I went up about 8:15 but he was sleeping so soundly I let him sleep. He woke up at 8:30. I said good morning, and he said it back, then a few seconds later asked, “What’s iridescent mean?” I remember hearing it sometime yesterday, probably during a story, and wondering if he was going to pick up on it at some point.
Downstairs I read a few Mary Oliver poems, then from Shivers. Said good morning to Carly, then he asked me, “What’s revise mean?”
We played Minecraft in our creative world, so I mainly did other things. August was figuring out how to type fill commands on his own. We listened to Radiohead.
We had oatmeal for breakfast, then ended up discussing lines of longitude after he asked what revive means and I used the example of reviving travel plans. We determined there’s about 60 degrees of longitude that we haven’t travelled over (between Jordan and Thailand). He looked at Google Maps and I played some piano. He asked “What’s terrain mean?”
We watched some of Treasure Island, then played Brother and Sister games with a girl from the future. We went outside, on the swing, and they continued, and in the future they had giant electronic swings: “It can hold millions of people.” I read some of The Boxcar Children, then we went inside and he played piano and I made lunch: spaghetti, cut up hotdog, and cucumber and hummus. He listened to “The Hat, the Horn, and the Purse” for alone time. Gil, from across the street, called in to me and I went out to try to help him. His internet isn’t working, and the guy from Bezek needed to access the pole in the lower yard. Alas, since Shmuel added a second gate we couldn’t access it even if we could open the first gate down there, and it turns out he’s changed that lock as well. I gave Gil Shmuel’s number though, and talked to him myself, and he agreed to give me a set of keys. I can also open it for potential renters.
Back inside we ate lunch, then August played a lot of piano. I suggested adding in chords to his bass lines, not just the bass note, and he then started doing it right away. We played Minecraft and I spent some time working on a spiral staircase, then August had us switch to the creative world.
We next watched the rest of the Treasure Island. August paid pretty good attention, but also played Toca Blocks on his iPad. Carly and I then placed a fruit and veggies order from a local shuk. August and I went over on the floor and worked on some rounding in Khan Academy and Greek in Drops Kids. He saw the list of languages to choose from and was really excited about Greek.
Carly was going to head to the pharmacy, but the car wouldn’t start as the battery was low. Odd, since it’s been fine each summer, and this time it has only been three weeks. In discussing the error message that came up in the car August asked, “Was it a syntax error?” Mike Shappell came over quickly and helped us jump it. He also came in to take a look at what I’ve done with the piano. He left, and soon after our fruit and veggie order arrived via electric bike with a trailer. They also had their strawberries in paper-based containers, which was nice. The low point in all of this was that the stupid little dog was around again, although it disappeared soon after.
August and I were discussing tuning a piano exactly…”infinity…Okay, let’s put this in perspective…” Carly had gone for a drive around block. The car was fine and restarted and she went to the pharmacy. August and I went on a walk over to the monster blasting park. He wore his mask on the way over because he “wants to be fashionable.” He wore it until he got hungry and took it off to eat his bar. We sat on a bench and he ate it and I read some Boxcar Children. When he was done we headed home.
At home he played piano with the lid open. Carly cooked some tofu, and it turned out to be hummus tofu, which was kind of different. He was then being silly with her, and liked the feeling of being “scared” when she was splashing water at him from the sink. He was getting pretty crazy until he jumped on the black chair. It was against the wall though so didn’t bounce like usual and he hit his face pretty hard. Carly comforted him, and eventually took him outside where he had his last Easter treats, a small pack of Gobstoppers. They saw David going for a walk and David asked about exercise, August told him “I exercise my fingers.” Colin called, and I went for a walk/run. My ankle has been sore and after a bit I decided to just walk.
August played Minecraft and had dinner (I had made more rice, and Carly did asparagus). And he had strawberries while Carly cut them up to freeze a bunch of them. Vivian read to us for quite a bit again from her book. August then played lots and lots of cool piano. I shared a video with Dalit, asking her if she’s available for Zoom lessons. Carly got him upstairs for a bath. After his bath I heard him say something about “And my butt shakes a little!”
We brushed our teeth, then he showed her some Greek in Droplets. In bed we listened to “The Magic Bowl” (the third live one—he really likes that they’re live) where he learned making ends meet and kaput. Then in Peace Out we listened to “Belly Breathing” where he learned salutations and asthma. I put on an Epic45 album. Instead of calming him down though, the Peace Out episode got him thinking, and he talked about how he wanted to learn more about disabilities. And he was very aware of his own learning process: “I’m going to take what I learn and put it in Brother and Sister game… is a good technique.” “ This is something we should do in the games: see how’s the kids (in Ms. Safe’s class) respond to someone who is deaf.” Finally, finally, had lights off and him quiet at 10:55. But then he popped up with things a few times, like, “That’s What I do when I learn something. As soon as I learn something I instantly do a Brother and Sister game… like with asthma…Dada: remind me to do a Brother and Sister game about asthma first thing after I wake up…” He was finally asleep by 11:30.
Today’s dramatic song:
A tune:
Dramatic music game silliness:
And again:
Swing music:
Evening improvs 1:
Evening improvs 2 – a new song in the making:
