He came downstairs just before 8:15. I finished the Hardy Boys chapter we’re on and then he went to play piano. In Minecraft, survival, we worked on breeding cats so he could get another Jelly and after several cats (now all sitting in the library area) he had his second Jelly (as his first cat just happened to be a Jelly). And we also got the villagers in place so we could have more villagers.
We went and played piano, playing a long duet. We then watched educational videos I had saved for him: Crash Course on famine and drought (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgae8SA-rcI), where El Nino, labor, and malaria were words of the day. Then a SciShow on Jellybots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFZAjQFyUO0). And finally a Big Think video on whether we are living in a simulation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDcNVZjaNSU). He only watched a couple minutes of it, but that was enough to get him thinking, and he had a Brother and Sister game where they were in a simulation. He was walking in circles around me as he explained it. That went on for a long time. I had made oatmeal for him and he kept taking one bite of it, then forgetting about it until I reminded him of it. He finally ate it.
We went outside for a few minutes. It was quite hot already. He watered plants and found a leaf with fungus on it. We took it inside and examined it with the microscope. We then had a discussion about the good to come out of drought and pandemics: hydroponic farming, better hygiene, etc. He went back and forth to playing piano a few times, and we talked more about our Minecraft plans.
I made hotdogs and we had grapes for lunch. He also finished his tuna sandwich from a couple days ago. He had us restart the Brother and Sister in a simulation game. Then a game of Sister finding an owl that Brother named Owly Ally (which is hard to say) in the park and saving her. Carly came down, and we ended up discussing the virus. He asked, “How’s Josephine doing with coronavirus?” We looked up Zambia, and it looks like they are just now dealing with an outbreak. We had a cookie and milk, then watched Iskall.
We went to learning time on the floor and used Swift Playgrounds and learned about ‘For’ loops. Did a few levels of that. He then wanted to be my slave and wanted me to order him around. I ordered him to do things like stand at attention and dance and play piano. We continued that upstairs for a bit with him waiting on me. Then we went downstairs where he I ordered him to let me beat him at chess. He happily did that, then I returned the favor by losing to him.
Carly came down a little before 4, and I went up to do some work. He was going to do alone time and play Minecraft with her, but instead they played chess most of the time. He told me, “I’m fond of playing chess with her.” She made him another hot dog and he now likes sauerkraut. He was listening to a folk tale when I came down and eating. When he was done he told me, “You’re free time have the last bit of sauerkraut” And he asked, “Before the coronavirus how long was your commute to Omar?…I just learned commute.” I think from the “I’m Bored” story.
He had fun typing with the voice dictation on my computer, then he played Endless Arcade for his 30 minutes. After 6, Colin called and they played Minecraft. I went for a run. I got back and took a shower. When I came down they were playing with the shape/color stacking cards—the ones that are like a puzzle. They called back, and Colin and Vivian and Cherie and everyone then sang happy birthday for their insect. August, traumatized by birthday celebrations, ran and curled up in the red chair. But he was okay with it. When he showed Cassie his missing tooth he said, “I’m a tooth losing maniac.” He was repeating Carly.
I made chocolate pancakes for myself. He has stopped eating them already, saying they are boring. But he was hungry, so I suggested putting peanut butter on it. He said he really liked it and ate a whole one. As he was about to finish it though I asked if he wanted more and he said yes so I made another, but then he never touched it. He was telling me how we should buy socks from Bombas(sp?) and reciting full sentences about their socks from their ad, which is in the “I’m Bored” episode. He now listened to it again, saying “I love it. I’ve done it three times.”
We then had our family meeting, where we introduced our plan (made with Gabi) for teaching self regulation and paying him a salary (stars) for using them, or not needing them. He loved the idea and said he’d never hit again. He was acting it out, and said, “I’ll just use a test subject” hit the paper, then pretended to talk to it and give it a hug and a kiss. Carly said something about adults needing to not hit and he said, “That’s why kids aren’t in the military…I’d accidentally shoot a skyscraper instead of the enemy…Hey boss, can the city rebuild the skyscraper I accidentally destroyed?”
After the meeting he went to the bathroom. He asked, “What’s a champ?” She asked where that was from and he said, “Lewis Hamilton…he’s my favorite race car player in Formula 1…he’s an expert at it.” Although he keeps slipping and calling him “Chris Hamilton”. He was being silly, and said, “You can’t really differentiate between me drinking mercury and being crazy and me being silly.”
Got him upstairs, and we were discussing what food he needed before bed, and I said a couple crackers. He set me straight on his numbering system. Some is 2, several is 3, somewhat is 3.5, a few is 4, and a couple is 5
He told me, “So you learned a lesson.”
And Carly told us about a funny email where a student explained she had taken her computer into the bathroom during a breakout room and needed assurance for her parents that she was doing something for class and wasn’t sneaking some social media time she wasn’t supposed to have.
Carly gave him a bath, and told her about the Kurzgesagt slinky on an escalator analogy of living. He told her something, then,“Isn’t that a nice riddle? I have a mastermind.”
He finished his food in the bedroom while listening to the new story “The Bunny’s Big Leap”, and then “The Bargain” and “Anansi and the Turtle”. All short stories. We then finished the National Geographic Kids magazine. He asked, “What’s a raptor?” He’d heard it in one of the dinosaur podcast stories.
We had lights out and were listening to the Trance Frienz album, starting at 10:40. He kept waking me up. He asked about dictators and passing laws, which we discussed, and human echolocation, which I said we could learn about tomrrow. He had a joke about feeling a book as a blind person. And he asked me, “How do you fall asleep so quickly?” “How do you close your eyes when you have to blink? Just so you know, sometimes I literally fall asleep with my eyes open.” I had talked about how you just let your eyes close and relax. But he won’t lie down and be quiet for more than a minute at a time. But then he did talk about it being hard to keep is eyes open when he is tired: “It’s like my eye muscles are getting weaker.” I had to start the album for a second time, and he was asleep by 11:25.
Song of the day:
Playing and singing:
Going upstairs song and dance as a servant:
Waiting for the insect birthday:
Happy birthday to a bug:
The funny mama voice and filming her:
