There were a couple flies bothering me around 6:30. August then got up at 6:45 and went to the bathroom. I got him back to sleep, then moved back to my bed about 7. Then Carly got up. I finally got back to sleep and got up late, after 8. I went up and woke him up at 9:05. He took a good ten minutes to wake up and start talking. He told me he had been waking up and going back to sleep a lot. He sat up and started reading the self-regulation list backwards. He needed help with some words, then read the whole thing backwards again.
We went downstairs and he played piano, then played chess while I had my coffee out in the yard before it got incredibly hot. He came and got me and we played chess. He showed me how he likes spinning the pieces around really fast on the board. After a good amount of that we watched the Seattle Symphony Morning Notes with a bassoon. Audition was a word of the day.
We then watched the newest GoodTimeswithScar and then went upstairs where he was my servant/slave again. I had him helping me get to sleep, and doing everything for me, like moving my arm, and putting pillows under my head, and rolling me on my side when I wanted to turn. I was then trying to order him to tell me a story, but he wouldn’t come up with one. I told him “Three Little Sluggies” instead, where three slugs make their houses out of moss, leaves, and diorite. The first two get eaten by the Big Bad Bird, and the third gets eaten by an owl when it leaves the house.
We went downstairs to finally play Minecraft. But first some piano, where we used the metronome to start practicing complex time signatures like 7/4. And then he watched an Ants Canada, where prolific and ASAP were new words. I made lunch. A cheese and turkey scramble as he pointed out we hadn’t had eggs recently. We ate inside and he watched a second Ants Canada video. When Carly came down he rushed to tell her about fire ants making air pockets and the size of the big ones. “Anyway, I need to get back to my video.”
It is fly season, and there was one flying around the house. August was actually letting it land on him, but then it was flying in his face and it got overwhelming for him. Shoed it away from him.
In Minecraft he couldn’t connect to the world on my phone, which is a problem, so we ended up playing in a new world mesa survival world that he built.
I had thought that August might want to learn about dyslexia, so we watched a Ted-Ed video about it. Carly came down though and he really wanted to play chess with her. She had time to do it for a couple minutes, then when she had to leave I introduced him to Magnus Trainer. He really, really liked it. Until we got to the point where he lost a heart for getting something wrong. He was really bothered by this and wanted to delete it right away. But eventually we signed up for a one-week free trial, which gives you unlimited hearts, and if he likes it he can pay for it with some of his stars that he earns.
We went upstairs again for some super strong wrestling. That is, he’d barely touch me and I’d fly across the bed. He was pretty amused by this, then switched roles, which had him doing most of the work and he commented on it being good exercise. He also was singing about random things and keeping time with his foot on the headboard. We did some Earpeggio together, almost finishing the first set of interval training, then went downstairs and he played more chess while we watched Frankenstein, which he had requested. He discovered an interesting position where he made a revealed check and showed me and I explained what it was and he practiced the term.
I played some piano, and then we got ready to go on an ant walk. First though he said he had a sliver in his leg. I could never see anything though. He was comforted by an ice cube in one of our new reusable plastic bags, and wanted to give the water to the ants. Carly came down before we left and he didn’t want her to know about the sliver at all. We went on our ant walk, doling out a grape and pieces of stale bread to two of the nests, along with water on a leaf. He had his chocolate bar, and we headed home.
As we got back to the house he asked, “Remember Library Tech Week?…there were a ton of kids trying to see the robot…that was before social distancing…” He did this a couple times today, remembering things pre-SD. Back at the house we found out that Israel Cassie is moving to northeast Even Yehuda, which is exciting. We told Carly about the food for the ants and he added, “It’s probably the new talk of the nest.”
Cherie and Chuck called, and they talked and Carly and August played chess. I went for a run. He then played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin, and called Cherie back when they were done. They talked about it being ant season, and August said, “I have like a hundred ways to kill the ants. Well, 3. One, I smash them. Two, use coison. Three, honey.” That is, he draws them with honey, then kills them. He set up chess to play with Carly and Cherie: “Boom. It’s time. For chess!”
He played chess with Cherie for a long time. That was fun to watch/hear. I was doing some work. When they hung up he called me on my phone, then had fun with the feedback that would produce. Carly got him upstairs for a bath, then they played one last game of chess. When he came by me on the couch he whispered to me that his sliver was gone. He told Carly, “You’re probably as easy as playing a duck. No hyperbole intended.”
In bed he ate his crackers and peanut butter and listened to “Leopard’s Rhythm” on Circle Round. We brushed our teeth and did a little of the Sister being a fire ant in Millie’s colony story. We then discussed the differences between the phrases ‘In the world’ and ‘on the earth’ and how ‘in the earth’ means something different. I made a joke about him being something when he grows up, I can’t remember what, and he said, “Besides I’ve planned to be a teacher.” Like Carly, and then like me too when he remembered I’m also a teacher. We had a discussion of how he doesn’t go to school and why, and then made a list of the subjects he is currently interested in. We came up with:
• piano/music
• Chess
• medical conditions
• coding
• Math
• Greek/languages
• folktales and myths
• War and government
• science
We listened to the Music 4 Hands album. He was doing a good job being quiet and lying down in the dark. But that album ended so I put on Glass: Solo Piano. At 11:30 he then woke me up with “here’s something Minecraft really needs: search for your worlds…” He was then trying to tell me something about the words in “Yankee Doodle”. It was the last gasp though, as he was then asleep, finally, by 11:35.
Reading the sign, backwards:
Chess silliness:
Working on 7/4:
Playing Simon Says:
Some singing:
Ants and grape:
Playing for Oma and Opa:
