He was up at 6:28 and Carly took him back up to try to get him back asleep. He was up though, and quite awake, and they were back down at 6:40. He was pretty hyper. Started with Dragonbox Big Numbers, then switched to Codesparks. Made progress in the puzzles, and he had a couple great moments of figuring things out on his own.
He watched Berenstain Bears. We ate breakfast together. Him with his mango and then oatmeal and me with cheerios. I worked on the couch for a few minutes, then he paused and came over to me and asked, “Did you know that egg shells are healthy for plants?” He had learned that on Berenstain Bears. We haven’t been putting our egg shells in the compost, but we read an article and agreed we should start rinsing them and adding them to the compost.
He asked if I wanted him to build anything in his laboratory. I said a solution for mosquitoes, and suggested a laser system. He told me he’d think of a better solution, and came up with a cream that lasts years. The mosquitoes still bite you, but you don’t feel it. I said the buzzing would still wake me up: “Don’t worry. I’ll put in a solution that makes you not hear mosquitoes. But you’ll still hear other things…It will cost you the same as sunscreen. Pretty cheap.”
He did some typing on my iPad, watching the character and word counts go up, then he decided to let the spider go, so we took it outside. I then put on the Books and we started Table Time. We read the words ‘wonder’ and ‘bread’. He needed help with the first, but not the second. He was distracted by the circuit set and discovered the fiber optic light would light up a little if he was holding the wires, completing the circuit with his body. A really cool discovery on his own. We were distracted with the circuits for awhile.
He made a paper thing. We took a time-in when he got frustrated he had taped a piece with a twist, and he took it out on me. Back downstairs we fixed it, then went back to the circuits, discussing path of least resistance (water and gravity, electricity and resistance). We looked at out calendar and planned the rest of the day. He chose to take a walk in the afternoon for our exercise, before then driving to school. We read The Pigeon wants a Puppy! twice. He read one page, then two.
We switched to machines time, and started with an animated video of pointless, but soothing machines that Cherie had shared with us on Facebook. August really got into analyzing which machines could actually be made in real life, asking, “what about that?” for each one. We watch it twice. I asked him what the machine he had drawn during alone time yesterday does. Inspired by the video, he told me, “It cuts beefaroni into strings…It cuts pillows and makes them into ice cream cones…” We then went and counted machines in our house. He identified 44 things that he identifies as machines in our house. We then read about microchips and motherboards in The Way Things Work, then I introduced ‘Rube Goldberg’ machines, and we watched
(which includes the OK GO video) followed by a few of the videos from Joseph’s Machines, starting with
. We talked about building one ourselves, but that might be a future project.
For lunch he ate a banana, then had some pizza. He played the Green Planet game while I prepared it. He asked me which was heavier: a blue whale or a 747 Looked it up and a 747 is about twice the weight. We went back to the circuit set, finishing #42. We discussed the terms input and output, and earlier I had been teaching him how to read the ‘grid’ to better understand how to build them. Word of the day. He then sang a “Output, input, processor…troubleshooting” song, which then changed to include, I think it was, ‘microprocessor’.
We went upstairs to finally get him clothes for the day, then downstairs he did alone time, drawing another machine. He told me, “It’s going to be a complicated machine, so don’t make your brain explode…No brainius explodius.” He requested a treat from his bag instead of an Oreo. It was a second one that turned out to be gum when we didn’t realize it. He was excited by that.
We got off on our walk. He steered us round to the little path, then straight north towards town. As we walked it was warm, but windy. He put his hat over his face and called it his windshield. I had to lift the front of the bike to steer. We got close to town and turned around. He spotted a Fiat 500 and called it a “Cute car”. He asked, “What’s combat?” I asked how he knew the word, and he said it was from Hilda. He spotted a new beetle on a wall and we caught it.
At home we read some of Amulet #6, then he looked at the reptile and amphibian booklet and we discussed biting size and weights.
Just before 3 we drove to the school. He had decided he didn’t want to test batteries. We parked across the dirt, and on the ground he found a tiny green worm that he had crawling on his finger. He released it when we got inside the school grounds. He told me that he has cameras with special wi-fi that let him find animals and things. He said they were really expensive. Carly had told me there was a bat sleeping outside her room. We went and saw it and said hi to her.
She walked home, and we went to the pool. We saw Mike Shappell and talked about my email, asking about robotics etc. He said we’re happy to come visit the robotics team after their competition in a couple weeks. He said he also things he might have a full set of Lego Mindstorm in storage and I said we’d love to buy that off of him.
We went in the pool for a good half hour. We floated around and had fun, then August was the one that decided it was time to get out. He spent a few minutes pulling grass through the fence and looking at it. I learned he had learned about Disneyland from the Kerns. That’s what the little 900 dollar ticket that one of them had drawn was for. I joked with Mandy about it on WhatsApp.
We got home and he and Carly did electronics sets and went outside. I made rice and went up to rest. He showed her how he draws circuits and they did that for quite awhile. They finished his basket. He brought it upstairs to me in the bathroom as a delivery. He was then delivering things to Carly in it, and told her, “I’m collecting blood…you’re the queen mosquito.” “That bottle has one whole gallon of blood in it.”
We ate dinner. He ate his bowl, then he had corn flakes with milk. Carly took him up and washed his hair. He got gum as a treat on purpose this time. We played the car game on the floor. He was going faster than light, which eventually destroyed the universe. We then discussed how everything came from the Big Bang. He said he discovered things faster than light and spied on aliens and was making intergalactic spaceships. He said he would give me a ride, but that one of them was too expensive for me to buy. He held the ends of the multimeter and tried to sing to make it do something.
We headed upstairs and read Creepy Pair of Underwear, then two Skybrary books: Write On, Carlos!! and Percy Listens Up. We did a tiny worm visualization, did some singing, and he was asleep at 9:35 again.
His electricity discovery:
Analyzing the animated machines video:
Counting machines in our house:
Output input troubleshooting song:
Input output processor song:
Spinning mama:
Broom timelapse:
Cold air getting out of the pool:
Running:
Drawing machines 1:
Drawing machines 2:
