He was up at 8:25. I went up and talked to him as he lay on the couch bed for several minutes. He said he had gotten up and changed the temperature on the air conditioner at some point because he was too warm. Downstairs he went to the piano and started playing some cool stuff. He did a piano competition with Carly, then let playing. We got into analyzing whether he was playing in 8/8 or 9/8 and he played his rhythm both ways.
We played Minecraft, then Infinite Arcade. He was designing a level for me, and liked the default text of “Hot Diggity Dog, you won!” We had oatmeal, then watched Seattle Symphony Morning Notes with clarinet and harp. That gave him an idea for a Brother and Sister game and we went upstairs. He did a going upstairs dance, then was a chicken while going up the stairs. Upstairs he did the new student games, with Eliza (blind) and Elena, who had epilepsy, and then I thought to teach him about diabetes. We watched a few videos about children and Type 1 diabetes, then had a new student, Namebe, who had diabetes. From there we moved to Myna in her OTT (Over the top) Minecraft world before we went downstairs.
Carly was down, so he played chess with her for a minutes, then with me. I made tuna sandwiches for lunch and we ate and I played more chess. I then had us start a couple audiobooks: We listened to all of Jack Perlutsky Sardines Swim High Across the Sky and then started Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home. For his alone time though he listened to a new Circle Round story called “Sweet and Sour”. At the end he asked if honeybirds are real, and we watched a video of honey guide birds:https://youtu.be/hGC4nG0RqYI
. He then wanted to see a bee attack and we watchedhttps://youtu.be/RywRC6Wh4bQ
andhttps://youtu.be/suZQa1eWBLM
.
He then had a Brother game, part of which involved Brother getting powers for a short time, like the power to walk through walls, but then having it turned off and running into a wall. We had a cookie and milk, and he asked, “Can people be born without teeth?” Didn’t look it up, but led to a good discussion. We played Minecraft together. Minecraft is having problems on my iPad, so when we were done I figured out how to transfer it to my phone.
We then played piano together. He watched an Ants Canada video, then we went for an ant walk. I cut up two grapes to feed them, and he wore Carly’s sunglasses. He liked feeding the ants, but didn’t want to stick around to watch them.
Back at home we watched a video from Andrew Huang explaining how to count and practice complex time signatures. August played some piano, then we went upstairs for his meeting with Mr. Gabi. I had hung up the poster/list we’d made in our family meeting yesterday and August didn’t want Gabi to read it, so we turned the camera away. After that they played the tank game. I’m hoping we feel comfortable enough to start taking him to Gabi’s office next week or the next. At one point August came out and asked for food.
After his meeting he was walking around his room, banging on things and practicing counting odd time signatures. And we did some Earpeggio. We went downstiars and he did some piano with Carly, showing her his crazy fast runs.
They then played chess together, and he was winning at first, then intentionally letting her get pieces because he didn’t want her to feel bad. He was telling her everything he’s learned about chess strategy. Everything I’ve said the last couple of days has really sunk in.
They played with Vivian as well, and I went for a run. I came back and took a shower and did some work, mainly exchanging messages with Marc and Omar. He played more chess, by himself and with me, then we got him upstairs with the promise of a lollipop for washing his hair.
After his bath he played chess with me, then finished his pancake and peanut better and listened to “Mr. Know-It-All” He asked, “What’s suspect?” A word of the day. He then listened to “Three Clever Brothers” and crackers and peanut butter. I asked what his favorite stories are and he said “Rapunzel”, “Snow White”, “I’m Bored”, and “Mr. Know-It-All”.
He was then being baby brother, curled up in a pillow fort and pretending to be an egg. We went and brushed our teeth, then read a little of the book in consciousness. August asked “Can you have epilepsy when you’re asleep?” We looked it up and learned about nocturnal seizure.
Somehow time signatures were mentioned and a few minutes later he said, “Now I can’t go to sleep because I’m thinking of time signatures and counting them.” He was counting odd time signatures and getting better. He also explained that Simply Piano “isn’t my thing.” More specifically, that he doesn’t like it telling him exactly what notes to play and that he isn’t into sheet music because it isn’t creative. But that he wants to work on accuracy for Notion. He requested Beethoven’s Ninth and we listened to it and he was asleep before 11:30.
Song of the day:
Playing in 8/8:
Going upstairs dance of the day:
Talking about losing his teeth:
Practicing counting odd time signatures:
Chess with Vivian and Mama:
Chess with mama:
