Category: Daily

I woke him up at 8:15. Took a while to get him going. Downstairs I started to read Juna’s Jar. We got as far as the first page. It mentioned kimchi, and I told him about it. We looked up Kimchi jars on Google so he could see them, then I told him about women making it in the park. He asked why it was the women, and we talked about gender roles in societies. He said, “At least it’s better than in Italy 400 years ago…” In Cosmos last night they had covered the trial and execution of Giordano Bruno. August then also brought up white people having more power—this was from reading Hidden Faces with Carly yesterday. I didn’t know that at the time, so mainly talked about the Civil War, which we’ve discussed before, then he asked if a war could start without the government being involved (or something like that) and that led to a discussion of the differences between revolutionary and civil wars. We didn’t get back to the book.

He played some piano, then came back for the book, but then instead asked if a civil war be ended with a nuclear bomb. I told him about the Space Race and MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. He made a connection to “It’s like a machine where you have to run infinitely fast to get the cake…” That is a reference to a Joseph’s Machine video. August then decided, “I think I know what humanity needs to build: an iceberg duplicator to stop climate change.” We discussed how the Cold War ended. When I said the Soviet Union fell apart he said, “You mean literally fell apart? Into particles?” I clarified what I meant, but then also told him about the Berlin Wall.

He went back to the piano and we practiced “Oh, Susanna”. When Carly came in he asked, “Mama, do you want to see some dissonance?” We played Minecraft, then I made French toast. He said something, and I mentioned there being something like a syrup flood. Carly looked it up and it was a molasses flood.

After breakfast he played with the marble maze a bit, then did a second alone time. He played piano and listened to Circle Round’s “Sir Luck and Mister Riches”. He listened to the whole story. At the end he did the thing he’s been doing for a few days, saying the words he has memorized in the intros/outros along with the audio. He and Carly then played Minecraft, after which they read Grace Hopper.

I went up and took a shower. Several days ago the heater had started to make a weird smell and we haven’t used it since. We also hadn’t tried it as Carly has been using the extension cord. But I tried it, and it was just fine. Something must have fallen/been dropped in it. Back downstairs he agreed to do math. He wanted to learn about sine, etc. so we did so by starting the Brilliant trigonometry class. Didn’t get far, as it instantly talked about ratios, which August doesn’t really know about. So I used Paper and drew different shapes and taught him all about ratios and how they reduce and how they are similar to but different to fractions. I was trying to do it in the Ms. Safe voice, as he wanted.

After a really good amount of math he went and played piano. He has a triplet sixteenth notes rhythm for London Bridge. He compared his old way of playing (the hitting the keys that Dalit didn’t like) with his smooth finger movement. He doesn’t like his old way now: “I think the texture is too spikey…I think I like that curvy line instead of this…” The curvy line referring to the new way.

I made us hotdogs for lunch. August asked what kind of meat it was and declared, “I won’t eat cow!…I watched a video about meat…it causes climate change…” Luckily, they were chicken.

I then got to work on the apple pie for pi day. I had planned to walk over to the store to get supplies, but luckily Carly had bought a big bag of apples, and we had a full pack of crust. It deprived us of a walk, but we then learned that Israel had gone crazy on the rumors that the government was going to impose strict new quarantine rules and shutter businesses.

Carly started a Zoom with Korea Megan and me to figure out all of the features before using it with her students. August enjoyed chatting with her and Tori. Carly then went for a run, and August helped me finish the pie (he mainly helped chop the apples in the food processor and eat the extra bits of crust) and we got it in the oven.

He did more Desmos, and found out how to expand continually. Probably knows more about Desmos than a lot of math teachers. For alone time he listened to “Fire on the other side of the world” from Circle Round. Cherie called, so instead of playing Minecraft with Carly right away he got some special Oma video time and he watched some Phineas Rage. After hanging up with Cherie, they then called Vivian and Colin. They kept wanting to talk about Coronavirus and August kept saying, “I don’t want to talk about it!” Vivian had even drawn a picture of a coronavirus.

I went upstairs to work. August came up with Colin for a minute, then took him back downstairs to show him the pie. He and Carly then played Minecraft. I went down after six when he wanted pie. We ate, and he asked, “What’s casein?” A word of the day. In milk, that is. I said it was the protein. He continued, “That give it its taste and structure, you mean?” He then told me about mutations that lead to cancer.

He did some of the Marble Maze while I tried to figure out some financial stuff (we need to deposit Carly’s pension in a different account because Raymond James isn’t operating in Israel any more). He and I said something at the same time, and I taught him the “jinx” game.

August asked, “Why in the United States 400 years ago did people care if you were black or white?” We talked about it (I think he is kind of confusing his timeframes, as 400 years was the Giordano Bruno reference, and the segregation he was talking about was from Hidden Figures. He mainly talked about the separate bathrooms and processed it through a game: “You should be Brother and Bar teleports you back 400 years…”

He was hungry so had some peanut butter crackers. And he asked, “What’s impregnate mean?” Another one from the milk video. He then came up with a rather funny “How to Kill Cows” song.

I got him up to his bath. He was being kind of annoying, especially to Carly, but she got him through it. In bed We listened to the new Stories Podcast, “Grahamquackers” and then I found a couple of videos for us to watch for Pi Day: a Ted-Ed video (https://youtu.be/9a5vHXsUvUw) and a really good Vihart video (https://youtu.be/Y4Lc5-6L1pE). August didn’t want to watch it at first as she mentioned coronavirus, but I asked him to keep watching, and it was so funny that he liked it.

Carly came in and said good night, then we listened to two Bedtime Explorers: “Minmi” and “Pterodactyl”. We listened to the Philip Glass piano album and he fell asleep around 10:30.

The morning improv:

Song of the day:

Singing and marble maze:

Talking to Megan and Tori in India:

Explaining a limitation of Desmos:

He called to me at 6:20. I went in and went back to sleep on the lower bed. He then got up at 7:45. He was grumpy about having to read in the morning. We went out to see all the downed tree bits in the yard. He eventually went and played some beautiful piano improvs. For his Minecraft time he decided to watch a video instead and we watched GoodTimeswithScar’s latest Hermitcraft video. A while after that Gilad was ready to play Minecraft so they started playing. I drove up to town for a few things.

On the way I drove around the block and found where the chainsawing had come from: just a half block up Kibuts Galyut two of the big trees by the parking lot area had fallen over. Oddly, it was the ones at the ends. They mainly fell on empty lots and the street, but one crush a car port with a car in it. I continued on up into town. Town was a zoo. Probably a little busier because of current events, but mainly because it was a normal pre-Shabbat Friday. Went to the pharmacy, then to the grocery store by VIPizza (pita and hummus).

I returned home, and August and Gilad finished a few minutes later. He watched some Kurzgesagt videos. Carly went for a walk. He requested Brilliant and Mac and cheese. Didn’t eat it and took off his clothes.

I got him dressed, and he kept jumping from thing to thing and couldn’t focus (multiple Sister games, different things in Brilliant, etc.), but then did piano and Piano Maestro. I watched a Vihart video on spirals an Fibonacci sequences.

I then got him outside and made him chocolate milk to drink out there. He had a Sister game about her joining a server for the first time. A little later, back inside, the power went off. August was fine for a minute, but when I confirmed the power was actually out to the whole house he freaked out and was rolling around on the couch. Carly comforted him, and after a few minutes I went for a walk around the block to see if they were doing some work somewhere. Didn’t see anything.

He was more calm now. Carly suggested Pictionary. He didn’t like the idea at first, but then got into it. When he was drawing things for us he was doing things like “Negative exponential growth…multiplication…a kid’s artwork…” Eventually the power came back on. He kept drawing things for us, like “Pi MINUS zero point zero one…” And he drew a zero and infinity to shop us “opposites.”

He and Carly did Khan Academy. He did alone time, during which he asked me to fix the ‘augmented’ chord chart as I’d never written down numbers on it. Carly paused his alone time to read him part of Math with Bad Drawings (dull was a word of the day) and then they did some sort of tic tac toe sort of game from the book.

For a second alone time he listened to “A Dozen Loaves of Bread”. He started watching videos, but decided to play Minecraft instead.

I went up to work from 4 to 6. They read the kid version of Hidden Figures. He called me on the phone to ask how to find the Supersonics Piano app so he could look at pieces of music. I came down a little after 6. They were Skyping with Derek and family and August was playing piano. She had made him grilled cheese. We all ate. He was holding a grape in his cheek and we joked about it looking like a bee sting. He was later looking up pictures of bee stings on Google.

We did more piano, then read some _Ben Braver. Hobo was a word of the day. He was then looking at Minecraft photos. He asked, “What’s scarred for life mean?” Which is part of GoodTimeswithScar’s catchphrase. We then watched the first episode of Cosmos and ate two bags of popcorn. Cosmos was really good, and we’ll be watching more episodes.

I got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath. He was telling her about Minecraft. He was then talking about old computers, first with her, then me. In bed we listened to a KidNuz, then the Circle Round story with the Story Pirates. We skipped the Bedtime Explorers and listened to Philip Glass’s Etudes for Piano I know it took him some time to fall asleep as he told me he was struggling at one point. I fell asleep to, and he was asleep some time between 10:30 and 11.

Pictionary time:

Pictionary 2:

He woke up 6:40 or so. I took him back in and got him back to sleep. I didn’t really get back to sleep and then found out about Edmonds cancelling school, the NBA, etc. I went in to wake him up at 8:10. He went downstairs to Carly, then I went down and played Minecraft with him, after which we had oatmeal for breakfast. We did a little Marble Maze, then he played lots and lots of piano. He had me do a little Piano Maestro. He then used Piano Maestro as a backing track to his improvs. He made a song with multiple chords and said it was his first one.

Carly went to school for a little while to check books out from the library, as Ilana was opening it up for a while. I took a shower while he played a little extra Minecraft. Carly got home and went outside to work. After a bit he went out with her and sat next to her and said, “I want to watch you. I want to see how you work.”

He was really excited about going to Ms. Dalit at noon, and as we got going and got in the car he said “I’m so excited!” a few times.

At piano he showed off his pieces, then they discussed augmented chords. She didn’t really tell him anything about how to use them, which is what he wanted, but then they worked on moving his hands. That’s what he really wanted. He didn’t get the walking thing at first, then I went and helped a little. I was impressed with his patience with her though, as she kept saying “No” to him, but he’d try over and over. But soon he caught on, and was going up and down octaves with his right had quite smoothly. He also learned the left, but it was more difficult. They also started working on “Oh, Susanna”. I told her it made me think of Bugs Bunny, but she didn’t remember that one.

So his homework (he didn’t like using that word) was to practice his right and left hands going up and down (but not together, as she said that would probably frustrate him), practice reading notes around, and to work on “Oh, Susanna”.

I had planned on going to a park, but he was really excited about showing Carly how he could move his hands, so we went straight home. On the way we listened to the first Story Pirates podcast story. In the car he was talking about wanting to convert numbers to all sorts of bases, not just 2, 10, and 16, and I found an app on the App Store that would do that.

We went inside and he showed Carly. They discussed I+1, which is apparently a system she’s used with her students to discuss what’s too easy, in their learning zone, or too hard. He said moving his right hand was so easy it was I+0, but the left hand was harder.

We went outside in the yard and ended up discussing whether corona was worse than “large scale nuclear war” or other things he listed. We had a lunch of grapes and carrots and hummus and egg. He was trying to remember a specific term related to black holes so I let him watch the Fermi Paradox and Black Hole videos from Kurzgesagt, but he didn’t find it. For alone time he listened to “The Hat, the Horn, the Purse” on Circle Round, then we played Minecraft.

We did some piano practice and I taught him the “Oh Susanna” lyrics after he asked to listen to it and we listened the Pete Seeger version. He liked the lyrics so much so I told him the “One dark morning” poem.

He had the last half of his cupcakes, and we watched the newest Grian video. Carly had started her happy hour Zoom chat with Alex and Jeff and a few other work people, like Cassie, when they showed up. He played piano for them, then again later when there was more people.

He went outside and told us, “It doesn’t matter if you look at the sun because there is no sun.” It was really cloudy. He played more piano, then we did some handwriting practice, then he played for them a second time. We spent some time looking at SuperSonics Piano songs, and there was at least one that he really wanted to learn.

She eventually hung up, then read The Adventures of Penrose, the Mathematical Cat. He did some alone time, then paused that to eat schnitzel and broccoli and listened to KidNuz and Pants on Fire. He finished the alone time and we played Minecraft. He was grumpy at the end, but we eventually watched a Numberphile about the easiest problem everyone gets wrong (basically the Monty Hall problem), then got him upstairs for a hair washing day (and lollipop). Carly read more of the cat book to him (and had also read the Grace Hopper book earlier, I think).

The winds were getting really strong, and had been slamming the shutters shut and we heard things banging outside. The tent cover came off of Shmuel’s ugly tent thing as well. Maybe he’ll take it down…

He said he’d brush his teeth, “As soon as she stops worrying about Coronavirus…it’s just annoying.” We went downstairs for a few minutes of piano. I couldn’t refuse a request like that. As we went back up he said, “It bugged me that I didn’t know how to play any pieces with a range of ten.”

We went in to bed, and used the bluetooth speaker to listen to things. It worked really well. We listened to “White Doe, Fairy Doe” on Stories Podcast and then a funny short one called “Lazy Jack” from Journey with Story. Calf was a word of the day. We listened to Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” which he said he liked but was too exciting for falling asleep. There were just five minutes left of it, so we finished it up. He insisted on telling me a short Sister in Minecraft game about moustache removal. We then listened to Philip Glass’s Glass: Solo Piano album. Which is what, if I’m sitting in piano recitals in the future, more like what I’d like to hear, as opposed to Debussy. He was asleep by 10:45.

Chords and tune improv:

Improv singing to it:

Working on finger movement:

His roll to the couch and computer:

I Like Moving My Hands song:

Showing Oma how he can move his fingers:

The winds outside:

Finger moving improv:

Composing in action:

He got up at 7:40. Carly was in a video meeting with Jeff and Alex outside. I read some Ben Braver to him, then we played Minecraft. When we were done he didn’t watch any videos or ask for chocolate; instead, he did some math, finding problems that divided into repetends. I made oatmeal for breakfast. He had me being Ms. Safe and playing Minecraft. Myna was then inviting her on the server. Introvert was a word of the day. We then did a few more levels of Gravity Maze.

The weather was really nice and Carly then took him to the beach. I stayed home and did some work. The beach was moderately busy. They went to Poleg Beach, so a little wavier than they are used to for their creations. They went into Even Yehuda to the bakery to get a snack, as August said it was too sunny or something at the place at the beach. They took their things and went and ate in the library park and read, and also discussed paradoxes. He told her about the alien paradox (Fermi’s Paradox).

They got back at 1:40. He was doing alone time. He was playing piano then went outside on his own, closing the door behind him. That really hasn’t happened before. He saw the street lights go off and came and told us. They had seen the lights on when they got home and speculated that workers were checking the bulbs.

We played Minecraft, then watched a short video about “Null Island”, so null was a word of the day, then the “Perfect Squares Song”.

He did some Piano Maestro and played piano, then I suggested we watch the newest StressMonster Hermitcraft video. He then played with the Marble Maze and I was trying to do Piano Maestro. He wanted me to keep playing, saying, “I was hearing a lot of good ‘grrrs’ and ‘What’s going on?’” as I was trying to figure out the key that was re-broken. I started making the new piece and Carly went to school to scan some things. He did alone time, then we played Minecraft. We were working on the new house we were making in our survival world. Right near the end when we came back to the house a full side of it was oddly destroyed. Had to be some sort of glitch. August said, “And I swear I didn’t make a charger creeper…”

Carly made grilled sandwiches, and I finished the piano pieces. He had a graphing competition with Carly. When she made something cool he said, “I’ve seen you do bad ones so many times it’s basically like so impressive.”

We are our sandwiches. He didn’t like the bacon, saying it wasn’t crispy enough. I had told Carly to not make the bacon too crisp because he hadn’t liked it. He either has very specific bacon preferences, or just doesn’t really like bacon.

Carly talked to Cherie, and he asked her, “What a year like from your perspective?” After the call he was bothering Carly and not stopping. Carly went upstairs to be alone for a while, and he followed, saying, “I want to talk!” Which is good progress (although the initial bothering is not). And he came and talked to me downstairs. He went back upstairs to talk to her, but wasn’t (by his own admission, he said he asked her, “Are you done freaking out now?) exactly nice about it and Carly said she needed a few more minutes. He called me up and talked to me about it. Both times talking to me about it are big progress.

I then finished fixing all the keys. Well, sort of. For the low note (missing a screw and the little metal piece) I realized we had a bunch of small screws from all the taking apart that August has done. I found one that would work, then looked for a piece to replace the metal piece. Just a small rectangle with a circle in it. What I found was a circuit board from a hard drive. I broke off a corner of it that had a hole for a screw, sanded the edges, and made the hole a bit bigger with a drill bit. Voila. All the keys now play. Still plenty of idiosyncrasies, but we’ll call that character, and improve it even more as we go, especially when the new keycaps show up.

He watched the Kurzgesagt video about the Great Filter, then we did Brilliant, learning about the Goldilock’s zone. He played some piano, then we did some learning in the Number Bases class. We both went outside with Carly for the smell, and we discussed some coronavirus options. We then went back to number bases and learning how ASCII (a word of the day) works. At one point he then got up and ran to the Bits and Bytes poster and said, “So a terabyte is one billion letters of text!” He made the connection by himself.

We got him up for his bath, and then Carly read him the Comic Science: Solar System book. In the bedroom he asked me, “What’s ship’s log?” We listened to Circle Rounds “Song of the Horse”, where inseparable was a word of the day. Based on the story we ended up reading https://www.quora.com/Is-it-actually-possible-to-ride-a-horse-to-death and learning about how horses can be ridden to death due to the fear response.

He talked about wanting to learn a language again, and we looked at Duolingo and he chose Latin. We learned a little, like that Salve is hello. In Bedtime Explorers we listened to “Crocodile” and “Megalodon”. We listened to some Debussey piano music and he was asleep by 10:35.

First chord progression:

At the beach:

His piano pieces for this week:

Marble machine creation:

After a few days I started numbering our days of social distancing/quarantine and started from this day, as it was the first day it really impacted us:

So late last night Carly got a text message from the school saying that someone with coronavirus had been on campus and that school was cancelled for Tuesday. A little later she found out that it was someone who had just been on campus briefly, so they were planning to reopen Wednesday, but were just taking Tuesday off to be safe. It was the best possible situation for us, as suddenly Carly had August’s birthday off.

He woke up around 7:45. I greeted him upstairs and sang a funny happy birthday song to him. We went downstairs and he asked Carly why she was off today. He didn’t buy her answer that it was because of his birthday, and knew it wasn’t a weekend. I read some Ben Braver to him, then he played piano. He made up a song and said, “I figured out the chord that goes with it…I figured out the root.”

We played Minecraft, starting in yet another world, for some reason. He watched a couple of Jospeh’s Machines videos (room clean up and taking out the compost) while I made oatmeal and we ate. We started listening to a What If World, but he decided he wanted to play piano for alone time. He played a little on his own, then did Piano Maestro, mainly working on Hag Havila (sp?). It’s really working on his timing and sight reading. He practices the little bits over and over though, wanting to get them perfect. Timing of 98% wasn’t enough for him; he wanted a 100%. “98% is probably enou—“ “No.”

He did alone time on the piano, then we played Minecraft. I think he had an educational video, but at the end didn’t want to give it up. Frustrated, he flopped on the couch, and accidentally knocked my iPad off the end. I caught it partially, but the corner it and it cracked the screen, mostly at the corner, but two cracks go all the way across. Really annoying, as I later found out it is a 600 dollar repair, but most movie watching and use you can’t see the cracks at all, unless you are at an angle, and you only see the cracks down in the corner all the time. So hard to decide if it is worth it to fix.

As I was up brushing my teeth, Carly then got an email saying that the exposure involved a cafeteria worker, and that an email would be coming in the next couple of hours regarding quarantines. Since we had all been in the cafeteria last week we didn’t know what to expect. We cancelled going out for lunch, and Carly made a shopping list and went shopping, in case we soon found out we were all in quarantine.

She went to the store and August spent time searching Google for Minecraft images, then I made the good tuna sandwiches for lunch and he had pickles. Carly got home and he played piano, creating a cool song with chords. I gave him the last half of a cupcake from his birthday cupcakes, and Carly explained the virus to him and what’s going on with the school.

I was trying to get him to go somewhere. But first there was a game with Brother meeting Millie for the first time and Baby Sister going in time machines machine. That led to a discussion of war and the Civil War and pondering how things would have been different if the South had won. While he was getting dressed he said, “My underwear needs a friend.” Meaning he needed his pants.

Carly walked into town for a couple things and we took our time in getting going. He talked about wanting to know how to move his fingers on the piano. We left at 1:30 as Carly was getting home. She was talking to Vivian and Cassie on her phone as she walked up and August went back inside for a minute to show them his piano playing.

We then got going. He talked about how cool emergence is as we got in the car. We them listened to the season 2 finale of Story Pirates. We drove up to the Ms. Shani park. He climbed in the climbing structure there and talked about it being a Minecraft base. He told me to be a zombie, and I was bonking against it. I wasn’t actually doing much, but he said, “That’s actually really scary.”

As we played around he asked about CB radio talk, which had come up in something we had read. He decided his radio name would be LMNO and then was pretending to talk on a radio: “Hey Honeybear, it’s LMNO…” “I’m just calling PeanutButterToast”. I read him How To as he was in the swings and after he’d moved over to a spinning thing. Heat shield and debris field were words of the day. We did lots of Brother games. Then one had August explaining the future (computers, etc.) to a Roman.

Carly called to ask when we had been at school last week. It turns out the exposure was actually a cafeteria worker, back from Spain, who had been there for five hours on Tuesday. Anyone who had been in the cafeteria for 15 minutes or longer was supposed to home quarantine until Tuesday, the 17th (the 14 day mark). I checked, and luckily it was Wednesday that August and I had spent an hour there after school. And Carly hadn’t eaten in the cafeteria at all that day.

We were home at 3:45. He spent time showing Carly photos of Minecraft builds that he searched fore, then did alone time while playing Piano Maestro. He then played Minecraft with Carly outside. Carly had wrapped presents while we were gone, and August finally noticed them sitting on the floor when Carly was talking to Cherie. So he opened presents. It was a gift from us (microscope slides and slicer thing) and the presents from Cherie and Chuck: Marble Drop puzzle game, math clock, Juna’s Jar, My First Book of Astrophysics, and the cool water bottle with the spray top. Cherie mentioned having to get all the cousins the same water bottle as they would be jealous, and August agreed about that.

We played the first few levels of the puzzle game. Carly had made mac and cheese and we had it and broccoli for dinner. They then read the Comic Science book. August wanted a video, and we agreed on StoryBots and he watched the video about how music is made. Carly made a strawberry smoothie. He then showed Carly photos and a vide of Minecraft builds, trying to make her jealous. He then spent a long time just playing around with the marble puzzle and showing off what he was able to build.

We did some Brother and Sister games, then he had a cupcake and milk before going up for a bath. I found a story on a different podcast called “The Magic birthday candles” and listened to it, as it was about a girl on her sixth birthday. Canopy, nook, and culvert were words of the day. I apologized that his birthday wasn’t too exciting, but he was fine. He repeated his line, which he’d been using all day, that his birthday had already happened on Sunday. So that made me feel better. We listened to a Bedtime Explorers and he was asleep some time around 10:30.

Song of the day with chords:

Chords and melody:

Spinning the swing:

Song in the swing:

First birthday present:

Presents 2:

Rest of the presents:

Gravity Maze:

I woke him up at 8:15. “I made a famous gravity machine slash g machine.”

I read a couple chapters of Ben Braver, then he talked about why order of numbers matters in subtraction and division. We then played Minecraft. We had French toast for breakfast and watched Grian. link was a word of the day.

We planned his day. He said he wanted to learn in math, music, and writing. So we started with Dragonbox Algebra. It was starting to look more like actual math and he almost finished the last chapter. It was good, as it got him to think about opposite operations and simplifying, etc. Also, he had a tendency to rush and not apply operations to both sides and it was forcing him to remember that. He then did some graphing and we reviewed the hyperbolic equation. Tried figuring out the exp() function. Learned how to model an exponential function instead (https://youtu.be/dErjKCFakKo).

He played a lot of piano as well, and said, “Here’s why I don’t want to grow up with someone who has perfect pitch…he’d be stuck on music…he wouldn’t know about other stuff…Minecraft…” On piano he was playing “London Bridge” really fast. And he talked about wanting to see Dalit. He did some Piano Maestro and was singing “Bringing up the sunshine” as he played “Blue Danube” really slowly.

We were listening to a Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child podcast, that had an International Women’s Day theme. We discussed it a couple times, and the last song was called “If Girls Ruled the World” August took exception to this, arguing that girls could still have boy babies, and that the boys would fight for control. He then suggested that, “I’d rather have cancer rule the world.” Because then it would just kill everyone. Luckily, he changed his mind to a more positive, “Well, I’d rather have plants rule the world.”

We then listened to a Wow in the World about the mutation that caused blue eyes and melanin was a word of the day. We discussed hyperbolic functions some more and other math things, using Paper to show some examples. He remembered that he’d finished alone time (piano and podcast) and we played Minecraft. He watched the Kurzgesagt video “Black Hole Bomb”, which he has now watched several times. He told me about his black hole bomb in Minecraft.

He was my piano teacher for a while, then did more Piano Maestro, enough to earn a star in our system. We then did handwriting on paper. He mainly practiced A, M, and N. I was Ms. Safe for a while, then we did more math stuff, discussing the ration of ovals (since it isn’t pi) and then he cashed in for 30 minutes of iPad time since he’d earned 5 stars. We played, then he watched “The Secret Place Where Pilots Sleep” from Bright Side, which is a list of interesting facts about airplanes. He said, “I just can’t conceive it!” a few times today. A new favorite phrase.

When that was over we got headed to school, as we had our last bags of books to drop off. We dropped an old router we’d never taken apart off at the recycling box, then went and dropped the books off with Amanda. We went to look at books and I got The Last Kids on Earth book 4, and August discovered the Minecraft shelf of books for the first time. He took out Minecraft by Concrafter and we read parts of it. He was particularly excited by the trick that might let us spawn mobs upside down.

He needed to use the bathroom, so we got going and checked out the books. More talk of the Minecraft blocks on the wall. We then headed down to the playgrounds. We went to the big one. He played on his own for a while, jumping from the platform and swinging on the bar, then climbing up into the crawly thing as well. He had a bar and some corn crackers for a snack. We read some How To and did Brother and Sister games. We went over on the swing for a while and he told me about singularities. His eyes were being itchy. Finally, he went on the spinning thing and joked about being invisible (harkening back to Sophia being invisible on it during hide and seek). We also talked about the physics of it, as the Kerns had taught him how to speed up and slow down.

We got going, using the bathroom by the library, then were looking at the stuff in the grass area. Heather came out, and we talked to her for a few minutes. He also told her about a black hole bomb. She told us how they were keeping the girls at school for the week, as Eve’s cough had been hanging around and to be cautious. So sadly, we won’t be picking them up at noon on Thursday for the half day. We kept talking to her as we all walked out, around 5:30 or so.

At home played piano, and said, “It’s like something a DJ would play.” He did alone time on the piano, doing some Piano Maestro, and then we watched the GoodTimeswithScar episode 3. He had a few minutes left to try out the upside down animal spawning trick in Minecraft and it worked. He got some extra time as Carly started playing with him.

I went for a run and they did a math experiment, making two cylinders with paper and comparing their volume. When I got home Carly was playing piano and August was letting her practice. I went up to take a shower, and one of the keys broke—it was the one I had glued back together and didn’t know how strong it would be anyway. August wanted to tell me about it, but also hid under the dining room table and made a fort as he thought I’d be upset.

After my shower Carly got him up for a bath. After his bath I got him in bed. We listened to the new story on the Stories Podcast and I had Bluie dance to one of the songs and August thought it was really funny. We then listened to “Super Cape” on Bedtime Explorers. August kept cheering “Perseverance!” Earlier we had listened to KidNuz and their was an article about the naming of Perseverance, and August pointed out he’d heard about it three times. We listened to piano music and he was asleep by 10:20.

After he was asleep Carly got an email: someone with the coronavirus had been on campus briefly and they were cancelling school for tomorrow. Carly was first really worried about it, but then decided it was a free day off on August’s birthday. Looking on the bright side.

London Bridge really fast:

His song of the day:

Piano Maestro time:

Jumping and swinging:

He was up at 7:50. He went right downstairs and I stayed up folding clothes and cleaning up. He was whiney with Carly until they started playing Minecraft. He watched one Super Tony video, something about building. He ate cereal with strawberries, then spent a lot of time playing piano. He was playing “London Bridge” and “Skip to My Lou” over and over, with chords, and had them down quite well: “Past August, seven days ago, didn’t know how to do that!” “And I’m excited to show Ms. Dalit it!” He was then just playing the chords with his left hand and singing “London Bridge”.

He seemed ready for a new piece/challenge so we went back to trying apps. We tried Skoove, starting to learn a version of the James Bond theme song, but it seemed too hard for him to use on his own, then we tried Simply Piano. Much better, but later in the day I realized it was Piano Maestro that we had used before and was even more directed at kids. He then figured out the E minor pentatonic scale. Carly was making cupcakes as she had realized she wasn’t sure how to get the strawberry stuff in the center using our cake pan and he got to sample the first one. He wanted them to look like “poop cupcakes.”

He wanted his alone time and sat out on the swing listening to podcasts for it. He finished “Song of the Singing Mouse” on Wow in the World. He was hungry so I made him a grilled tuna sandwich and he ate all of that. We played Minecraft and Carly ran to school. I then went up for a shower after she was back.

Lauren, Avraham, and Gilad showed up a little before 1, coming from his Lego class close to us. August opened the present right away; a 3-in-1 Lego set. We started with snacks; August was very, very excited about getting to eat Doritos at home. Avraham was most interested in the piano, as he is into woodworking. August did a great job of handling adult talk, then Carly took them out for slime making. Gilad didn’t like the feel, but Lauren really got into it. So Gilad played around the yard for a while and we all enjoyed the perfect weather.

August started to hint that it was cupcake time and we went in and had cupcakes. Gilad had suggested building with Legos, and the two of them went down on the floor and spent the next 45 minutes or so just playing together. Wonderful when that happens. Avraham told us about his work designing power transformers, and particularly about solar panels, which was really interesting, then they left just before 3. Their other kids all had parties at school today, as it was the last day before the Purim break.

On the piano August was teaching Carly how to play “London Bridge”. At one point I said, “I can’t believe you’re almost 6.” He responded with something like, “I can. The time continuum basically works out.” I then realized it was Piano Maestro I had been looking for. August picked up where past August had left off a few years ago, so he could easily see his progress. August found that he could sing the notes (since it was in listening mode) instead of playing them on the piano, which seemed like cheating in a way, but was also a great sight reading activity in its own.

He then did another set of alone time, playing piano, and we played Minecraft. He and I then watched two StressMonsters videos (2 and 3). He was hungry so ate most of a container of dried mango and I let him have a few more chips. Still hungry, so he had mac and cheese and broccoli for dinner. Carly had been doing some grading and she switched with me and got him seconds and I went up to work. I actually lay down for a few minutes as a headache was coming back, then got to work.

August had been really reluctant to let me go. Eventually he’d agreed to let me work for 15 minutes and I said I’d check on him at that point. I had heard them happily playing piano together at that point so kept working. Then I heard them talking to Cherie. August came up a bit after that, saying it had been much longer than 15 minutes. I told him I needed two more minutes, then I’d come down. I came down, and they were sitting out in the lounge chairs, reading the Comic Science Solar System book by flashlight. I was able to go back upstairs and keep working.

I came down at 8 so Carly could take a shower. August and I started a Brilliant physics course, which was about forces on F1 cars. He understood bits of it already from our previous discussions on wings and downforce, and also showed an impressive intuition about some of the problems. Microcosm was a word of the day and one I think we’ll use regularly. We then watched a Chain Bear video about the aerodynamics of F1 cars:https://youtu.be/ZFEzMKYjShc

August made a sort of connection to laser pointers, then got talking about ways he uses compressed air, like digging through Earth. He would later tell Carly about how air moves faster when you push it through a smaller space, and showed her with blowing air.

Before we went upstairs he had a yogurt. We went up, and he thought it was really funny to go in his room and lock his door and do Desmos. I folded laundry and set up the beds again.

He came out without a problem and Carly gave him a bath. As we were getting in bed he talked about how the people that do the Stories Podcast don’t know about physics, but their specialty is folk tales. He said, “My speciality is sight reading, aerodynamics, physics and trigonometry…” But not chemistry, he said.

We listened to the two parts of the Stories Podcast’s “Meowmaid” (he instantly started pleading for part 2 when 1 finished; good note to self to never start a multi-parter before they release the second part—luckily, these were older episodes this time) then Bedtime Explorer’s “Special Song” before putting on Haydn piano. He was asleep by 10:40.

London Bridge improvement:

Simply Piano:

Opening his present:

Slime time:

Happy birthday!:

He was up just after 7:50. He got in bed with me for about 10 minutes. Downstairs he asked Carly if she knew what a vacuum is and told her, “No, a vacuum in physics terms is a space with zero percent matter.” He then told her about the glass half-full chapter of What If?

On the couch we watched a few videos I had saved for him:

• “What If humans suddenly disappeared?” from Ted-Ed Legacy was a word of the day

• “Astronomers just discovered the biggest explosion ever” from SciShow

• “Everything is Energy”, which Cherie had sent. Reincarnation was a word of the day. We talked about Buddhists and he asked, “But do they take antibiotics?” That led to a good discussion of reincarnation and suffering and we read answers on https://www.quora.com/Can-a-buddhist-kill-bacteria-or-take-antibiotics

We then played Minecraft. For his education videos he watched a couple videos, including on on “how deep can you dig?”

He played on the piano, then did alone time as I put on the keycaps with double-sided tape (temporary until we get the new set) and finished the atmosphere poster. Carly went tot he store. He played a couple songs of the day on the piano. We played Minecraft in our creative world and listened to an old Story Pirates and the Story Pirates/Wow in the World crossover that came after it. Carly got home. He did a good job of stopping on the iPad after watching the Bright Side video about going to the core of the Earth.

For lunch I made him a fried egg and he had a pack of seaweed snacks. I the made soft-boiled eggs as Carly put away. August made a bunch of cool graphs, including crossing lines and one he called “impulses”: sin(y^2+x^2)=cos(y^2+x^2). Even crazier was sin(y^2+x^2)=cos(y^2+x^x). His eyes seemed to be bothering him today, particularly in the morning.

He went outside where Carly was and was giving her basically impossible challenges on the graphing calculator. Carly cut him up and he ate some persimmon, which they call “sugar fruit.” He was still hungry so had a soft-boiled egg and we continued the endless Brother games: needing to pee on a long trip and making more cat reserves.

Back on the piano he discovered a scale constructed with HWHWWWW. We looked it up and it was C Super Locrian. It reminded me of the Elliot Smith song “Everything Means Nothing to Me”. We listened to the song but disagreed about which scale it was (C sharp something). We didn’t resolve it though as August wanted to go tell Carly about his discovery of a new scale and went upstairs to find her.

He was up there for 15 minute or so, then came back down and asked to do his alone time. He then went outside all on his own for the first five minutes or so, then came back and played piano. He went outside again to hear music from across the street. We played Minecraft, then we watched videos I had found: a short NASA video about the naming of Perseverance and “Why sunlight is older than you think” from Smarter Every Day.

He was on the piano again and I heard him tell Carly, “Here’s something that Ms. Dalit doesn’t give me: pages with dissonance.” He then taught Carly how to play with chords and was playing both of his pieces with chords. Back on the calculator he realized that the square root of 4^22 is the same as 2^22.

Carly made macaroni and cheese, and I got August out for a walk before 5. We took along a container of the macaroni and cheese. We walked up to our park, but he said there was “No way” we were stopping because there were two dogs. We kept walking, and headed down to the monster-zapping park. We sat on a curb and ate some mac and cheese and he played on the equipment. We moved over to the merry-go-round and played on there, then were harassed by a black cat. August reacts about the same to cats now as he does dogs, so I had to chase it off a couple times.

On our walk and at the park we expanded on a big story arc: It had started with Brother thinking they were going on a seven minute trip to visit their Granny, but it was actually 7 billion something to another galaxy. But then it turned out she had just moved across town to a new condo by the New Galaxy Mall, not an actual new galaxy. It turned out that Granny had invented things like quantum computers, and for some reason Bar ended up taking them back in time to see young granny, only to find that the older granny had traveled back in time to replace her younger self. There was a lot of time travel involved, and things like a cat uprising, a robot rebellion, and the extinction of the dinosaurs: her efforts to solve one problem had led to other problems with the timeline.

We walked home because he needed the bathroom. Carly was vacuuming, so we went outside and sat on the swing and continued with the stories. We then all ate Mac and cheese and broccoli for dinner outside at the table. August had wanted to continue our game, but I said we should talk to Mama. She said that put pressure on her to be interesting. He told her (jokingly raising the bar) that she just had to be more interesting than Minecraft. He asked me to fill up his water bottle and I agreed. He then started laughing and said, “I keep using kidding tricks…to get you to fill up my water bottle…It’s okay; you’ll forget by the morning.”

I went upstairs for a few minutes and he did some Khan Academy with Carly, then even on his own. That was impressive, even if just for a few minutes. He was then asking Siri for photos. That went on for quite a while, then I got him off with some peanut butter toast. He did more piano time, then had a Brother game with Bar teleporting people into Minecraft.

We headed upstairs and he went in the bathroom and had fun blocking the door with the stool and things. Would have been fun but he also took down our clean towels and used those as well. He instantly came out when Carly’s phone made a Minecraft sound. Carly called him a “Pavlovian dog” and he asked what that meant, so a word of the day.

Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. He called Carly “cute in a grown up-y way.” She read to him (a Comic Science book, I think).

In bed we listened to the Stories Podcast story “Old Favors”, then he needed a second bowl of Cheerios and we listened to Three Bedtime Explorers: “Life Treasure Map”, “Friend Hat”, and “Magnifying Glass”. I then put on piano music and he was asleep around 10:40.

A song of the day:

Another song:

Super Dorian scale:

Laughing at me:

With me on the swing:

London Bridge with chords:

Skip to My Lou with chords:

He called out at 6:10 today and I went in. He said, “I can’t get to sleep” and then promptly fell asleep.

I went to wake him up at 8:15, but he was really sleeping. He slept until 8:50. When he woke up I asked if he’d had any dreams that he remembered. He said, “I was collecting diamonds.” I asked if it was in real life or Minecraft. He thought about it as he stretched his fingers, one by one (something I’ve noticed he does in the morning) and answered “50/50.”

Downstairs I read some Ben Braver then we played Minecraft. We finished the Bill Nye episode, then listened to a New Scientist Weekly. For his educational video he watched Bright Side’s “What if zero disappeared for a day?” And the cancer paradox video from Kurzgesatz.

He did some graphing and we had walnut French toast, bacon, and strawberries for a brunch. He did some graphing, realizing how a basic function (with the big f thing) is like the equation for a line: how to change the slope and y-intercept. We listened to the But Why? episode “Why Do We Fall Asleep?” again. He also understands the equation for an ellipse and how to change its parameters as well. I read him an article and we watched a video of a machine that would take a googel turns to complete one full rotation: https://gizmodo.com/to-complete-one-rotation-this-machine-requires-more-tu-1842128408 And we read https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/universe-measurements-hubble-constant-dark-energy-stars-a9379751.html

He played piano, and then I took the action out of the piano and started fixing the broken pieces. I was only planning on replacing a couple, using the new piece that I’d made with the rotary tool. But as I was taking it out one of the broken bits fell out of the action somewhere. I was able to re-glue it and it worked fine. I later found the OTHER broken bit, which would have made the other one even easier. Gilad was finally ready to play Minecraft and the two of them played in Gilad’s Way of the Bee world. Think they mainly ended up blowing things up. I think Gilad taught him more about powered rails. I went up and took a shower. I was also working on the piano stuff the whole time. It was definitely taking longer than I expected.

They played for probably an hour and a half. Rather longer than I had planned. After they were done he ate yogurt and peanut butter toast and then a schnitzel for lunch. He did graphs as he listened to podcasts. We listened to Tumble Science’s “The Physics of Basketball” and he asked a few questions about it. He asked, “How do you use math to determine stuff?” Like how fast he would fall. I think we need to start some physics.

We then figured out why x squared squared equals x to the fourth, as he had noticed the graphs looked the same. He then showed me how he’s found the limits of various functions and how they approach zero or one, and in particular asked me to figure out sech. Hyperbolic function was a word of the day. He was excited when I started looking them up and hyperbola was a word of the day. But as soon as I started to demonstrate how they work he said “I’m bored.” He also explored equations like x^2-y^2=x^22 and later I’d help him figure out how negative exponents work.

I made a poster of the layers of the atmosphere, but misspelled a couple words and had to trace it again. He did his alone time, then Carly got home. He and I played, then he watched a Canadian ant farm video called ”Ant War: Battle of Three Armies”. Earlier he had watched the two Kurzgesagt ant videos.

He ate tofu that Carly made and peanut butter toast for dinner. It was raining out and he asked to put on his rain gear. He went out and played in the rain. He told me he didn’t understand why “past August” was bothered by so little rain.

I think she did some reading to him at some point and he did his last alone time and they played Minecraft together as I kept fiddling with the piano. For some reason the A that had been broken just wouldn’t play properly. Finally, I got it. It still sounds a little softly compared to other keys, but it is a lot better than broken.

For his educational videos he watched “How do you safe during the plague?” and “ Can a virus get a virus?” from Life Noggin: which I’m sure reminded him of cancer on cancer and parasites on parasites. At the end he got upset again. He’s done so well with the end of iPad time lately that it’s frustrating to see this happening again.

Eventually he had some peanut butter toast. After 8 I had all the keys working. He appreciated it, but also pointed out all of the problems (two of the notes need to be tuned since they weren’t working the first time). He went to the bathroom, and as he was getting dressed when done realized for the first time that his underwear has a hole in the front. He was very excited about this.

I got him up to Carly for a bath. He was then going to put her to sleep. But eventually he just turned the light off for her and he came down to me. I took him to bed and read some Ben Braver. Tolerance was a word of the day. We listened to “Runaway Cats” on Stories Podcast, then the “Traffic light” episode of Bedtime Explorers. He pointed out that you don’t have traffic lights in backpacks. She was mixing her metaphors. Then a second one, “Invisible Cord”. He said he half had a good day: “I think we need to go outside.” He also said, “I’m a science buff… what’s a buff?” Another word of the day.

We listened to Beethoven piano music and he told me I was funny and as valuable as ruby. When I asked where that came from he replied or chanted, “hyper mind, hyper mind…” He was asleep before 11.

A song of the day:

Explaining limits he’s finding in math:

Being brave in the rain:

Hammers all fixed!:

He got up at 6:15 and asked if it was time to get up. I said no and he seemed a little frustrated. I lay down on the lower bed and he fell back to sleep after a few minutes. He then slept until i went to wake him up at 8. The first thing he said was “How many days until my birthday?”

Downstairs we played Minecraft and had oatmeal for breakfast and listened to a Wow in the World! about asteroids and plans to keep them from hitting Earth. Tractor beam was a word of the day.

We got going to Ra’anana Park. Really warm today and supposed to hit 80 degrees, a touch warmer than yesterday. Before we left August had to have some piano time. And on the way down he wanted to listen to more of Rite of Spring. At Ra’anana we walked over and met Gilad and Lauren at the covered playground. No school groups at first. August and Gilad went on the spinning thing for a while, then moved to the plane game. August used my phone for a while, doing more calculations again. Eventually they were ready for something else, but school groups were starting to show up. So we didn’t head over to the big playground. Instead (after August went on a swing for a couple minutes) we walked (Gilad rode) around the lake to see the progress on the music area. They have the paving stones down. We kept walking to the tractor, but August was starting to talk about it being too hot for him and he wanted shade. We did stop at the tractor for a few minutes and sat in the shade and had some lunch. August pointed out to Gilad where the ants had been by the tractor. August was thinking about things from an ant’s perspective and asking for height analogies. We calculated that we are at least 550 times taller than an ant.

We then got going and walked over to the maze area. August needed the bathroom so we went down to that, then came back. August wanted to play hide and seek and we started, but then school groups started to show up. We found Gilad and then called it a day and walked out together.

We drove over to the art store right off of 4. We listened to the Wow in the World episode about boredom. He really liked it and we sat in the car to listen to the rest of it. Divergent thinking was another word of the day. Inside we got watercolor paints and colored pencils that Carly needed for school, and some wood options for making parts for the broken hammers in the piano. August picked out a couple tubes of paints: one color he thought went with Carly’s Ladybird Johnson painting and one that goes with her Oma painting. I also got a wooden board that will be a clipboard sort of thing for his music at the piano. As we were waiting in line to checkout August was watching a TV and saw a commercial for Rustoleum 2X paint. He told me that we should get it the next time we need spray paint.

On the way home I put on a Bill Nye show about carbon dioxide pollution and clean up. It turned out to be an interview sort of show and after a couple minutes I asked if he wanted to stop it. He said no, that he liked it, and we kept listening to it. It was about a woman who has a company that is working to harvest carbon dioxide from the air and then use it to make plastic and other materials. We stopped for strawberries and August came in with me and kept talking about it, and about how he would use it. He also talked a lot about “carbon nanotubes.”

At home I said we could play Minecraft first. We did that, then he watched Joseph’s Machines. He then did his alone time outside, listening to podcasts on the Bluetooth speaker. I was starting to make the piano pieces and was off to a good start. He sat on the lounge chair and held the speaker in his lap. He is really into listening to the news and we listened to a second Kid Nuwz, then listened to a Pants on Fire episode, I think the one about Peter Pan syndrome.

He went long on his alone time, so earned some credit towards his next set. We then we played Minecraft again, going on a big exploration in our creative world. He kept saying “Pesky parrot”, which he picked up from Grian. He next tried out the rotary tool on some wood I didn’t need, then we got going to town.

We drove up and parked in the paved lot and walked to the grocery store by VIPizza. August chose out a few bakery things and I got pita and a loaf of bread. We walked over to the library park. August told me, “A kilometer a second is 3600 km an hour…times two is 7200.” And he was able to explain how he had carried the one to get the 72. We sat in the park and ate some of the treats. One was like an apple turnover so I told him about getting those at the Judy Jane Bakery in Chelan.

We were home about 5. Carly was already there. He showed her the colors he had bought for her paintings and then admired one of her paintings: “It’s so cool.” He then said the sweetest thing: “I hate past August who criticized your painting, just so you know.”

For alone time he wanted more news and listened to the second one today. Then a Wow in the World on symbiosis called “Duck Duck Poop!” I went outside and was working on pieces. Carly talked to her mom and came out and was sitting outside to do that. They are now postponing their trip until some point in the future. That adds on to all of the Purim festivities being cancelled here and the Palestinian Festival of Literature.

August was alone inside and took the opportunity to create a big structure out of the pillows and everything else he could get his hands on over the couch and chair. It was quite impressive. A bit reluctantly he helped clean up, and he had a little more of the apple I had cut him a bit earlier. We then watched GoodTimewithScar’s Hermitcraft episode 2. He really wanted another after that, but I showed him Mark Rober’s“Car Vs. the World’s Strongest Trampoline” and then How Ridiculous’s version to see the rest of the drops. This really got him thinking and he made a connection to the podcast about stopping asteroids that we’d listened to earlier: “I made something for NASA … I made a giant spinning trampoline that always faces the sun…” “an asteroid that’s going to hit the earth…bounces it to Jupiter…” “That is how you do it.”

But then the evening took a rough turn. He insisted on watching more. He hasn’t been like this in quite a while. However, he threw a couple pillows at me as I went to get him food, but then went outside and sat by himself out at the table. That was a cool development, then he started to make something out there, putting the broom handle on the chairs and getting tape and other things. I was pretty sure he was quite hungry so made him a quesadilla and got a yogurt, and Carly made a strawberry smoothie. He politely asked Carly for tape – he’s been saying please and thank you a lot more recently. He said he was making a “Chaos machine”. He picked apart the quesadilla, taking off all the cheese, so no more quesadillas, I guess. I tried our new bread and it turned out to be walnut, so I got him a slice of toast instead.

But then he suddenly had the idea that the extra time he spent playing outside should count towards his alone time tomorrow. Carly considered, and said it, “Will set a precedent.” He asked what that meant, so another word of the day. We actually agreed to credit him 15 minutes tomorrow, but then he changed his demand and wanted more time tonight. He had a meltdown after that, throwing a small jar of vaseline at my back, then hitting Carly a bit later.

He calmed down enough upstairs to have his bath so he could still have stories. In bed he told me that “You should buy the 2x paint.” We listened to the Stories Podcast’s “The Sacred Squirrel”. Then Bedtime Explorer’s “Mind Broom” (or something like that). He requested Beethoven, so I put on piano music by him, and he was asleep about 10.

Finding Gilad:

Wood notes:

Trying out the rotary tool:

Trigonometric functions:

The chaos machine: