He called out at 6:10 today and I went in. He said, “I can’t get to sleep” and then promptly fell asleep.
I went to wake him up at 8:15, but he was really sleeping. He slept until 8:50. When he woke up I asked if he’d had any dreams that he remembered. He said, “I was collecting diamonds.” I asked if it was in real life or Minecraft. He thought about it as he stretched his fingers, one by one (something I’ve noticed he does in the morning) and answered “50/50.”
Downstairs I read some Ben Braver then we played Minecraft. We finished the Bill Nye episode, then listened to a New Scientist Weekly. For his educational video he watched Bright Side’s “What if zero disappeared for a day?” And the cancer paradox video from Kurzgesatz.
He did some graphing and we had walnut French toast, bacon, and strawberries for a brunch. He did some graphing, realizing how a basic function (with the big f thing) is like the equation for a line: how to change the slope and y-intercept. We listened to the But Why? episode “Why Do We Fall Asleep?” again. He also understands the equation for an ellipse and how to change its parameters as well. I read him an article and we watched a video of a machine that would take a googel turns to complete one full rotation: https://gizmodo.com/to-complete-one-rotation-this-machine-requires-more-tu-1842128408 And we read https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/universe-measurements-hubble-constant-dark-energy-stars-a9379751.html
He played piano, and then I took the action out of the piano and started fixing the broken pieces. I was only planning on replacing a couple, using the new piece that I’d made with the rotary tool. But as I was taking it out one of the broken bits fell out of the action somewhere. I was able to re-glue it and it worked fine. I later found the OTHER broken bit, which would have made the other one even easier. Gilad was finally ready to play Minecraft and the two of them played in Gilad’s Way of the Bee world. Think they mainly ended up blowing things up. I think Gilad taught him more about powered rails. I went up and took a shower. I was also working on the piano stuff the whole time. It was definitely taking longer than I expected.
They played for probably an hour and a half. Rather longer than I had planned. After they were done he ate yogurt and peanut butter toast and then a schnitzel for lunch. He did graphs as he listened to podcasts. We listened to Tumble Science’s “The Physics of Basketball” and he asked a few questions about it. He asked, “How do you use math to determine stuff?” Like how fast he would fall. I think we need to start some physics.
We then figured out why x squared squared equals x to the fourth, as he had noticed the graphs looked the same. He then showed me how he’s found the limits of various functions and how they approach zero or one, and in particular asked me to figure out sech. Hyperbolic function was a word of the day. He was excited when I started looking them up and hyperbola was a word of the day. But as soon as I started to demonstrate how they work he said “I’m bored.” He also explored equations like x^2-y^2=x^22 and later I’d help him figure out how negative exponents work.
I made a poster of the layers of the atmosphere, but misspelled a couple words and had to trace it again. He did his alone time, then Carly got home. He and I played, then he watched a Canadian ant farm video called ”Ant War: Battle of Three Armies”. Earlier he had watched the two Kurzgesagt ant videos.
He ate tofu that Carly made and peanut butter toast for dinner. It was raining out and he asked to put on his rain gear. He went out and played in the rain. He told me he didn’t understand why “past August” was bothered by so little rain.
I think she did some reading to him at some point and he did his last alone time and they played Minecraft together as I kept fiddling with the piano. For some reason the A that had been broken just wouldn’t play properly. Finally, I got it. It still sounds a little softly compared to other keys, but it is a lot better than broken.
For his educational videos he watched “How do you safe during the plague?” and “ Can a virus get a virus?” from Life Noggin: which I’m sure reminded him of cancer on cancer and parasites on parasites. At the end he got upset again. He’s done so well with the end of iPad time lately that it’s frustrating to see this happening again.
Eventually he had some peanut butter toast. After 8 I had all the keys working. He appreciated it, but also pointed out all of the problems (two of the notes need to be tuned since they weren’t working the first time). He went to the bathroom, and as he was getting dressed when done realized for the first time that his underwear has a hole in the front. He was very excited about this.
I got him up to Carly for a bath. He was then going to put her to sleep. But eventually he just turned the light off for her and he came down to me. I took him to bed and read some Ben Braver. Tolerance was a word of the day. We listened to “Runaway Cats” on Stories Podcast, then the “Traffic light” episode of Bedtime Explorers. He pointed out that you don’t have traffic lights in backpacks. She was mixing her metaphors. Then a second one, “Invisible Cord”. He said he half had a good day: “I think we need to go outside.” He also said, “I’m a science buff… what’s a buff?” Another word of the day.
We listened to Beethoven piano music and he told me I was funny and as valuable as ruby. When I asked where that came from he replied or chanted, “hyper mind, hyper mind…” He was asleep before 11.
A song of the day:
Explaining limits he’s finding in math:
Being brave in the rain:
Hammers all fixed!:
