Tuesday, October 16: Library time

He came down right at 7. He lay on the couch for a bit, then watched Llama Llama. He talked about making the solar oven before we left but I told him we had to go to school. After he went to the bathroom, I reminded him to dry his hands. He apologized for not washing his hands, then said “Why do we say sorry? Why does sorry mean sorry?” It turned into. Silly “Sorry is sorry means sorry…” sort of discussion. We were then talking about how many water bottles he has and he said, “One for every kind of condition. Condition! Word of the day!” And as we walked out the door he had dropped a piece of bubble wrap from the Ikea furniture on the floor and he said “Bye bubble wrap! See you after school!”

Got to his classroom at 8:05. He saw Andrea and Juhyeok in the art room and went in to see what they were doing. Getting a big piece of paper for something. We then walked outside with them and I was able to say goodbye and leave. I grabbed a few more books at the library free shelves and headed home.

Came back at 2:10 for library time. Eve and August both held my hands for part of the way up. Ilana read Harold and the Purple Crayon and A Picture for Harold’s Room. August sat on my lap this time. He ran out to look for a book and chose Richard Scarry’s Cat Family’s Busy Day. I was excited to see it was a Richard Scarry book. We haven’t read enough of those books.

We walked back to class with Andrea and 3 other kids. August was very clear in telling her “I don’t want to do the goodbye time.” Which was fine, as they don’t do that on Tuesdays.

We went out and sat on the bench. He had mentioned wanting to look at Amazon to find words of the day. He claims we found words on their before, but I don’t remember that. Anyway, he mentioned it this morning, and now remembered. I pulled up Amazon and he searched for something random and found something that was a manual: “Manual! Word of the day!”

Carly had asked Israel Cassie about playing with Taya and she had told us that Grace would be babysitting Taya after school. When I first mentioned the idea to August he wasn’t too interested. But after a few minutes on the bench, when he saw Cassie picking up Taya, he changed his mind. We quickly packed up and headed after them.

They went to Cassie’s classroom, a small room downstairs in the round library building, and Cassie went in another room for her meeting. Grace had her friend Hayoon their. After a few minutes Taya suggested hide and seek. August was the first seeker. It was a small room, so quick rounds. When he went to look he saw “Movement!” And was excited to find people that way. He didn’t like to hid though, particularly as Taya counted really fast. He helped Grace be the seeker one round.

Then they were lying on the big pillows in the room and Taya was screeching. Cassie poked her head through the back door and asked them to be quieter or at least move the center of gravity to the other end of the room. August asked, “Center of gravity?” She explained what she meant. He replied, “I think we should just lower the volume.” He told Grace “I love tickle monsters…But I hate when people tickle me!” And then he thought it was hilarious when Grace was poking Hayoon and saying her name to wake her up when she was pretending to sleep.

Cassie had told them to take Taya to the cafeteria to get a snack. So we went as well. Along the way, three other 7th graders, two of whom had Carly, I think, saw Grace carrying a “Baby” and came to visit. One of them tried to tickle August or something, and he ran away giggling. He then gave them high fives. Reminded me of Korea. While Grace and Taya talked to them for a minute he was then doing some dancing in a circle.

We went inside and I read popsicle flavors, and he chose coconut strawberry. We sat at a 4th grade table (August told them they should sit at the 7th grade table, but they told him there wasn’t a 7th grade table) and they ate their popsicles. I noted how quiet he and Taya were, and he agreed it was a good way to get him to be quiet if he was too loud.

We talked to Hayoon a little about Korea. We had actually lived in Korea longer than she has, as she’s only lived there 4 years. She was born in Amsterdam. Lived someplace in the south of Korea. As we left the cafeteria Grace was calling him something, and then he remembered “Nubby!”

We went back to the room, and August mainly sat and played with all the little ‘treasures’ that Cassie has on the table. Little fidget sort of toys. He climbed up on the low bookshelves and played with them and used my phone to take photos. Cassie came back, and we left about 4:20.

We headed to our bench outside the library. We played the preschool game with him wearing headphones and building things (iPads, etc.) and giving them to the preschool. We went in to use the bathroom by the library. While sitting on the toilet he reached over and squirted two squirts of soap on the floor. He said, “Soap on the floor. Slugs.” In his StoryBots voice.

He asked to go down the elevator, so we did that. In the echoey place he made some noise, then we did time lapse and slo-mo videos of him walking and running around it. It was now close to 5 and I was trying to convince him it was time to go home. He was grumpy, as he didn’t want to go. So I talked him into going to Carly’s classroom at 5. There, he read a big sign that the kids had painted that says “Welcome” (for Get to Know You Day) and then read a sign by the door that said “Post-its are your friends”

He wanted the car home and was upset when we didn’t have it. Once on the bike though things went fine. We were home at 5:30 and he watched Pink Panther, then ate stew for dinner. He discussed preschool with Carly and told her that he had played with gears in makerspace today. Regarding taking photos of the kids’ work, he said they said he could only take photos of things he makes. That is kind of disappointing. He then wanted Carly to make something so he could take a photo of it.

He told us “I ate almost all the food in my bowl, so can I have popcorn?” I told him that ‘almost’ was the key word, and Carly said that that was ‘Approaching standard’ on the rubric. He exclaimed, “Approaching! Word of the day!” He ate the rest of the soup and got his popcorn.

He ate some, then I took him up for a bath. As he got in the bath he sang “After I show my bubbles how to walk, and talk, and eat, and bop…” It was nonsense words after that, but all of it was to the tune of Pink Panther. He wanted to wash my feet, so I put a foot up on the side of his bath and he washed it. He asked, “Why do parents have dry feet and kids don’t.” He said the bath was too cold so I poured hot water in one end. He really liked having it warm on one end Nd cold on the other.

After we got out he wanted to draw molecules. He said “Paper molecules are pretty easy.” We went in on the bed and read the Richard Scarry book and the first couple chapters of Magic Tree House #32. He then went crazy taping things with his roll of tape: He taped my hand to the Eric Carle animal book. A raisin to the dresser. Two pieces of tape where the drawers meet and he said “X marks the spot.” And he taped the iPad charging cables to the top of the dresser. I asked him if there was anything funny at school and he said Judson acting like a pig. He then taped the toothbrush to my hand as I brushed his teeth: “Thats so funny!” He was doing lots of laughing and said of the tape “It’s important to me!” And called it “Love tape.”

Carly came in to put him to sleep. I left them at 8:30. He told her that sometimes they do science experiments at school. He does them unless it is building a tower out of cups because he doesn’t need to do that. He’s also learned the primary colors. Carly asked what they were and he said, “Red, blue, and yellow. But I know you know that.” He was asleep around 9.

Hide and seek with Grace and Taya: