He woke up at 7:20. I was up but still in bed and he climbed in with me for a good ten minutes. He’d only slept 8 hours and 20 minutes, but woke up rather stuffy. We went downstairs, and he requested his blanket. I read him a few Mary Oliver poems and then a couple chapters of The Boxcar Children. In Minecraft he discovered that there is a new free educational world called Neolithic Revolution. We went in that a little and I talked about it, but the guides thing in it wasn’t working. We switched to our survival world for the rest of the time.
I heated up french toast for breakfast and he watched a couple Super Tony videos. When Carly came in he excitedly told her that there are life hack videos about school, like how to erase an F. We then watched a few educational videos of my choosing: cello players from Seattle Symphony Orchestra (https://youtu.be/KxopOA5YFXU), a SciShow about novas (hypothetical was a word of the day) (https://youtu.be/GaHZ_uiqgjM), and then, when August asked why snakes shed their skin we found a channel of kid-hosted videos called Inspero. We watched the one about snakes (https://youtu.be/O9UlAPFIwbg), then one about the biggest number, learning about numbers like googleplexium, Graham’s Number, and Tree 3 (https://youtu.be/2bPnSMhnfzQ). Oh, and we watched a short NASA mission video as well (https://youtu.be/xkVG79xSJuE).
He then went outside to tell Carly all about the big numbers. They saw the neighbor David with his grandson Riki with peanuts or macadamia nuts. I went inside for a minute. David was offering August some, I think, but I don’t think he took any, as he wasn’t willing to get too close. He then watched the video about the Chinese economy that Carly was watching.
We then did piano time together inside. We had a piano competition, then a game with him being the person from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and talking to Brother and Sister. He wanted to do his alone time so started podcasts. He found a Stories Podcast that had an audio glitch near the beginning. He thought that was funny, but switched to a different story, “One of Us” and walked in circles as he listened. He then decided to play in the flat world for Minecraft time.
We went outside and had some pita and hummus and banana chips and he had a game with Brother and Sister stuck in the car in a traffic jump full of “black beetle cars.” That’s from Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang. I had the dad get on the highway going the wrong direction, adding hours to their trip to the science center.
Inside we watched Grian’s newest, and installed and noughts and crosses were new words. We had schnitzel and cucumber outside for lunch. We then went inside for math time and did a lot of Khan Academy. We were getting quite warm and I realized it was 32 degrees and August turned the AC on. We were then starting writing time, when Carly came and told us that Brian said there were lots of things to take apart out in the junk piles. It was enough to get me and August out for a walk, but we didn’t find anything. We were skeptical though, as we’d seen a claw truck pick up our own junk pile earlier in the day.
I gave August his chocolate snack bar as we finished walking around the Holly block. He likes it melted, and was letting it melt in his hands, then licking off the chocolate. He ate that with Carly in the yard as I walked up and checked one more spot. Back home, I walked inside and found a tiny bird flying around the house. August came in and helped me keep track of it as I opened windows. It finally went out one of the kitchen windows.
He sat on the swing and pushed himself with the broom, then had the idea of a bridge making game. It turned out it only had me making spaghetti bridges against myself while he did Supersonic Piano. He asked, “What’s luminescent mean?” It is from the Pooka story. And in Supersonic Piano he asked what celestial meant. The bridge building stopped, and I was low energy, with a headache. He played with the spaghetti noodles and had fun breaking them up and putting them under me on the couch. I was also trying to get Facebook Messenger Kids working, and even though it works in 70 countries Israel isn’t one of them and I couldn’t get it set up.
We both got our energy back. He remembered burning himself on the stove in Thailand, or at least remembered being told about it. We looked at photos of that, then of other small apartments (Tessa’s, where Liam and Nava live), and Cassie and Noah and Taya’s apartment. And I found a photo of August where he looked a lot like Ruby, so I found photos of her.
We then went back to writing. He copied out a few words we’d chosen, like Vivian and August, and worked on letters like ‘e’ ‘i’ and ’n’. He asked, “Whats vibrant mean?” Probably heard it from a story. For his starts he then did a half hour of Minecraft, adding more stuff in his world for Vivian. He made a beacon for her shower area. He was really excited by the effect he made, and the colors: “I hit the bulls-eye on that…That’s totally amazing. Just looking at that makes your mind blow…your mind breaks.”
He played piano, and we were listening to KEXP. A few weeks ago they were still working from the studio, but staying in different rooms. Now, they were working from their homes, with just one person back in the office. John, the DJ was at home, and they were doing to do a live performance with the musician in his front yard, tossing a cord out to him.
August wanted stories, so listened to Stories Podcast “The Inch-High Samurai” but switched to “The Treasured Axe” on Circle Round. Then “Practice Makes Progress” I was getting ready for a run and they called Vivian and were working out why she’s been getting frustrated the last couple days; they apparently agreed Colin was the main issue.
I went for a run. When I got back they were playing Minecraft. He would get up and run and jump around for exercise. Did it 3 or 4 times. They called back after Minecraft for reading time, and Vivian ended up reading to them. August asked me after “What’s toil away mean?”
Carly took him up for a bath. We brushed and flossed our teeth together, then listened to “The Magic Cloth” on Circle Round and “See Star? Sea Star” on Peace Out. I then put on the Charles Vaughan album Haunted Woodland Volume 3. It is a drone-y thing, and I didn’t know if he’d like it. But when I asked he said he loved it. I was totally falling asleep, and he had woken me up for water and Cheerios, so now I fell back to sleep. Not sure when he was actually asleep, but it was by 10:50 or so.
A song:
Laughing looking at me:
End of a song:
Bird in the house:
Lever on the swing:
Writing practice:
Minecraft shower renovation:
Dramatic song:
Vivian reading to them:
