He was up at 7:05. He slowly woke up on the couch and watched two stories of Ollie and Moon, ending with the Smigus Dingus one (the Polish holiday where they throw water on each other), which he’s already seen. He would talk about it several times during the day. As we got ready to go he said “I’m thinking of made up rhyming words that make ing.” He also sang a little song: “I was running in a button store / I fell down and broke a button.”
We were walking right after 8:40. He joked he had cancelled school because peanuts had been found on campus. I dropped him off at 8:15. We discussed schedule and then when I was trying to leave he asked “Can a teacher hold me?” Anna came back with clay stuff and put it on a table and he asked her “Can you help me?” I sat him on a chair and was able to say goodbye and leave.
I talked to Marion about leaving him through rest time. She strongly thought that wasn’t a good idea, and in fact we decided I should pick him up a few minutes earlier so he isn’t wandering around at the beginning of rest time. She said she thinks the reason he is good/happy at that time is because he knows he is being picked up – that he’d go back to being upset again if he had to stay through rest time.
That works just fine for me. I just have Maaian’s voice in the back of my head and the insistence that he should go full time. But I’m much happier listening to the teachers and going on what they want. I’m curious what Maaian thinks about all this and if she’s said anything to them. Although I don’t really want to know.
I worked in the library, then went back to the preschool to volunteer at 11. They were finishing up a birthday book story from Nicholas’s birthday, which had been after snack. They then had me work with the word factory – having kids copy down words for the tea party book. Yaya and Juhyeok came and worked with me first, copying down words like ‘bees’ and ‘honey’ and ‘apple cobbler’. The two of them and Selma then copied the whole alphabet out, because they wanted to (Yaya started the idea). It was a lot of fun, and I used some of the same phrases to help them draw letters as I had with August when he was learning them. K, in particular, a couple had trouble with, so I wa showing them “Line down, sideways V, turns to K.” August, meanwhile, had a little difficulty as he wanted my attention, but he didn’t want to copy down words. He settled down pretty well to my right though, playing with the magnetic letters and making cranes and pulleys out of the strings and magnet pencil things for the ABC boards.
When it was time for lunch I got his lunchbox for him and told him I’d see him after lunch. He headed out the side door, I did a little cleanup, then left and went up to a bench in the center grass area and ate my own lunch.
I went back at 12:50 and they were still finishing up lunch. So I stayed outside with the ones that were being slow, which included August. They had introduced me as ‘Mr. Ryan’ today, the first time, I think, so it was funny to be called ‘Mr. Ryan’ about a hundred times. As we were finishing up, Selma called dome ‘Mr. Clown’. Anna thought that was funny, and Omri and August got into the act of calling each other funny names. August called me “Mr. root of a tomato plant.” Anna really thought that one was funny.
He and I got going at 1:05, and something he did yesterday was take water in his mouth with his water bottle and ask if he could spit it on the ground. I would say yes to the dirt, etc. I called it his water language since he could just point and mumble. So today he said “I will ask to spit in water language.”
We went up to our usual bench spot. August continued the silly name calling with random people as they walked by or he saw them off in the distance. He called out to some teenage girls walking by “Hey, Ms. Annas.” Others were “Hey Ms. Althauser.” “Hey, drinking fountain.” “Hey, Ms. Mike.” Then “Ms. Bat-Chen”. It was actually her. She stopped and talked for a minute. We discussed the Hebrew message and video that Shmuel had sent me on WhatsApp and she let August try the rice cake she was carrying. He said “It tastes like a rice cracker.” And didn’t like it. He was also wanting to call people “Ms. tusic” and other names like that, but luckily no one was close when he called those out, and I was able to stop him from using ones like that.
We went into the library, among the stacks again, and did some iPad art. Some more dot connecting, and some teasing game, then he drew a picture for Carly’s fake birthday. He drew a picture of a toilet for her, which was perfect, and filled it with pee. In explaining it he said “There’s a tank in the toilet to pee and poop in. I love you! Best friend! Toilet!” Wasn’t clear if he meant Carly was the best friend, or the toilet, and to whom. A class came in went in for library time. A girl gave him a high five. I thought it might have been one of the Kerns (well, Jill) or Omri’s sisters but August said it wasn’t one of them.
We then headed to the cafeteria. Got an iced cofffee for me, a hot chocolate for August, and a cappuccino for Carly. We took them to Carly’s classroom and as we went in he yelled “Happy fake birthday, Ms. Althauser!” She said it was good timing as she’d just finished an hour-long meeting with Ayal about the department next year. I told her about my volunteering and he said he wanted to learn how to draw a K: “I forgotted.” She showed him, and he made up some letters. I’d been reading (in the Already Ready book Maaian had loaned me) how kids normally develop writing skills, and one step is making up letters as they pretend to write. August was into making up languages for a long time (and still sort of is) and has made up some On Beyond Zebra letters, but I was wondering if he’d get into making up ‘real’ fake letters and now he sort of was.
He also told Carly about the crossing guards slowing down traffic on the way to school. He was then a student in her fake class. Carly named off some random names and he chose Hildegard. Carly tried to call him Hildy and he made it clear “Hildegard, not Hildy.”
A little after 3, he and I headed to the pool. Spent about 40 minutes in. He sat on the steps and played with the watering can for awhile, then I got him in with me. For the last 10 minutes or so I took off his floaties again and he played around that way. We went and changed in the bathroom, then stopped and were playing ping pong.
Carly had driven the car today so she could go to the store. By chance we were leaving as she was. He saw her across the grass, ahead of us and yelled “Ms. Althauser!” She didn’t turn around, and as she was about to go out the gate he started screeching “Mama!” She turned around, but didn’t realize it was August until she saw him.
Carly asked if he wanted to go to the store, so they left in the car and I walked home. They went over to the mall. They were back a little after 5:30. He had been upset about not playing at the mall after shopping, and I guess shopping wasn’t the greatest. He continued to have a meltdown as he remembered the blueberry brains and wanted to eat that – before dinner. Got him to eat some mushrooms and milk using the usual reverse psychology, then he had oatmeal and mango. He was now doing fine.
I took him up for his bath, then we were going to have the dessert. He threw a balloon of water on my shorts though after I told him not to. I switched with Carly and took over the dishes. Sadly, things continued to go downhill. He hit her, so she said he couldn’t have a blueberry brain. That completed the meltdown, as he pleaded with her: “I’ll be nice!” But then he fell asleep, naked, at 7. Really what he needed. We managed to get clothes on him later.
Earlier discussed what kids liked. He at first said there wasn’t anything specifically he liked. But then he said science. I asked about art and po
ttery. He said “Art and pottery…definitely.”