He woke up at 7:55, saying something unusual, that I didn’t catch. He repeated it as he headed into the bathroom. From there he went and lounged in the chair in the office and we talked about our day. The first thing he asked was to do chores. As we talked, he casually got a candy from his stash from the summer and ate it before I realized it.
We went downstairs and he watched a couple of airplane videos on Bright Side (the one about the shortest commercial flight, and the one about landing in the Hudson). He ate mango, then oatmeal. I exercised. We opened up his new slinky. It was stuck together at first and he liked getting it apart. As he did he told me about a Bright Side video about hotels. The slinky has a pink color on it, and he said he “I love the salmon.” He said it was new favorite color. And he said “I’ve even made slinkies that can Slinky up, Slinky to the right, and Slinky to the left.” He said it was better than his old Slinky.
We went up and did a Brother and Sister game, with Sister stealing from Brother and vice versa. They each gave the baby sister treats and she was getting chubby.
He then did his chores. He cleaned the upstairs toilet, after having done the downstairs toilet yesterday. We made the beds, then went outside and he watered the plants. He liked making puddles of water in the dirt and said it looked like crops (somehow—not clear to me) and called them “Art crop” “Because it is art and it looks like a crop.”
We went back inside and looked for an open space adventure game for him. He has a vision of his head of being able to fly around from planet to planet and star to star, flying a space ship, but not having to worry about lives or being attacked. A great vision, but hard to find. I ended up downloading The Pack (from the New York Hall of Science), TerraGenesis (which looks promising and complicated, but not what he’s looking for), and Opus: The Day We Found Earth (which looks promising, but we didn’t get to today).
We played The Pack, which is both an adventure game and also an intro to coding game. He was playing on his own when he found that if you start walking into a dry area the character starts to need water. He turned off the iPad and declared he wouldn’t play the game again, as it was too scary. He let me try it though, and after confirming that you can’t die in the game he was okay with it again and we worked on it together, taking turns to control the character and discussing algorithms.
Eventually we got ready to go to the grocery store and drove up to Stop City. Dirt lot was full and the lot under it wasn’t opening, so we parked in the side street we often use, across from the house with all the sculptures. August saw a mango tree with really green mangos on it and I picked him one out over the sidewalk on the way back.
At Stop City we got some fruits and veggies and some ingredients for banana bread and a couple other things. He also looked for nisse spaces.
We went home and I got busy making banana bread. We had just enough time. We worked on the iPad game together. When the banana bread was done I took it out and put it in the bread box and we headed over to Natalie’s house. It is just north of the school, about a two minute walk.
We sat out back and had the banana bread, watermelon, and rice crackers for a snack. August and Corinne were spraying ants (August with his repurposed spray bottle, and her with a fan/squirt bottle they had actually found at Max) until Elise didn’t like that. There was enough time for a tour of their house, then we used their bathroom to change into swimsuits and we all walked over to the pool just after 3 to go swimming. As we walked I got an email from Carly telling me that Rita and Omri were going to be at the pool, and then a message from Rita saying the same thing.
So at the pool I introduced Natalie to Rita and we talked about favorite Arab restaurants, etc. Rita just had Omri and Jonathan with her today, and Omri bonded with Elise, in particular. So the kids played together well. August asked for flippers, but the lifeguard was locking the door as I walked up. He told me the flippers were just for the swim classes. As Rita said, what is available and isn’t depends on his mood.
August was really liking the pool and reluctant to leave. Finally, we got going after 4:30. We got towards the entrance of the school and Natalie realized that Corinne didn’t have her towel. The two of them went back, and Elise and August and I headed back to the house. We got the rest of the banana bread, and left a slice for Elise, who loved it and ate a bunch and kept talking about it, and Corinne.
I dropped August off at the house right about 5, asked Carly how her first day of school went, then dashed out to make a homeschooling meeting in Herzliya at 5:30. I was introduced to the group by Marka, as the woman hosting the meeting lives just a few doors from her. I arrived just a minute after 5:30. Just a few people there when I got in. After a few minutes a couple things became apparent: they were religious homeschoolers, all (or mostly) knowing each other from the same church, and it was a potluck, but I didn’t bring anything.
I had about 15 minutes getting to know a couple of them, primarily a woman, Elena, who is Korean, from New York, and whose husband is from Ghana. We then all sat around the big dining table that seats ten. That big because Kelly and her husband have 8 kids. They are also just in Israel for a year.
Not much to say about the meeting. People shared advice on homeschooling, then finally about 7:30 they started discussing doing things as a group. This was the most productive part, and at the end one of the women suggested a weekly get together at Ra’anana Park. Also, the woman that offered to coordinate field trips has two kids at WBAIS and the boy she is now homeschooling went to WBAIS but I think they were dealing with dyslexia and I heard her say she had issues with the administration.
The meeting broke up a little before 8. I got home at 8:30. They had tried out a reading program on the IPad. August had done really well on the placement test part of it, and was patient with it as it went on and on. He liked it pretty well, but Carly thought the whole thing overall was pretty glitchy. We have a one month trial though so will try it more.
He had just finished a bath, and asked me what I had learned about doing homeschool. He had a black rock that he had dug up sometime in Pennsylvania. I hadn’t seen it before. Definitely volcanic, but not 100 percent sure it is obsidian. That was our word of the day though.
We got him ready for bed, and I left the two of them at 9:15.
Watering plants:
Teaching his pool game:
