I woke him up at 9. He got up pretty quickly, and told me, “I had another Minecraft dream.” It was of us being in the mesa, and also not being able to find the lucky block world. We went downstairs, and Carly finished reading one of the Clementine books to him. While she looked for the other Clementine book he said, “Junie B. Jones and Clementine are quite alike.” She asked, “What similarities have you noticed?” To which he said, “Well, they’re basically the same.” They then started the other book.
When he wanted Minecraft we played in the lucky block world. My parents called tp say happy birthday, and we Skyped with them. August paused Minecraft to play piano for them, and Carly took them upstairs for a few minutes to talk about going back to school. After Minecraft August played chess with Carly and I made oatmeal. His tooth then came out, leaving him with two missing front teeth.
He played piano for me for my birthday, and did a lot of playing this morning, with lots of new tunes coming out of nowhere. At some point he wrote an email to Carly, apologizing for hitting her last night. He spotted Gravity Maze and we got it out and he did a couple levels of that. I then read some Hardy Boys, and scholarship was a word of the day. He wanted to do a Sister game, and we discussed how old she is, not coming to a conclusion. We did the game where she finds out she’s in a simulation. We had a long, long discussion/debate about whether the lives in a simulation were the same as the lives in the real world. As he walked around in circles and we talked he would go back and forth to the piano and play for a few seconds.
For alone time he listened to “I’m Bored”. We then did Minecraft and the Lucky Block world. He explained why he’s really liking the Lucky Block world now: “It’s like there’s this rush of excitement…” We went outside and looked at plants. He talked about plants changing and how he’s gotten to watch his weeds change over weeks. Today he noticed that the berries on his weed were turning purple. And he told me he understood my explanation about Vivian and Colin and Minecraft time and about how they are still having their morning and have additional time, whereas he is finishing up his day.
Inside we watched Mumbo Jumbo and Carly made the pie. August had pasta for lunch. Carly had gotten out books to return to the library, and I was looking for a book I remembered checking out, but we haven’t read. I checked the car and when I came back he said, “She’s actually making the pie!” He made things out of the leftover dough. I went upstairs, and when I came down he had had the idea of practicing when he is upset. We all did that for a while.
Talking about his teeth he said, “They’re like a gateway to my mouth…” And he voluntarily was talking about when he is upset: “I don’t know why I say go away, actually, because I don’t want you to go away.”
August had asked sometime ago if cavemen lived in trees. So, for learning time we started with a National Geographic video about Neanderthals, then followed the bread crumbs and interests. We watched a video about a village in China that is in a cave, then a couple about modern cave houses. Finally, we watched the Crash Course Big History episode on “Human Evolution”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPggkvB9_dc
_Collective learning _ was a word of the day.
Colin called, and wanted me and August to go upstairs, then downstairs. Upstairs I found the book I’d been looking for in the closet. August took Colin outside, saying, “It’s beautiful out here!” “Want to see my weeds? There’s berries and they’re turning purple!” Back inside he played a lot to piano for them. They hung up, and he and I went upstairs and did a lot of wrestling. The super strength wrestling became the backstory for a new student in a wheelchair.
We went downstairs for dinner. Carly had made macaroni and cheese and green beans. He played some chess, setting up endgames with lots of queens. Vivian called at 6. They played in Vivian’s world. “Vviviam, Vivian. What’s up with your skin? It’s amazing.” I worked, then went for a run. I came down just in time, at 7:30, for Thatcher’s birthday. Carly later told me that August had said, right before, “I don’t like parties. I just won’t interact; that’s not nice and it’s not mean.” August and I ate pie as we watched the party.
After that I did some Magnus Trainer with August. He wanted Carly to do it. We talked about him sleeping in the big bed tonight, and he called the change “Stressful.” We played chess, and I taught him about en passant in Magnus Trainer, then we practiced it on the board, before he spent time finding checkmates again. He talked about how he starts each game with D4 “it’s good for controlling the middle…I use it to get my queen in the picture.” And he’s excited because when he has the computer playing at its highest level that it makes the same opening move, meaning it is a grandmaster-level move.
I got him upstairs and he did a lot of talking on the toilet: “We made a rule where you have to accept please.” “Dada, explain it to her.” I then figured out that he meant “sorry”. A few weeks ago, when he was upset, he kept saying “sorry”. After he calmed down and we talked about it, he said we should still acknowledge when he says sorry, even if he ends up hitting us again. This made sense, as yesterday, when he was upset and we were holding him, he kept saying, “Please, please! That’s the rule! You have to accept please!” And I didn’t know what he was referring to.
We did a little Myna game, where she was using video cameras and computer programs to learn from masters. I told him that’s how it actually works, minus the spy cameras. I then taught him opening, middle game, and end game.
We read some Hardy Boys, then did a Brother and Sister game where they were still a boring, and found a fire ant colony. Brother wished they could meet someone that could make everything better when he got hurt, and a bit later he met Bar “Hi, I can make everything better.” Then there was an angry squirrel that he befriended, but was always angry, so he let Tigey eat it when he found Tigey a couple years later, but Bar made more angry squirrels.
I took him in to Carly at 10:30. I put on the Philip Glass piano album on his phone. As I left I heard him ask “Can you tell me a story of when you were a kid?” She said he also asked what medical conditions students have, telling her “I’m really interested in medical conditions.” She sent me an email saying he wants to learn about cerebral palsy tomorrow. She experienced the poking and asking of additional questions after she was falling asleep, and him saying a few times that he couldn’t get to sleep.
My book group meeting went really well, with a lot of discussion about the book Flights. There were no side conversations on our usual topics of work, coronavirus, or TV shows. Pretty amazing, actually.
My birthday music:
Flowers on the plant in the wind:
Talking to Colin in the yard:
Playing for the camera:
Describing Minecraft for Eve:
Explaining lucky block world:
Showing an epic jungle:
Explaining Minecraft:
A longer explanation of Minecraft:
Thatcher’s party:
