When I went upstairs to go to bed I heard a whistling noise. It was August whistle-snoring. Quite loud. He woke up once during the night: “Dada, could I please have the chapstick?” I got if for him, he put it on, then lay back down and went back to sleep. In the morning it took me a few extra minutes to get up as he rolled over and put his arm around me.
He was awake right at 7. I went up to greet him and I went in the bedroom to turn off the heater. As I followed him down the stairs, he said, “You can keep sleeping.” I said that sounded good, but I was already up. He watched something and we got going in good time. He played with his toilet paper rolls for a few minutes. On the walk to school he was singing a song about honey bees. At first is was more of a rap, but when I asked to film it he put it to a tune that he’s used before.
Got to school a few minutes before the bell. They were already meeting. It finally clicked for me: they are starting meeting as soon as they bring the bus kids in. Since at least 11 of the 13 kids are here by then (10 on the bus, then Eve is dropped off early–only August and Candy are left), they have decided to go straight to meeting so there’s one less transition. So I think we’ll try to turn our alarms a bit earlier in the morning and get there when the busses drop the kids off.
I rode my bike home, then rode back for library time. When I came in August was helping to decorate a birdhouse the kids had made out of pieces of wood, and which Marion said was glued together with hot glue. August later, at home, talked about how we needed a hot glue gun to glue things together, like rocks.
We walked them over to library time. Reia’s mom wasn’t there today, so Marion and Andrea accompanied them to library time. Ilana read a book called Whistle for Willie, then had the kids try to whistle. Lydia was starting to get it, and I gave her a high five. The kids had been kind of crazy with the trying to climb up on the benches at the beginning, and I took August aside to remind him he needs to follow the rules. He had then gone and sat next to Andrea during library time. He curled up in a ball on the floor for the songs and chants, but then sat up and paid attention to the story. During checkout time he chose Will Sheila Share?.
August followed Marion and the kids for the bus and joked with her that he was riding the bus today. We then headed down to pick up Taya. August ran right past PKA to go and get her. Took some time to help her find her doll’s bottle, and her water bottle in the classroom. Meanwhile, August had gotten scissors and was cutting grass again. Once they were out on the playground I went back and got August’s stuff.
We sat and ate snacks, and Taya had a bunch of little Christmas tree ornaments that she originally claimed were from home, but turned out to be from in the classroom. She called them her “Keys” and had them hanging from her finger. I read Will Sheila Share? to them a couple times.
They played in the car, and August sang a full song about how sound comes in the ear and hairs move and a signal goes to the brain. We went on the big swing and August wanted me to be a baby and they were pushing me in it and singing “Rockaby Baby”. August got out the telescope that he had made out of a paper towel roll, yesterday, I think and played with that. They were starting to get a little hyper and I was talking to them about being nice to me when Cassie showed up. They repeated the behavior with her and we had to talk to them again.
They left a little after 4 and we followed them up, trailing behind. He played with a line keeping people off some of the grass. Carly had brought the car and was going to drive to the store. Outside the inside gate August started finding snails in the bushes and played with the ants. We had a debate about how to treat the snails and ants and he said he didn’t like my voice. I explained it was because I didn’t like being mean to the animals (he had just been throwing snails in the air). He agreed to be nice to them. When he was telling me I shouldn’t tell him how to play with the animals he told me, “That’s what my teachers say: be in charge of yourself.”
We then got walking and he then stopped again once we had crossed the traffic circle. He was finding more snails, and found a plastic cup and got about ten snails to take home, along with some leaves. We talked about where to put them at home, and settled on his bug catcher.
We were home at 5:20. I found the bug catcher and we put in the snails and he started watching Max and Ruby. Carly got home just a couple minutes after we did. He wanted to playa little Math Tango Space and asked me to get his notebook again so he could write down evidence. We played that a bit. Carly was making stir fry noodles, and after August had the last of the spaghetti, he then ate some stir fry. He told me, “The chemicals in my lab are so beautiful…Once I made pasta that was rainbow sparkly…” Carly headed upstairs for awhile.
I was looking at news and told him that NASA had found evidence of water in an asteroid. He then told me all about water in the solar system: “Venus is the wettest…the driest is the moon.” I took a video of part of his explanation of how he’s exploring the solar system and searching for water with his instruments. And he talked about how he was bringing water back to Earth: “The Earth has a meltdown that going to happen in two decades…Because we don’t have enough water to give to people on Earth because there’s 14 billion people on Earth.” He had me taste the water he’d brought back, saying it tasted like the place it comes from. His idea of a planet needing water/food from someplace else and facing a collapse comes from a story he had me tell him a couple weeks ago, where he wanted an alien exploring a different planet. Coincidentally, it also comes up in Prelude to Foundation, by Asimov, which I am currently rereading, but haven’t talked to him about.
I remembered that NASA has lots of videos and suggested he might like them. We watched part of the current spacewalk on the ISS, live, and then a video of the Soyus MS-10 launch failure. We made ‘trajectory’ and ‘failure’ words of the day.
Realized it was late, and I took him up for his bath. He played in the sink for awhile, then I washed him. In the bedroom he complained that he wanted me to put him to sleep, as I tell more stories. He told Carly, “You kind of love me too much cuz then you fall asleep with me too much. Sorry, mama.” I told him a quick preschool story about him stopping an asteroid, but he wasn’t entirely happy with it. He was tired though, and I left them at 8:40 and he was asleep about 9.
Honey bees song:
Silly noise with Taya:
Singing about hearing:
On the big swing:
Discovering water in the solar system:
Decorating the birdhouse
