He was up at 7:30. I heard him whispering something. I went up and turned off the air conditioner and he threw himself back down on the bed. He lay there for a couple minutes. I asked how he was doing and he gave me a thumbs up.
One Ollie and Moon (about the Grand Canyon). He then hid from me as I tried to comb his hair. He got a straw and played it like an instrument. He asked me “What’s volunteering?”
While walking to school , he started counting backwards from 30 on his own. That led me to sing our ZYX song, which then reminded him of “the other letters”. He meant punctuation, and after we named off most of them we started started making a punctuation song.
Dropping off August went okay. He eventually went and sat next to Anna. Nicholas was on her lap and the were reading a book about chameleons. I left him before 8:50 and went and met with Hilla, the new HR director (they didn’t have one before). She still has a temporary office in a conference room. Good news, as her reading of the situation and SOFA is that I do, indeed, have a working visa and can go ahead and get a job.
I then went to the library and worked until his class showed up at 10:30. They returned their books, and then crowded into a spot between the shelves (like where August and I will sit and read or do art on the ipad and read stories. August had trouble with wanting to play with the pillows and roll around on the ground, so a couple of times I had to take him away from the group. No Ilana with them today, so it was Myriam and one of the subs. Blanka and Emmitt are both moving away, so Myriam had the whole class walk around and say goodbye to the library and Ilana.
I then walked back with them and had fun volunteering while they played with water stuff. Talked to Marion a lot. They have two Arab Israeli students next year and she’s excited about that. Told her about Ramallah and she said that as embassy staff she can’t even visit Tent of Nations.
She also told me that one day there were boys playing a game at the light table and August came over and wanted to play. They said they didn’t want him in the game and August said “Oh yeah. Well I’m the size of a molecule. You can’t even see me! I’m already in the game.”
This came after Anna told me that on Friday they are going to sneak around the PKA and PKC classrooms while they are at their pool party. She said the kids like to sneak and I told her about the stories he tells you of being a molecule and sneaking around.
Oh, and the best moment, as she was talking about making independent kids, was when she said “maybe we are making kids that are pains in the neck” and then couldn’t remember the English word for ‘grade’, which shows you what she thinks of assigning grades.
When I left, August told me to “Run” – I think so it wasn’t as hard on him. I was back at 12:50. He was outside, finishing lunch, and he was singing for/with Omri. He also sang “Hurray it’s your poop poop, we’re happy you poop.” to the tune of “Hurray, it’s your birthday…”
We went to the big playground at one point he initiated a conversation by saying “Think of all the kids that don’t go to school.” “I’m lucky to live close to a school, right?” We mainly played the tiger trap game, where I would be the trap capturing the tiger, then we would act out the Magic Treehouse scene where they find the tiger and free it. We did this many times, then left after 2. Played around with the water fountain, then he saw Mike and ran to him and asked if he’d seen the elephant. August said “I saw it with my supersonic eyes.” And he asked “What’s a thousandth of a second?” We’ve discussed milliseconds recently.
We headed to the cafeteria to get some pizza. In the entrance to the cafeteria we talked to a tall woman who knew who he is, but I don’t remember who she is. We talked about learning Hebrew and he said “Lehitra Oat! That means see you later!” Told her how he was four now and liking preschool. She said she had a theory that we turn into real people at four and she could see that with him.
We got a small pizza with olives on it and I got a cappuccino. We sat at a table and ate our pizza. We discussed Yaya’s nickname and Opa’s, and discussed our upcoming visiting this summer. He asked how fast rockets travel, and just as we started discussing the slingshot effect Mandy and Matt showed up. He told them about his country of tontilifon and his other universe, after discussing multiverses. Mandy told him about a tornado machine she has in her classroom and he was intrigued by that.
When we were done, we walked back to the preschool. He saw Omri walking up to go to the bus and he yelled “Omriki!!!” and ran over to her and she gave him a hug. Marion told us there was something in his cubby and we went down and found the party favor bag from Omri’s birthday. I let him have part of the Twix in it. He said “That was really nice of Omri!” We looked at the art they had hung on the wall – his digestive system and wind gauge (the compass rose thing). He then found a wire with a couple beads on it that someone had left. It ends were simply wrapped around each other and came apart. He then practiced twisting wires together.
For Hebrew class it was just him and Maya with Myriam. They stayed downstairs in PKA. I did some work on my iPad until Myriam gave us all popsicles and we ate them outside. We sat in the grass, but then the two kids went and sat on a picnic table. I mentioned to her how he was really into names and nicknames now and she said she once called him ‘sweetheart’ and he looked at her and asked “You call me sweetheart?”
They went back inside and did a little more class, and I talked to Maya’s mom about teaching history (she’s also a high school history teacher). I put a new water think on the cooler and we filled his water bottle. We then forgot his bottle and we went back a minute later. He wanted to play with the K’Nex, but I told him the preschool was closed. Maaian told him “The preschool is going to sleep.” He liked that and kept repeating it and asking how that was possible.
Back up the stairs he saw Mike walking across the grass and August sprinted out towards him to ask if he’s seen the elephant. Carly was supervising the 8th grade lock-in, and we went and found her on the way to the field. August found a little pointy broken tip to a mechanical pencil and was using it and dry leaves to destroy spider webs. Spent a few minutes with her, then we headed to activity class.
Class went well. The owner’s two kids were there, along with August and Etai. I had August’s re-enrollment paperwork to fill out, so I sat and did that most of the time.
After class we walked to the park. He blew the bubbles that were in the gift from Omri. A kid was chasing them, and August liked that. August then went up and was blowing them off the play structure. There was a girl that he was trying to get to play with the bubbles, but she apparently didn’t like bubbles as she kept ignoring them. He found a couple rocks that broke easily, and we had fun smashing them. The best was dropping a brick on one to break it apart. He went in the round spinning thing and I rocked him back and forth and we talked about ball bearings. He was then hitting a tree with a rock and realized he could break through the soft bark to see the green layer underneath. He wanted to keep doing it, but I wouldn’t let him.
We finally left after 6:15. He kept playing with his little poker thing, pushing it into the handles of his bike. At a vacant lot, he jumped off and started playing with some old flower pots. He dumped the dirt out of one and it was solid as a rock nd he was trying to break it apart. He started singing “Im a poop, I’m a poop, I’m a big brown poop…” Instead of bear. He found a leaf from a plant and said “whoa, that’s a succulent… It’s juicy on the inside so that’s a succulent.” At one point
he told me “I want to play here forever.” He then was making a cake: “I’m so happy when I find ingredients.” He got a tiny sliver in his hand. We washed it off with water, but then he was just getting muddy. We left after 6:45.
He had been noticing when he saw older kids walking by themselves and would ask “Where is that boy’s mama and dada?” So he decided that “When I feel okay to walk up to the park by myself I’ll be 26.” As he got older he would feel okay to walk farther – to the mall, to Tiv Taam, to Ikea, until eventually the other side of the world. But that would be when he was 988 years old or something like that.
We walked by the treasure hunt park, and about a block past it he counted another cat, 4. A few seconds later he said “That’s Shmorgadeboop!” It was, as you can tell by the damaged ear.
We were home at 7:20. The last few blocks we talked about expectations when we went in: not crazy, nice to mama, and inside voice. He had them memorized, but then he was crazy when he went in and had to do it again.
For some reason we were talking about love and I told him the things I loved: reading, etc. He said “and learning?” We ate veggie burgers and he wanted me to teach him about Palestinians: “how they live?” I taught him about the border wall and how we’d see it on Saturday. He wanted something else interesting and when I took a few seconds he said “You’ve read a lot of books about Palestinians. Did you forget?”
He was also asking “Who’s Zohar?” (Omri’s sister) and we read some Magic Treehouse.
Carly took him up to his bath. He made a map of Israel on the floor out of towels and socks and random things. It even had Omar’s house on it. Out at the guitar he ws strumming all the calls on it and filling our house with animals, etc.
I left them at 8:55, then I went up at 9:20. Sang to him, then he wanted Carly. She was up at 9:50 and he was asleep soon after.