back your voice to you. And the cookies, of course, which he said were a real treat. She asked him about school and what he did and he said he played “learning games”. She did a toy guessing game with him, which he didn’t quite understand at first. We need to play 20 Questions, I think. The toy was a little green and purple car she had in her hand. He liked getting it dirty in the marker on the board, then cleaning It with the eraser. At the end she gave him the car and we put it in his shorts pocket (mechonet ba kis – car in pocket) and then she wanted a hug. He gave her a good hug, and he said “That’s another present: love!”
לנו
We went to Carly’s classroom. He told her “I get really excited about little toys.” “Bat-Chen gave it to me as a present! I can keep it until it breaks!” We discussed preschool and he said “It was hard for me to stay on my bed.” And “I did end up getting two blankets for awhile.” When we asked how he got another blanket he said “They put it on the floor and left it…I sneaked and got it.” Carly asked if anyone got upset about him taking it: “Nope. I didn’t hear anyone cry.” “I had it for awhile. For a fair amount of time.”
We were in her classroom for a few minutes then got going. I realized we didn’t have his artwork so we headed back to Bat-Chen’s classroom. On the way we saw Jill, the youngest Kern sister. August was shy with her, and was whispering, although we don’t know what. The art wasn’t in the classroom. While Carly talked to her about the upcoming event on Friday August and I continued on to his classroom and found it. We left school at 4:30.
At home he had lots of energy. We played with a balloon. More talk of school: “I made a big star heart…I picked up a lot of clay.” He said they made invitations. They said “Please come to a tea party.” They talked about it in morning meeting. All the parents are invited and it will be June 1st. He was then going “Nah nah nah nah” He had learned that from Sophia when they were playing on the playground once. I was hoping he hadn’t paid attention to it. He hadn’t done it at the time, but he apparently remembered. Or heard it again at school. Also about school he said “One time, I played with Selma a fair amount…outside…we beed-ed kitty cats.” He said he didn’t ask any questions today but “I still learned…I forgotted it all.”
He then asked “Why is glass fragile?” “Why do different materials feel different?” We watched a video about why glass breaks when it is hot and you put water in it, then he asked about the size of particles. He also asked “Why can’t science tell us everything?” Size videos we watched were https://youtu.be/WK2uPF0t98w and https://youtu.be/isppUA0MZmw and we discussed testability in science.
He then had some oatmeal and watched Max and Ruby. Carly and I were using the microwave and water kettle and he got really upset he couldn’t hear the show. He finally was appeased when I let him restart the episode from the very beginning. In the bathroom he told me about the imaginative movement class (with the puppet). He said “We goed-ed to imaginary land.” And “Class is short now so we don’t have much time.’ They’ve divided them into two groups so they are smaller, but now only have 20 minutes with her. They started that last week.
Carly had gone up to rest and came back down and made him peanut butter honey toast. He asked about Jewish and Arab schools and then different cultures.
They went outside. He sprayed her. His consequence was coming inside and he was upset about that: “And besides, you can’t give more than one consequence!” When he calmed down a bit h went out on his own and didn’t want us to follow. Went to the hose at first, but then was picking up tree things on his own, then told us he’d been doing something nice. They did that a bit more, then it was up to a bath. Carly started. I finished dishes. I went up for a few minutes so she could do laundry, then she washed his hair, which didn’t go horribly.
He came downstairs with pink clay. Carly went to shower. We developed a game where one of us (first him, but then we switched) would hide an object in the clay, then the other person would dig it out. He had a museum exhibit going with several objects by the time Carly came down. He told her “We’re playing archeologist. Dada’s the erosion burying ancient things and I’m the archeologist digging up the objects and studying them.”
He said “Presenting…” several times today and we asked where that came from. He said Max and Ruby. Carly went up to bed. He ate some crackers and peanut butter. We talked about field trips, and that led to a d
iscussion of summer. I said some people do summer camps, but I think we’ll just be traveling and visiting people during his summers. When I mentioned visiting people, he said “Bat-chen?” I said no, in the United States. He was fine with that, but said “But no place with tornadoes.” I assured him it wouldn’t be the season. There was then lots of talk about black holes and galaxies etc. We read Sally’s Room. Discussed dolls and toys getting old.
Brushed his teeth and flossed. He went up to Carly at 9:21. But a bit later she got up to go to the bathroom and he escaped downstairs to me. He was ready to go up again a bit later, but Carly then brought him back down. I got ready for bed and went in with them. He was cuddled in my arms for awhile and quiet as I was falling asleep. He was really swiping at my alarm clock app and managed to share random text to Twitter. He went down with Carly and finally fell asleep about 10:30.
Leaving him at preschool:
