He was up at 6:30. He went downstairs with Carly and got his shoes on and they went outside for their morning time together. He then had chocolate milk with her and cuddled on the couch. She headed to work and he watched a couple Aardvark and Ant cartoons.
We were moving nice and early, before 6:40. Along the way, he asked about how it wouldn’t work well if there were two million students and only one teacher. I told him that class size matters and he said, “Class size matters? Word of the day!” When we got to school he sort of got separated from me as we walked through the gate. A woman we’ve seen before, but I’m not sure who she is, got between us and August sort of ran in front of her to get to me. She commented on how cute he is, saying she would have eaten him up by now.
Down at the classroom he said he’d go in to see what was happening, then tell me. They were about to start meeting, so I was able to say goodbye and leave.
I worked on the book cover during much of the day. Got back to check in with him before dance class. Gave him half a Balance Bar to eat as he’d eaten some of his lunch. He thanked me and said goodbye. I could go out to my bench even though he had a few minutes left until dance class. Amelia came by and I told her August had decided to do half of dance class. But that if he didn’t say anything he could stay longer.
As I sat on the bench, studying, Andrea came and told me he and Lydia were getting upset with each other. She had taken his hat and he got upset and was kicking at her and she was hitting at him. Miriam had broken it up and although he calmed down quickly he was still visibly upset. On Friday he had been upset when she moved his plant without his permission. I told her how he had complained about Lydia last night, so clearly there was something he was frustrated about. On the positive, he had been playing with Candy. She was lying down, pretending to be sick and he put the blanket on her and was pretending to call the doctor. He was also playing with Judson today.
I also told her and Marion about August asking why they ask so many questions, and how that was funny as Marion had been talking at the meeting she was in on Friday with Carly (about questioning) about how they are asked so many questions by the students.
He stayed for all of dance. At the end he said to Amelia, “Oh, I was supposed to leave halfway.” I told her that with him it seems like often he just needs to know he has the option and he isn’t forced to do something, then it is okay.
We sat and discussed Lydia. He wouldn’t tell me what happened directly, but allowed me to guess. I suggested she was trying to play when she took his hat. He said he liked it when Sophia took his hat, although it sounded like Sophia had maybe asked for his hat. But he seemed understanding that she could have been trying to play. I suggested he say hi or sorry to her tomorrow, and he came up with the idea of waving to her.
He said he wants to take a Bob Book to school. Yaya had brought one and read it to the class. He said he didn’t want to read it to the class, but wanted to bring it anyway. We spotted a beetle walking across the ground and he asked me to take a video of it. Had fun doing a time lapse and regular videos. We then played the preschool game and he was a deerfox (from Hilda) that he said was named Fia who came in the classroom.
Carly arrived at 4:45. As we walked up the stairs to leave he said, “Kindergarten has a dollhouse. But that’s easy!” He thought that kindergarten only did hard stuff. As we walked home, Carly was telling me about a project they are planning for their students about refugees. August was listening and said “‘Refugee’ is the word of the day. What does it mean? Tell me an example.”
Closer to home he told the “what do you call a train that sneezes? Achoo-choo train” joke, then started telling nonsense versions of it, each getting more and more nonsensical. By then end they were repeating themselves self-referentially. It reminded me of when he would make up something and then tell me what language it was in, then make up something else and say it was a different language, etc. And we stopped by the kindergarten along the way and he tossed a toy drill and another piece of something back through the fence from the park side.
At home he was singing “put it on your back now, put it on your back now and turn yourself around…” Must have been from dance class. He added more tape to his magnet kit booklet. He told Carly “The teachers weren’t impressed with my invention…I put magnifying glass on your ears to make things louder…they walked away.”
Carly made cauliflower and mushrooms and I made a batch of sauce without sun-dried tomatoes for him. He had pasta and sauce and cauliflower for dinner. Carly was working, so I gave him a bath, then got him ready for bed.
I tried to get him to sleep a little earlier, and managed the lights out by 8:15. Before that we played with the kaleidoscope cards. He asked, “How did we start thinking of those August and Teegan stories?” I told him it was on our trip up to New Hampshire, but I’d have to look up what started them. We talked more about Lydia and this was when he said he could wave. He wanted a story, but I said it was too late. He told me “You can definitely be nicer than this and you aren’t.” We compromised as I started to make up a theme song for our adventurer stories. He also told me “Mama says I can always talk about preschool but nothing else. Do you? Thank you!” I think he just told me one small thing about preschool, but it was an example of where he likes to know he has the option to do something. He was asleep by 8:50.
Making up musical keys:
Beetle time lapse:
Voyage of the beetle 1:
Voyage of the beetle 2:
Voyage of the beetle 3:
His nonsense jokes:
He took this photo of a garbage can
Stuff he threw back through the fence
Kaleidoscope cards
