He got up at 6:20. He and Carly read the Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat book and Short Stories for Little Monsters. And he played a little with the Legos. He ate oatmeal and watched Max and Ruby. He then came and talked to me, with a few minutes left before we had to get ready, and asked how rockets turn. We discussed that, and he remembered Monster Physics on the iPad and wanted to play. He played for a few minutes, creating a set of 8 rockets, then adding more and more weight to it, trying to see how much it could hold and still lift off.
We got walking right after 8:30. As we walked he asked, “Is outer space clear like the atmosphere, or is it black?” He was identifying minivans and SUVs, then categorizing cars by their trunks, sedans or hatchbacks.
We got to school and walked in before the bus kids. For the first time he asked why the bus kids have to sit on the benches while they wait for everyone to show up. We went down to the classroom and had a couple minutes before they showed up. The snacks were ready for shared snack, and Eve was making a sign to tell people not to touch them yet. August was working with a popsicle stick to get out a glass tile stuck between the layers of glass of the overhead projector. It was getting stuck on a metal lip. I tried to help him, but they were getting ready to go out to the playground. I told him it would have to wait. I said goodbye and he headed out with them.
I rode home, worked, and rode back. Andrea said there had been some small things today, but all small. No major upsets. She put down one red dot. So that meant he got his reward three times this week—his best week of 2019. Woohoo! Marion told me they were starting to look at the profile of a learner, and were now talking about what it meant to be a “responsible and caring citizen”. She asked me how August will clean up at home. Not his favorite activity, but I guess he won’t really clean up at school. They were all cleaning up at the moment. several kids had competing brooms and dustpans and were arguing about whose pile of sweepings was whose. It seemed like they’d just been told to clean up, so I wasn’t surprised August wasn’t doing anything. I pointed out scrap paper on the floor and asked him to pick that up, and he did.
Lydia came up to me and told me that August had been mean to her. She said she had tried to tickle him and he had hit her. I told her that August really doesn’t like to be tickled, and I had him say sorry and practice telling her he doesn’t like to be tickled.
He first wandered over by the elementary school and found the palm tree he’d played with the other day. He got a nut, then found he could rub it on the ground and bricks and scrape off the outer layer, and sort of paint with it.
For his reward he was to get something from the cafeteria. But first we had to wait until the lunches were over. So first we headed to the science fair. Carly had just finished judging and now it was the open time. We went in and saw one on biomass energy—a power source that August hasn’t learned about. Carly then showed up as we were looking at a project about making a hydropower generator. She then took August as they looked at another one, then the one about making paper from guinea pig poop. We looked at two or three after that before August had had enough. We looked at one where they were trying to filter salt out of water, and August chimed in with his own theory about which material was the most effective.
We headed out and said goodbye to Carly. As we walked out through the tunnel, a teenage girl right by us said “Oh my god” to someone. August heard her, and repeated it, mimicking her voice. quite well, actually. I changed it to “Oh my gosh” and he copied me, luckily, as he kept practicing his teenage girl voice.
We went into the cafeteria. Still high school lunch. I’d forgotten they had ice cream bars, and August found those right away. I was thinking of a popsicle, but oh well. I was surprised to find that they cafeteria was selling them to students though, as it was the PTA’s understanding that treats aren’t being sold until after 3.
So August and I got an ice cream cone bar and also an avocado sandwich to share. While we were waiting to pay we saw Gabby and August joked with her. She was wearing the grey shirt from school like Carly has, and he accused her of breaking into our house and stealing his mama’s shirt.
He started with the ice cream, and ate about half of that. I told him he’d probably like the sandwich, once I took out the tomato and lettuce. He took the sandwich and proceeded to eat most of of it (bread, eggs, and avocado). He ran to the window and started banging on it. He had seen Carly walking by. We went out a door and he said hi.
I told Carly about what he said to Gabby about the shirt, and then told August what I’d told Carly. He asked, “What’s ‘accusing’?” A word of the day.
We headed to the drinking fountain, then to the library. He did art on one of the computers, then I checked out Fing by David Williams.
We got walking at 2:10. He was trying to figure out the difference between the SUVs and minivans, and I said it was “murky”. Another word of the day. At the big recycling place he stopped and got a big Coke bottle so he could joke to Carly that he got to drink Coke again. He also stopped to pick one of the red flowers that he keeps wanting to study at home, but we keep forgetting. And he asked me, “Dada, if I was a police and I put a pirate in jail would I get in trouble?”
At home he played with the salad spinner, filling it with water and the nut from earlier, to make palm nut water. But the main event became spinning it to be the water to come up the sides of the container. When it started to drip out the sides, he went and got the tape and taped it all up to make it watertight. Somehow he ended up talking about fire resistant clothing, and we watched a video on how it worked:
And he also asked, “What’s iron ore?” He’s heard about it somewhere.
He watched an episode of Hilda, the one about bad dreams, then played by himself to earn an Oreo. He asked me, “Why do you wake up when the sun is up?” and we talked about the clock in our brain, and the senses. We finished reading The 104-Story Treehouse, then went upstairs to wrestle. We came down and did a little art and writing on the iPad. Carly got home at 5:40 as he was writing his name.
She had the box with the time-in/calm space set we had ordered. They opened it and set up some of the posters over by his calm area. I heated up pasta for him and they are together at the table. I joined them with my tea. He made up a song that went “Don’t change the subject. Don’t change the subject. Queen, queen.” He earned another Oreo playing with the tape and Duplos.
We read part of Fing and he was laughing a lot. ‘Out-of-print’ was in the book and he asked what it meant.
I took him up at 7:45 and gave him a bath. We read more Fing. He was then saying, “Or I’ll howl the house down!” Based on a line in the book. He sang a song before bed, and said it was a magic spell. Carly came up about 8:30 and put him to sleep.
Learning about poop paper at the science fair:
Science fair:
Discussing his computer art:
Studying the palm nut:
His tune he wanted to record:
Explaining his creation:
Scribbling and writing:
Playing by himself and singing:
His singing magic spell:
