He was up at 7:30. That’s only eight hours of sleep. He went straight to the bathroom, then asked me, “What was that symptom?” He meant asthma. From there we went into the big bedroom and started a Ms. Safe game, with a new student. First he saw a spider on the wall though and I had to squish it. August reminded me he had had a dream about spiders and slugs fighting the other day. The new student was named Plot and had asthma, then there was another new student named Simon. August said of the new students: “Lets just forget boy and girl…let’s have gender just not exist.” We played until we went downstairs at 8.
He played piano, then went back to playing the new student game. Upstairs, he’d been coming in through the door when Ms. Safe introduced the new student. Now, he went under the blanket that I had over my legs. He said, “Let’s do it metaphorically like a play. I’ll go out of eyesight…” I think it was Jane Eyre where I’d talked about how some of the visuals were metaphorical. I looked up a list of gender-neutral names to use for the game. Next was Zion, from Greece, who was also deaf. We watched the Seattle Symphony Morning Notes video with a double bass player, then a couple of videos about deafness (https://youtu.be/Hrgqs4MmK3U andhttps://youtu.be/0YcGev7B5AA
). We then watched a Mumbo Jumbo video about making a pistonless redstone door. Logistics and fortification were words of the day. And then a short UNICEF video about disabilities.
Then pack to the stories, with Vesper, who can remember really well. August asked what that was called and we looked it up and found highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). He played piano as I got my own breakfast, then we went upstairs for more Ms. Mean and Ms. Safe games.
As we went back downstairs he asked if there was anything that made it hard to learn. Dyslexia was another new word. He played piano, and transposed “Elevate: Two” in D Minor: “Instead or being cool it’s really sad…it’s the sort of thing you’d play at a ceremony, when someone dies.” The next student was named Blank, who also had a good memory. He finally had breakfast, having oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast. The piano was still open, and August didn’t want the front back on. We talked about having a transparent piano, then I realized there are a couple of holes in it that would allow me to make a sort of stand. I rigged up a stand for the music out of two metal chopsticks and the board. I eventually swapped out the board for a piece of glass, making it more transparent, and only using one of the chopsticks.
He played, then we discussed amnesia, then synesthesia. Back to the games, with Oni, who has synesthesia. She tasted tomatoes when told she has detention by Ms. Mean. August then spotted the white, black, and orange cat on our kitchen boxes and was trying to shoe it off to protect the plants. He liked the Michael Kimanuka allbum we were listening to. He was then sending emails to Carly and actually typing words. We played Minecraft in creative.
We went outside and read The Boxcar Children on the swing, then went inside to play Minecraft with Gilad. I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. When they were done he had Sister and Myna doing building competitions. I worked on finishing “Flight Over the Mountains” and thus book 1. I showed him the Supersonics Piano Land of the Middle Seas book on the iPad and he listened to Supersonics Piano.
We watched a Ted-Ed video on asthma, where he learned words like chronic simutaneously inflict counterintuitively excess and poverty. That led to a Ms. Safe game with Ako, who had asthma. August explained the two kinds of inhalers to the class, comparing them to “like vaccine (the preventative one) and antibiotic (for when you have symptoms).”
Carly came down, and August wanted to do alone time, since she’d interrupted our game. I got him to agree to just an educational video though, and he watched the Kurzgesagt video on Vaccines. “What’s conclusion?” We watched a Car Seat Headrest NPR Tiny Desk Concert as he sent emails to Cherie and Carly. We went to the piano and I read the message I’d gotten back from Dalit, and we discussed and worked on wrist position, watching a Pianote video to help. The real issue though is that the chair is a little low (I added a second cushion to help), but even more so that the petal is too far down for him, so when he wants to use the sustain petal he scoots to the front of the chair and stretches down to reach it. So the real solution would be to make something to raise the pedal.
For some math time we moved to Khan Academy and pretended it was for a new student in Ms. Safe’s class. We worked on rounding, but he said, “I like to have absolutes in math. It’s more accurate.” We did some of that, then he had a new student for Ms. Safe: Delta, who was blind. We went upstairs for more of the games, and did a lot of pillow fighting. He went outside with Carly, and they appreciated the buds on the side of the tree. August wanted to pick them, like Shmuel had told him, but agreed to leave them until they got too big. It was getting pretty big.
I went inside and practiced a little piano. He came in and wanted to be a student from the future. I got him to listen to Circle Round instead. “The Months of the Year” Shawl was a new word, then he started the “Two Hour Road Trip” He asked about on the verge and sympathy. We had some dinner, then I got him to go outside for some exercise, but that only lasted a second until he needed to go to the bathroom. We went outside again and were starting to kick the ball around. Kids from across the street, and a couple others, were doing some sort of parade thing with the Israeli flag, presumably for Independence Day next Wednesday, and had a couple tables set up where they had lemonade or something. I then heard them calling “Augustus!” That’s what David calls him. I went to talk to the kids. August came with me at first, but then took off running inside. He didn’t want to get too close to them. I tried to explain to the kids that August was shy, and I’d go talk to him. I think they were offering him some of the juice. August had locked the door, and it took a minute to convince him it was just me, and the kids weren’t with me.
He went upstairs, and spied on them from his room. He enjoyed that. We went downstairs and it was time for Minecraft with Vivian and Colin in her world. After that he had a date with Cherie. They spent most of the time emailing things back and forth. They talked something about food, and Cherie said “I’ll pass” He asked what that meant, then said “That’s good, because you’re on the other side of the world.” August was sending things like screenshots, and screenshots of screenshots, and a whole Rivet book that he took screenshots of. He also figured out how to send YouTube links to her, and sent some Ants Canada and Kurzgesagt videos to her. I also helped him send the “Alien and the Snake” stop motion video that he had made with Carly last year. Cherie and August both had anatomy apps on their tablets and discussed them. Cherie asked “What’s your favorite part of the body?” and he replied, “The cardiovascular system.” He played music for her, then I told him to take the phone up to Carly and say goodbye. He did that, then she gave him a bath.
He saw the melodica case, and went downstairs and got his and brought it up and played. We brushed our teeth, then in bed we listened to “The Great Pooka Rescue”. The second pooka story we’ve heard. He asked about tavern peculiar hound and spurs. He went to the bathroom, where he also asked, “What’s hearty mean?” Back in bed we listened to Peace Out’s “Ready, Set, Grow” and then the Epic45 album again. He was asleep at 10:30.
Changing the key D minor:
“It is working” song:
Improv time:
Math time:
Date with Oma:
Melodica:
