He got up just after 6, a little stuffy. he went downstairs and read Pippi Longstocking with Carly. I made him oatmeal. Carly went to get ready, and he watched Max and Ruby while he ate. We got going right after 7:30. He had a hair clip in on the way to school, but when we got to his classroom it wasn’t in his hair. I asked where it was, and he said he took it out. He said he hadn’t dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found.
I rode home, then picked him up at 12. He ran to me, very excited. He had two red dots, both for knocking things off tables when he was upset.
We walked home. As we got close he asked, “When we move to another country, let’s live in a rich house.” When I asked why, he said, “So I can buy stuff by myself.” When I asked what he wanted to buy, he said maybe another iPad, although he didn’t explain why.
I had brought the bug catcher to him. He had me release the two beetles and their mushrooms in the park. We then walked to where he originally caught the big ant and released it there. He wanted a bee, and we looked around out the flowers. I caught a flying ant instead. He decided that wasn’t too interesting though and let it go after a few minutes.
When we walked in the house it was really quiet, and we noticed how echoey it was. The refrigerator wasn’t making any noise, and we didn’t have the heater on yet. For a second we thought the power was off. I made him a chocolat pancake and we also had corn crisps, pita, and hummus. He realized he could watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving so he did that. He asked “What’s ‘formal’ mean?” So that was a word of the day.
He got bored with that, then he asked me if there was such a thing as internet waves. We looked up wi-fi, and read about how they are radio waves. I then found a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum, and we discussed the chart. I talked about how there are cameras that let you see infrared, and scientists study x-rays and gamma rays with other scientific equipment that shows us those rays. Not missing a beat, August asked how we could see the infrared rays, s if the camera recorded them, they’d still be infrared when they came out of the screen. I thought that was incredibly insightful, because most people would just accept that it happens. So I explained how camera shifts the rays into the visible spectrum so we can see an approximation of what it would look like. We then found this cool video using an infrared camera:
He then jumped from that to asking if the heart runs on electricity and, if so, how does the body make electricity. We watched
Which for us basically said that electricity is produced through a chemical reaction.
We then used the iPad and Apple Pencil to draw a chart of ways that he can respond to frustration. He chose all the colors and brainstormed most of the good and bad reactions. He was pretty excited by it, and the idea that he could choose a different reaction that would get him a green sticker instead of a red.
He then made a “leftover soup”, although we’re running out of things we don’t want, given his prolific soup making of late. But we found enough, and left it for completion in the evening.
On the way to school the song “Murakami” played on one of his playlists. He requested it added to his playlist, then said he wanted to listen to it on the way home.
We walked into the school as Marion was taking kids to the bus. Lydia in particular said hi to him, and August asked, “Why is Judson stylish?” He was wearing sunglasses. Down in the classroom we found Anita and Simone. He was going to swim lessons, and August discussed swim lessons with her for a couple minutes. He claimed he would never take swim lessons. But that he would learn on his own when the temperature was warmer.
We found Eve and her mom, and we took Eve out to the playground. Taya came out with us for a few minutes, as Cassie needed to meet with the teachers, but Taya snuck back in and went to Cassie. August and Eve were playing in the swings, and gust was running around, and carried a chair to the boat thing and filled it full of chairs. Taya came back out as they were undoing and doing knots. Cassie came out and got Taya and they left, and August and Eve ended up down in the kitchen area. Eve was pretending that rocks were treasures, and he kept telling her they weren’t until I said, “Use your imagination.” He replied, “Oh. Imagination. I thought they were real.”
They were doing a lot of climbing on the kitchen stuff and shelves. August was trying to keep up with Eve. We then headed to the bigger playground. There, they kept up the climbing thing, and each of them kept telling me to look to see the next thing they were doing. I was trying to read, and told them they were supposed to be playing with each other, not impressing me with their climbing.
We headed to the auditorium and checked in with Heather. She was hanging art, and August got a couple of sticky things from her, which he then put on a tree outside. We had a few minutes, so we walked over to the nature reserve. we used the bug catcher and caught a tadpole and they looked at it together. We released it, and I think got a caterpillar to take. August was doing a great job sharing the bug catcher with Eve, although I could tell he was anxious about it. I could tell, and when she wanted to carry it on the way back I reminded him she’d be leaving in a minute and she wouldn’t take it with her.
We said goodbye, then he wanted to go back to the nature reserve. We did, and caught three tadpoles this time. We released them, caught something else, I think, and headed to Carly’s classroom just before 5. I can’t remember what he was talking about, but he asked, “Why are we not so impressed now?” Meaning we had been surprised by something the first time we saw it, but then it gets less exciting when you see it again and again.
As we got in the car he asked Carly, “When you retire, can me and dada go with you?” We didn’t know what he was talking about and asked. He pointed at the retirement home and said, “The retirement home.” So adorable.
We got home and Carly was going to make tempura. But she realized the soda water was just a bottle that we had refilled with tap water. So I quickly drove up into town and grabbed soda water and a couple of other things at the grocery store. Came back, and August ate some leftover sushi, then the tempura when it was ready. We read a couple chapters of The Witches. He then wanted Iggy Peck, Architect, but I said we could wait and check it out from the library.
When I said it was time to go take a bath he instantly got frustrated. We sat together and looked at the printed out version of the chart we made. He added ‘be a clam’ to it, by which he means curling up, his head down and his back up. Thought that was a great one, and he said he likes that. He was then able to do that, then after a minute offered a compromise, which is also on the good side of the list. He wanted to do an imagining game first. It was the one where he cooks the saber tooth tiger into a stew. He then picked every kind of veggie he could think of to put in the stew.
As he sat on the toilet he put toilet paper on the seat so he could drip his last drops of pee onto it. He said, “Dada, come! Look at my genius invention.” When he got off the toilet he said, “My foot is tickly.” His foot had fallen asleep. He compared it to “when we first came to Israel and I put my foot on that.” He pointed to the round plastic cover by the toilet. The incident he was remembering actually took place downstairs, and he claimed he had been shocked when he stepped on the plastic access cover. It has never happened again, although he told me he intentionally avoids it. Very odd.
Carly came up and took over after he brushed his teeth. I left them at 8:30.
Carly had talked to Vicky today. She said that August had announced “I’m leaving now” a couple minutes into literacy group. She told him her attention would stay here at the table. He left, but was soon back. They think a lot of his current behavior (knocking stuff off of tables) is an attempt to get more teacher attention, which is what he really wants.
Taking a chair to the boat:
Knots:
Running to the nature reserve:
Tadpoles:
Releasing the tadpoles:
I am… song:
Full outfit:
