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He woke up after 7:50. I went up and he crawled in the bed so I got in next to him. A few minutes later Carly came up, working on Tiv Taam orders and we spent some time on that, August cuddling in bed. We then went down and read some How To. He next played “Run” a few times before we switched to Minecraft. We worked on our treehouse.

We had leftover pancakes and French toast for breakfast, then watched a little of the SPS P.E. videos, but they were the same ones as yesterday. August requested a Peace Out, saying he wanted “more knowledge” but then changed his mind and wanted a folk tale instead. So he listened to “The Three-Legged Pot” and did alone time.

We played more Minecraft, then on piano we did a video of “Run” to send to Ms. Dalit. We next headed outside. He climbed on the slide, then came and cuddled on my lap as I was sitting on the edge of the patio. He told riddles, and there was a lot of science and math talk. We went back inside and I got his phone/metronome and introduced him to the idea of playing “Run” to the metronome. I thought he wouldn’t be too keen on it, but he took right to it and was then excited that that was the most accurate he had been.

We went back outside for lunch. First crackers and tuna while we waited for the pigs in a blanket things to finish in the oven and we had those and milk. He was then Bar, who had turned herself into the king. I had a pretty funny line for Brother which went something like: “I’ve always known this would happen ever since that me from the future showed up to try to stop it, but I was busy playing Minecraft and locked him in the closet and forgot about him…” As king she stopped the water to Israel, and made people pay for it, like the guy in the Roman City video we watched. People were then trying to revolt against her. He/Bar was then having people executed, and cracked me up when he said, “I’ve said that about 7000 times. Off with her head. My mouth is very tired…” And said “It shouldn’t be ‘off WITH her head’, it should be ‘off WITHOUT her head.’”

We went inside for some music theory time, using the Apple Pencil on a PDF of the music theory book that goes with the piano method. We were working on sight reading bass clef notes, and it was also a fine motor activity so far as I was getting him to write things in, etc. He earned enough to get a star and he cashed in five stars and we did Minecraft. We’re working on the tree house in survival now.

I got him just out of the gate and across the street by the garbage area for a minute. He had no interest in walking around, but he agreed to sit in Skoda Mama. We did that for a few minutes, then decided to go for an actual drive, listening to Chemical Brothers. About two songs up, driving through town, then turned around at the north end and came home.

Back in the house he was using graphing (the cubed root of X) to figure out cubed numbers. He was very excited about this. I then got him to watch an Odd Quartet video about the circle of fifths (the word of the day). He was rather dismissive at first, but when I got him to see on the piano how it is actually constructed he was pretty excited by that.

We watched the latest StressMonster and then an Iskall video and ate a bag of cashews. We went outside again and this time had crackers and peanut butter. We sat in the comfy chairs and he talked about Minecraft traps.

Carly came down and I soon went for a run as he did alone time, listening to a Stories Podcast episode about Chinese New Year called “Nian the Beast”. She made breakfast burritos for dinner and I had some when I got back. They also played Minecraft. It wasn’t as busy out running as last time I went, but I had a couple incidents with people kind of casually taking up a whole sidewalk or the such. Carly had a worse one though, where there was a whole group of 5 or 6 people running together, and they stared at her when she switched to the other side of the street.

They were talking to Colin when I got back, then August was doing a lot of graphing or the such. Colin and Vivian called back, and Carly read the Junie B. Jones book (where she’s afraid of roosters) and finished it. I was typing and working. They were then discussing fears and overcoming them. Carly asked Vivian if she had overcome a fear. August chimed in: “I have. Fighting mobs in Minecraft…”

August started playing piano, Colin still on the phone, constantly hanging up and calling back. He was practicing with the metronome, speeding it up even faster. He asked to see the first piece that Dalit had given him. We found it, and he was amazed at how simple it was. He kept saying “Seriously!?” Carly went upstairs to talk to Cassie. When she came down she told August that Vivian and Colin were getting Minecraft. August was incredibly excited, and ran back and forth saying “They’ll have Minecraft! I’ll have Minecraft! Thank. You. Luck!”

He went to the bathroom before we went upstairs, so was then looking at himself in the mirror, naked. He learned the term “butt hole” from Vivian, and was saying, “There’s some butt grime in there…my immune system better flush it out…” I gave him a bath, then Carly brushed his teeth.

In his bedroom we watched part of one of Rena’s yoga videos. Her volume is rather low though. After a few minutes he wanted his folk tale and we listened to “The King and the Cobbler” (after having difficulty streaming others) on Circle Round. We then listened to “Life, the Universe, and Everything” (sadly, no Douglas Adams references) on Peace Out. He then chose the Shutov Assembly by Brian Eno and fell asleep about 10:30.

An empty parking lot at the mall

“Run” for Ms. Dalit:

Working on accuracy with a metronome:

Insane graphing:

Faster metronome:

“Seriously”:

Which is more complex?:

He woke up at 6:40, stuffy. I switched it to the fan and got him back to sleep. He then slept until 8:25. I went up and accompanied him back downstairs and he went straight to the piano and played parts of “Run” and improvised. We played Minecractft, then he watched two Life Noggin videos, one on not washing your face, and one for not taking showering. We had pancakes for breakfast, and August had a riddle: “1 times 22 is 4.” The answer is that it is 2^2. He had a new tune on the piano, then showed me songs on Supersonics Piano. Carly came in and he taught her the first two measures of “Run”. He and I then worked on it and he learned all of “Run” and practiced the hole thing 3 times.

We watched GoodTimeswithScar’s latest video, then the Seattle Public Schools videos that they started to release to support students at home. We started with the PE videos, which were good but kind of odd because they cut off in the middle of exercises. He joined the PE classes with me a little. We watched some math and from that I used the iPad to show him Dots and Boxes but he was more interested in graphing and was doing more crazy stuff.

We ate our lunch (grilled tuna sandwiches) outside, then we went in to do some coding in Swift Playgrounds. He had fun putting the entire program within a function and kept saying, “ I’m making the function be the code.” decomposition was a word of the day. He practiced “Run” some more. We looked at the songs and their levels on Supersonics Piano and we looked at pieces and analyzed them a bit.

I got him out on a short walk, rather reluctantly. He was afraid of it raining. We walked around to the back walkway up to the park. Wandered around a bit up there, and tried to get him to take the Holly block, or back down the main street, but he said it was too warm in the sun, so we returned to the park (we talked about how the playgrounds were roped off, but the tapes had been broken) and came back down the walkway. We had stopped to admire the corn flowers on the way up, and then he hadn’t liked the (rather small) cloud of gnats closer to the park.

We sat outside on the chairs and got to discussing graphing. He asked something about how graphs work, and then suddenly had the epiphany that graphs are actually for solving problems, and kept saying things like: “So the sine of X is every single sine problem…woah.” “That is crazy!” “I’ve never thinked of graphs like that.” “I mainly used them for art…”

We then did a short video call with Gabi. We took the call outside on August’s iPad, then August quickly was taking him in to show him the piano and his piano playing: “Well, I have something to show you.” We then took Gabi upstairs to August’s room and showed him the poster that I’d put up, and told Gabi about how August things some of them are actually positive feelings.

After hanging up he did alone time, playing piano and listened to “Getting My Wings”. That was over 30 minutes long, so counted for all his alone time. Cowritten was a word of the day.

He used his full Minecraft hour, and I pretty much finished the tower I was making in our creative world, while he worked on the tunnel system. We then went outside on the swing, and Carly came out with us. He saw a mosquito sucking her blood.

Back inside we did a little Brilliant, August choosing the Artificial Neural Networks course. He surprised me by answering one of the questions correctly, and explained it was because I had taught him some of this before (which I remember vaguely). We then watched the newest Grian video. He did more piano playing, then had potatoes and onions that Carly had made, and that were really good. I also cooked up the spicy tofu that she’d gotten accidentally, and it was at least really good for me.

He then had cousin time, and I went upstairs to work. I didn’t have long up there though, as August had a big meltdown. We had started to use chocolate to help encourage/bribe him to not touch his face and pick his nose so much. Was working better than anything else had, so far, but apparently he started just demanding chocolate chips and started hitting Carly when she wouldn’t get them for him. I came down. He used his curling up on the couch and covering his head with a blanket strategy, and also chose to go outside on his own, which were both good choices. But he also kept getting upset, and when he came in and saw me there he tried throwing the stool at me. I took him up and talked to him on the bed. Back downstairs things were better, but then he was running and jumping on the couch, but went too hard and bonked his head on the wall.

After that Carly got him apples and peanut butter. He then listened to “The King and the Cobbler” on Circle Round.

Got him upstairs and Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. He got a lollipop for that, but then was taking forever to finish it, even after they read some Junie B. Jones. He was still being punky about things, but when I got him in the bedroom he chomped the rest like Carly had asked. We discussed the feelings posters again. We then got his teeth brushed. As he lay down he told me, “When I grow up I want to be a king have servants…A cool thing about being a king: they don’t have to move a muscle.” He then explained that every noun should be capitalized, as humans had “named” all the things. And that the polygon command in Desmos has to have at least 3 points, because 2 points is just a line. He was then pretending to be the ‘master’ and Brother was supposed to be his slave/servant, and he came up with an “Evil Brother” song based on our “Evil Boss” song.

We listened to “The Unwelcome Guest” on Circle Round, then “Tomatoes, Bees, and Me” on Peace Out. We listened to Brian Eno’s Lux and he was asleep around 11.

The end of a tune:

“Run” all the way through:

“People like harmony” song:

Chatting on our walk:

Showing Gabi his piano playing:

Showing piano to Andrea and family:

He was quiet through the night, although carly was up early. I was up just after 7, then august was up at 7:20. I thought he was staying up, and jokingly pulled him into the bed. He crawled in next to me, curled up facing away from me and fell right back to sleep. At first I was stuck, but when he kept sleeping and sleeping I was able to sneak out of bed, and he slept until 8:20. When he went down to Carly the first thing he asked was “How fast would a car have to go in miles an hour to go a mile in one second?…3600.” He answered it himself. Carly then read My First Book of Quantum Physics. He knew there were waves beyond ultraviolet and pointed out when their chart only went that far.

Carly headed upstairs to meet with Jeff and Alix. August discussed Minecraft a bit, played piano, and went to the bathroom. We playedMinecraft. Yet another new jungle world. He didn’t play his whole time and switched to a Phineas Rage Island Survival video and I made pancakes with strawberries. He watched the Kurzgesagt video on Coronavirus and then about bringing a piece of sun to Earth.

He played piano, then I read the first issue of The Thirteenth Doctor of Doctor Who to him. Carly came in and we gave him a special video time (he watched Phineas Rage) and Carly and I discussed whether we should go to the U.S. We then went upstairs for aMillie and Brother game. I made up the “Tree Punching Song” song. Brother was on a server, trading with villagers.

When we went downstairs Carly was watching Gandhi. So to be funny August started searching Google for “thermonuclear weapons” and watched a couple videos about nuclear weapons. He then did a graphing competition with her and declared, “I’m going to get my moneys worth.” When he was graphing he said, “That’s what happens when you mess around with radians.” Carly needed another neck massage, then we had lunch outside. I had made schnitzel and rice with peas. He was confused about people out walking dogs, stating, “Nobody likes dogs. They lick you.” And, “I like parrots in Minecraft more than dogs in real life. They don’t peck you.”

Back inside he went to the bathroom, then was quizzing Carly about the Hermitcraft server. Carly said that everything he was saying was nonsense and gave an example of what it sounded like. August said, “You should say upside down turnipy Yankees.”

He had seconds on lunch and we sat outside. Carly went for a run. We discussed festivals and fairs, like in Pennsylvania. He requested Brains On! We listened to “Bigfoot, Unicorns, and Dragons: Making Sense of Myths, Part1”

I went up to work. He got an extra video when carly needed to talk to Cassie. He did alone time listening to a Stories Podcast and then did Minecraft. He did his second alone time and I played with him. He listened to Supersonic Piano (his favorite is “Lost” and he likes “Castle March”) and then we watched StressMonster. We had crackers and cheese. For dinner we had some of the pasta with tofu and broccoli left, but were out of parmesan. But we had the mint pesto and August liked that.

Colin called and Carly brought him to August on the couch. At one point he said, “Get Ata please. I miss her.” Meanwhile, I was chatting with Peter and Sarah about the Edmonds district and their resistance to providing distance learning. The internet had gone done many hours ago, and we’d been using our cell signals. August eventually got pretty stressed about it though, and just cuddled with Carly saying, “I’m bored, I’m bored…” Carly thought of pictionary, and he got into that again. He had some pretty good ones.

After pictionary I tried to figure out our internet provider. August refused a bath. Cuddled under the blanket with me. I remembered the squirrel game, and Carly reminded me of even further back in Korea when he would be a baby bird and we’d give him colorful worms. Carly told us there’s another baby in our old apartment, as the couple that took it over had a baby.

After a bath was done and the internet had suddenly come back on we got him Cheerios and went in to bed. We listened to “The Very Sick Goblin” from Stories Podcast. Adapted wotd We then listened to the first episode of Eleanor Amplified, “Robot”. Peril wotd He told me that was too exciting though for bed time so we tried Dirtgirl’s Nature Detective Academy, with an episode called “Flowers”. We listened to the Mendelsson album from Kickstarter and he was asleep by 10:45.

Couch kicking:

Kicking slo-mo:

Ice spinning silliness in Minecraft:

His turn to be silly:

Pictionary time:

Reading the emotions poster:

He was up at 6:40. I took him back in bed, but he only lasted until 7:15. We went downstairs and he started pounding on the piano. We got him to calm it down and he played “Fairy Flight” including the chords. We finished reading Ben Braver, then played Minecraft, using the ‘Fill’ command to place funny things, like huge blocks of leaves, in the sky. I then made French toast. I was listening to podcasts and we all listened to the Allusionist episode titled “Tranquillusionist”, in which she simply read out all of the words that her listeners had sent in that they found calming.

We then listened to a Ted-Ed podcast about boredom after August said “I’m bored.” We ate our French toast and yogurt, then he created a sort of version of the lava game, where he was climbing around trying not to touch the floor. He then told us he was going to play Piano Maestro and get as many notes wrong as possible. He played and practiced for a while.

He went and checked outside and said “It’s wowzers out here.” I went out with him and he predicted it was going to rain. We went back in and watched Grian’s latest video. He then played piano.

It started hailing, quite hard, for several minutes. We watched from the kitchen door, then Carly started to go out the front door. He told her, “Don’t you dare go outside.” But she got him hail, and then he got his shoes on and went out a couple times as well. Back inside he stated he was bored, then went back to composing. He sat next to me on the couch. Carly gave him chocolate incentives to stop picking at his nose. After a while he switched to BrainPop and searched for and watched the video on Ancient Rome, then about teeth, then zero.

Shmuel called. While I talked to him August played piano for him and then went out and got handfuls of hail.

He switched to Google and searched for Hubble and watched a video about the space telescope: “I’m packing my brain with knowledge. That’s what I like to do.” He then found a video on trigonometry. As he was watching it he told Carly she should be watching it too. He was learning all about sohcahtoa. As we ate and watched it he asked, “What’s a beeline?” We discussed it and joked about how bees don’t actually go in straight lines.

He did more piano and composing on his iPad. He then did alone time, then we played Minecraft. Randomly he asked, “What’s spoken for mean?” And then “What’s up to heaven, down to hell mean?” Which is actually from How To. He was hungry so had some apple from his lunch and then crackers and cheese. We listened to an Ear Snacks with riddles and finished the Tiv Taam order. Carly went for a run and August told jokes, but they quickly turned nonsensical.

I tried to get him to go do recycling, but it was sprinkling when we left the yard. I set down the bags, and we ended up getting in Skoda Mama for a few minutes and playing in there. When Carly got back I went and did recycling. August and I then did the Coursera course and he did composing, then we went upstairs for a Millie game. Carly had washed the sheets, so I made the bed first. We played, and it involved Millie being in Ms. Danger’s class. I was getting tired, so called Carly and ordered a coffee, which she was very kind to bring up.

We went downstairs at 4:40. He listened to “Keep It Chill, Daffodil” on Stories Podcast and I went for a run. He was playing piano and talking to Colin when I got back. He and Carly played Minecraft and she got him apple and peanut butter. When I was back down he asked me, “What was it like for wealthy people back in Ancient Rome?” He then opened Khan Academy on his own and was looking through math courses and watching videos and answering questions. I was looking for a documentary and found Roman City on Hoopla we had popcorn and banana chips and watched the full thing.

I got him up for a bath and Carly washed him. I had put up the small emotions poster from the set. I had taped it on the wall by his bed. He was excited to see it: “It’s like a decoration with knowledge.” He worked on reading all of them, getting most on his own, then went through the list asking, “Have you ever been…”

Once in bed we listened to “Witch, Wizard, Winter” on Stories Podcast. He went to the bathroom and told me his joke about technology doubling by 4040 (because the year doubled). He then had a theory/prediction on religion being 99.9999 percent gone by then because people would become more scientific. We then listened to the Peace Out episode “Geode”. He asked, “Are geodes real?” We were able to listen to the Benge Earthmoves album tonight and he was asleep, I think, before 10:30.

Checking outside:

Hail 1:

Hail 2:

Picking up hail:

The end of something:

His own metronome:

He was up once during the night. I then went up and woke him up just before 9. Downstairs he said good morning to Carly, then we got a message that Gilad could play Minecraft. He logged on, and Gilad made a new jungle world, and August, Gilad, and his brother played together in survival. They had fun exploring the jungle, a chasm, and a jungle temple. His brother used commands to summon lightning and make them fly, which we didn’t know we could do.

They actually ended up playing for an hour and a half. But it was his morning time as well, and it was good to be chatting with Gilad and his older brother. We then had cereal and soy milk for breakfast and he started composing. He never really got around to composing “Time’s Out” like he planned, but he learned several new things about composing. He then switched to listened to music in Supersonic Piano. We then went and worked on “Run”. At first he said it was so hard and was surprised I could play it at all. But then he got right into it. He got the first 8 bars down right away; by the end of the day he’d be playing the first 16 repeatedly, and he’d know the following 8 (where chording was introduced) but wouldn’t play it for Carly.

From there we read How To and watched a video about the Hyperloophttps://youtu.be/O_FyOBCVGWE

He then told me all about a hyper loop he made through space. The test tunnel is attached to the moon. I think the full thing went to Jupiter at first, but then when I asked he said it made “A secant through the earth.” We then ended up discussing what the word internet means, and the difference between internet and intranet. For lunch he had the leftover salmon and I made us hot dogs.

Over on the rug I opened the Coursera Composing Like Mozart course and we watched the first video. He watched some, but it didn’t hold his attention, or just inspired him to go play piano. He was wanting Carly to come down so he could play “Run” for her. He asked me to look up commands in Minecraft and we looked at the list.

For alone time we listened to a KidNuz and started a Wow in the World: “A Scientific Songtacular”. Carly came down and he showed off what he’d learned. He did alone time, then we played Minecraft in a new jungle world and were figuring out commands and ended up having fun making water fall from the sky and whatnot.

He did more Notion, and I found their sample composition, like Beethoven. We watched/listened to a couple and August was really impressed: “I want to compose like that.” We read How To, then worked on the second phrase of Run. I was feeling tired, so when he needed more to do we watched most of episode 2 of Cosmos and had popcorn. Carly came down and he then did alone time and listened to more of Wow in the World. For Minecraft we used commands to make big blocks of TNT and blow things up. He was getting excited and knocked over a glass of water. Luckily, no damage. He told Carly, “You can see our decimated landscape”

He next did a piano competition with her and lots of composing. Colin called. They ended up upstairs with Carly next to August on the bed. They chatted for a long time. I was doing boring financial stuff downstairs. He came down and finally ate dinner (pasta and broccoli and whatnot). I practiced “Run” on the piano. He then went upstairs to say “salve” to Carly. That’s Latin for hello. He requested more brussel sprouts and said, “Here’s the cool thing about Brussels sprouts: the name.”We read all but last two chapters of Ben Braver. He ate more and more Brussels sprouts.

Carly’s been having a sore neck (probably all of the distant learning) so up on the bed we gave her a neck massage. She then gave August a bath. August came in and told me “Here’s some cool numbers: 1 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128…” At first I thought he was trying to tell me the Fibonacci Sequence but had it wrong, but then he pointed out that each number was simply the total of all the numbers before it…seems like he came up with all of that on his own.

They went and did a short yoga thing together, then in bed we listened to “Prometheus Steals the Fire” on Stories Podcast. Sin was a word of the day. Then “Two Daughters”. For a new meditation sort of track, with the lights off and him in bed, we listened to “Pebble Patience” from Peace Out. I’ve started to download episodes in advance, as podcasts and music stream so poorly now. We tried to listen to some Benge again for music, but it was stuttering, so we Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” instead. He was asleep sometime around 11.

Minecraft time 1:

Minecraft time 2:

Playing the first 8 bars of “Run”:

Minecraft fill craziness 1:

Minecraft fill craziness 2:

Silly on the bed:

So close to 1, mostly asleep, I heard August rolling around or doing something. Suddenly there was the sound of the lower bed rolling out. I got up and went to go check. The door was blocked by the lower bed, which had rolled a foot or so extra. August was asleep on his bed. Seems like it had been out a little more than extra and he had started to get up and it rolled. Luckily, he didn’t fall, and instead simply lay back down and went to sleep. Luckily, I could reach my hand in and slowly move the bed. Will have to make sure the bed doesn’t come that far out, and/or figure out something else to keep it from happening. An inch closer to the door and we would have had a real problem.

He then woke up at 7:10. I went in with him and got him to lie back down and then he slept until 8:10. Downstairs we read Ben Braver. Based on a mention in the book we watched Times Square ball drops. He talked about setting up a celebration that would block out the sun. He then asked if stars could orbit each other, so we watched a Crash Course video on binary systems:https://youtu.be/pIFiCLhJmig

Binary star and shlep and Algol Paradox were words of the day.

I went upstairs while he was composing on the couch. I was talking to Carly, and he called up and needed to go to the bathroom. When I said I’d be down in a few seconds he instantly started to be demanding and get upset. I told him he could come upstairs to the bathroom. He eventually came up, but had a bit of a meltdown for a minute, with Carly holding him on the couch, before he calmed down and talked to me about it. That out of the way, he asked about learning things in Notion, like how to change time signatures and make ties. We didn’t do the time signatures, but he figured a lot of other things out today.

For breakfast I made us fried eggs and toast. We ate, and then finally played Minecraft. We listened to the narwhal episode of Brains On, some news (but just the kid news — when I mentioned we hadn’t been listening to as much news because it was all about corona he thanked me), and an Ear Snacks about RBG, playing the new “RGB” song that we’d heard on the other podcast. We then went to the piano and did a lot of composing. He told me, “Here’s something weird about my piano playing: “Fairy Flight” is harder than “Oh, Susanna” but I can play it easier.” We discussed motivation and practice and how they go together.

I got him to go upstairs and I took a shower. He watched Phineas Rage. Downstairs I made a grilled cheese sandwich and we listened to a Wow in the World about spicy peppers. He was then graphing on couch and we tried figuring out derivative functions, without much success. I got him outside and we walked up to do recycling. He only let me do part of it though; the clouds were dark and I think he remembered the time it started to rain while doing recycling, so he dragged me home.

At home he told me, “Here’s something that freaks me out: the square root of 92 squared is 92…All those decimals!” He did more composing, and randomly asked “What’s enthusiastically?” A word of the day. He showed me how he was adding notes that went together to both the treble and bass, and said, “It’s like solving for x: I have to put stuff on both sides.” Since he had been composing by himself he suddenly had the idea that it should count as alone time. When I said no (it was free screen time though) he got grumpy. Eventually got over it and brought up Giordano Bruno: “Remember his argument? Is God is infinitely powerful he would make an infinite universe?” He then had an imagining game where he (Bar?) was confusing a Roman: “There’s also cosmic background radiation… there’s quantum computers…”

He said he was hungry, no surprise since he had barely touched his sandwich and hadn’t eaten the pickles for lunch, so I now got him a yogurt and carrot coins, both of which he approved, but again didn’t really ate either. We then did a little writing practice: He had me write out words like quantum physics and Krakatoa volcanic eruption and copied some of the words, then did a few lower case As before deciding he was done. He said he was really hungry, and I pointed out all the food he had passed up. He agreed to eat the sandwich, so I reheated that and he did a much better job this time.

For alone time he listened to Circle Round’s “The Elephant’s Tub”. Based on the ad at the beginning he asked, “What’s life insurance?” We discussed that. In Minecraft we had earlier started working on a big tree house (based on an idea from a Brother and Sister game, in which I had had her do a tree house when he had her log on to a new server—I’m noticing that I haven’t mentioned a lot of his games today, but there was a lot of imaging going on today as well), but after setting a spawn point in the tree he had moved the bed. He was then trying to fall from the tree in a mine cart in a way that wouldn’t kill him. He took the precaution of removing all of his gear, but then fell and died. But he ended up back at spawn, which we haven’t been to in months. He found it very funny though, so an indicator of how his thinking has changed in the game). Anyway, I went and picked him up in a boat, then he found a treasure map, so we spent the rest of our time digging for that.

Colin called on FaceTime and they talked a bit. Colin kept telling him to go outside or upstairs and to get Carly. August took him outside and he sat in the chair, composing, and I showed Colin August’s music. It was windy and we eventually came back in. He said, “I like to compose. I feel like a composer.” They hung up, and when Carly game down he told her, “Mama. I’ll teach you what I learned about composing. I can make beautiful songs.”

They called back and Carly was reading them all a book about planets over Zoom. Colin and Vivian were on their own devices. I went for a run; the first in some time. When I got back they also had Derek and the kids on the call. A full cousins time. I had started dinner, but then switched with Carly so I could go do financial stuff (setting up the account since we have to move firms for her pension). I came back down and we all ate the pasta and tofu and broccoli and cheese dinner. August and I then watched a Ted-Ed I’d found for him: “Radioactivity: Expect the Unexpected”.

We then did some learning time, over on the floor. We did the “Cellular Automation” part of the mechanical physics course. Think we’re going to have to go back to the easier math classes after this, but there was some good learning going on, particularly with the number of combinations thing.

I got him upstairs, and with Carly I heard him coming up with his own lines for “Oh, Susanna”:

“The restaurant was so crowded, I was first in line…I was so unscared in my bunker, I peed my pants…”

She gave him a bath and I brushed his teeth. In bed we listened to “The Little Dutch Boy” (using his finger to stop the leak) from Stories Podcast. His eyes were bothering him so he washed his eyes with water from his water bottle but got the bed all wet. We solved it by putting down his comforter as his bottom sheet. He liked that.

When he went to the bathroom he started philosophizing about money: “Why’s money so valuable? It’s just pieces of metal and paper?…Ones and zeros…”

Back in bed he got really excited about composing: “I’m going to compose an intense song called “Times Up”” He had the tune and hummed it and told me it would be in C minor and use triplet 32nd notes. He was using an invisible piano on the wall to show me which keys he was using. He then talked about his goals: “I can’t wait until I’m accurate down to a 64th note…” And he talked about wanting to give himself challenges for him to then play on the piano. And he talked about wanting to know how other composers compose music. We ended up making a list of goals for tomorrow:

Goals for tomorrow:

• accuracy (to 64th notes)

• how to change time signatures in Notion

• Learn about how composers compose

• compose “Time’s Out”

We finished listening to “Velociraptor”, the last Bedtime Explorers podcast (until they release more). August wondered what meditation we’d do tomorrow. We listened to the Philip Glass: Musical Offerings album and he was finally asleep around 11.

Composing time 1:

Composing time 2:

Colin watching him compose:

Moving his hands in “opposites”:

Playing Fairy Flight in 5/4:

Cousins learning time:

Talking about his composing plans 1:

Talking about his composing plans 2:

Decided to start counting the days, starting with the first day we started cancelling activities and spending more time at home, which was his birthday.

He woke up twice during the night. The second time he called me back in as he couldn’t get back to sleep. I lay down on the lower bed for a while. He then woke up right at 8. Downstairs we read My First Book of Quantum Physics. Then went to piano time. He played his piece and I taught him how to move his hands for chords. Which he already knew, but thought was incorrect. So he was excited about this. He then wanted to do another Ms. Safe recital story. We did that but also got oatmeal for breakfast.

He sang “I love Beethoven, he’s my favorite of them all…” And then sang about note lengths. We went upstairs and did a long Ms. Safe recital story. Millie was a very shy student and would faint when news students arrived. We finally headed back downstairs at 10:20. At the piano we learned the page of musical symbols/terms from the Supersonics book. August liked that but it wasn’t enough. He showed me all of the symbols in Notion and talked about how he wanted to learn them all.

We then went back upstairs for a short game of Millie being in Ms. Danger’s class. She was really shy, and scared of Ms. Danger and the wild students in her class. Back downstairs we worked on “Fairy Flight” a little. We then watched the newest GoodTimeswithScar episode. I made baked salmon for lunch and August listened to “Dog King and the Borf of Yoolye” for alone time. We ate salmon and the last of the cauliflower and watched a Crash Course video about Nuclear Weapons (https://youtu.be/w4q1fG1vh5I). He had asked about how they work. That video didn’t quite get to his question, but was interesting.

We went back upstairs for a Millie and bullies game upstairs. She convinced them to be nice. Back downstairs I was opening the windows because it was so nice. August saw a lizard run up one of the kitchen windows. He went outstays for a bit. He finally used his iPad time for Minecraft.

Carly went to school to help hand out books to parents for their students. We went outside for chocolate milk and read Ben Braver. We then sat on the swing and used Brilliant to learn about sine, and I used Paper of course to help explain things. On Desmos he figured out how to graph a grid, all at 45 degrees from the coordinate system. We then did more sine. Congruent and unit circle were words of the day. On the couch he took his clothes off under the blanket, which was funny, but he got upset when I told him he needed to go wash his hands. Took a couple minutes but he gave in and went and washed them. He also asked why revolutions aren’t often successful. So we talked about leadership and who has the resources, etc. Carl was home at 3:20.

He demonstrated crescendo to her. He had thrown pillows on the ground, and when I asked him to clean them up he decided to use them, and lay on them saying, “They’re as comfy as a snail.” He next was composing music for Carly. Of course, he wouldn’t compose anything easy for her. He is clearly not just composing randomly now, as he would compose by picking out the notes (I.e. not recording himself) but then go to the piano and play the same line, first time. That is, he knew what he was doing. And he was composing using 32nd notes.

He was wanting to interact with Carly a lot but she still had work to do, so he and I watched the latest Stressmonster. OTT was a fun word of the day (meaning over the top). Cassie called with Colin and Carly brought the phone down. August talked to Colin for a while and played piano. They hung up, and we read How to. August was then asking questions like, “What does inverse mean?” “What’s a derivative?”

I went up to work. They did a lot of Zooming or whatever with Colin and Vivian. I heard a lot of piano playing as well. When I came down August was listening to a Circle Round story (“Granny’s Leather Bag”) for his alone time and Carly was asleep on the couch. He had had the last of the pie.

We played Minecraft, after which he walked around in circles talking about Minecraft. He asked what the moon looked like now and we found it on his chart. He wanted to go out and look for it. Not in sight, so we used the app and realized it wouldn’t be up for another 6 hours or something like that, because it is close to new.

He was still hungry so I offered cereal with milk. I asked if he wanted soy milk and he said yes, and said, “Thank you for reminding me of the alternative.” On the piano he was asking about moving his hands again, and that led to me showing him videos of Hazel Scott and Oscar Peterson playing piano. He was in awe.

I got him upstairs and he scared Carly. He told her, “I scared you so much. You practically jumped out of your pants.” She gave him a bath and I brushed his teeth. In bed he told me, “Once I had a dream that I was skateboarding through the house…it was weird because I’ve never skateboarded before.” We listened to Stories Podcast’s “The Blind Men and the Elephant” and he really wanted another story so we listened to Circle Round’s “Progress Makes Progress” For a meditation we did Bedtime Explorers’ “Tyranosaurus” A little different music today, listening to the album Inkwell by the Barrett Martin Group. He was asleep at 10:50.

A morning composition:

Big leaps:

Showing Colin how he wears himself out on the bed:

By the end of the day the Israeli government announced even further restrictions, saying people couldn’t leave their homes except for essentials, like buying groceries and medical care. That means no going to parks or for walks. So our bike ride yesterday might be the last for a while. At least we have a yard.

A little bird flew in the kitchen at 7:50. I opened one of the windows, then was struggling to open one of the two windows it was closest to, then it was able to find the open window and was off.

He woke up at 8:15. He called me up, then went back in his room to confuse me. Downstairs we read Ben Braver He then went and practiced his song. He had a bit of a Brother game, where he meets a girl who is a walking atomic bomb in the jungle, which was based on a line in the book. Carly came in, her first virtual schooling meeting had gone well, and said good morning, then went back out to work. August did some Desmos, asking why y^2=x^2 has two lines. Doesn’t quite seem convinced by the answer. Think we need to work through some of these line graphs sometime.

We then played Minecraft in the Survival Island world. We listened to a 99% Invisible on weather forecasting. We had oatmeal for breakfast and I taught him the joke about “Is your refrigerator running?” He then was acting it out with Brother. He played “Oh Susanna” on piano, then ate and did more Brother game. August thought Brother’s “Head too big for your body” joke, talking about Bar, was hilarious. Carly got back from school. He convinced her to do a quick piano competition.

I read The Bear and the Piano, which we haven’t done for a long time. Sold out was a word of the day. We then watched Carmen from the Metropolitan Opera, which was free to watch today. August was quite intrigued, and urchin was a word of the day. We watched a little over twenty minutes. Unfortunately, it was plagued with technical issues in that when it was working subtitles weren’t working and later in the day it wouldn’t stream video, just audio. But at least the translations would show up. So I described what was going on based on the Wikipedia synopsis.

For alone time he played piano and listened to “The Chattering Clams” on Circle Round. We played Minecraft. We then ate cauliflower and pizza for lunch outside. We ran back inside when it started raining. We watched some more Carmen, but it was starting to have problems. We cleaned up the wrapping paper by crumpling it and throwing it in the box. He asked, “Dada, why do trapezoids get to have nice, even non-irrational areas?” He was looking up at the math formulas I’d written on paper. He did some more piano, coming up with cool chromatic licks. We read the instructions for the crystal night light, but decided not to start yet; we need a big jar. Maybe when the pickle jar is empty.

We then did a big game with Ms. Safe with her having the kids “recitaling”, that is, preparing for a music recital. Through the day they would get crazier and crazier, both the amount of practice and how long the recitals lasted, but also the expectations for how many instruments and pieces they would learn, and whether they could stop for the bathroom or to sleep.

He popped some of the bubble wrap, then we did some of the Brilliant course on Python and using and reading Caesar cyphers. Plethora was a word of the day. He then did a couple levels in Swift Playgrounds, writing his first function. We went back to the Ms. Safe game, doing an even longer recital, then he was asking about the bedrock breaking in Minecraft so we watched a video of someone (Xisuma, I think) showing how to do it. He then did alone time on the piano.

He played the C Super Locrian and F Super Locrian together. He noted that they sounded good together and were a fourth apart. He said it made them sound “Major” but I’m not sure what he meant by that.

We played Minecraft, then did piano time. Started on practicing “Fairy Flight” but he doesn’t really want to learn the left hand part for some reason. Switched to Piano Maestro and he moved up into level three on that. He commented, “Timing 100%? 14 out of 14? That’s crazy!” He had some crackers and peanut butter. We then did a Brother with him hiding cats in his Minecraft game.

Carly was down at 4:20. She’s had a stiff neck. August massaged her neck a bit and said, “This is the first time I massaged you.” They did lesson time with Vivian and Colin, learning about the body, and I went up to work. August did blood. Vivian did organs, I think. August then cashed in his 5 stars and played Minecraft with Carly. He had noodles and broccoli for dinner. I came down, then August and I headed up and did another crazy Ms. Safe recital up on the bed. Back downstairs Carly then called Vivian and Colin to read them a story. Vivian got upset when Colin wasn’t sharing the computer though and left. Carly read the Grace Hopper book to August and Colin.

Carly went upstairs for a shower. August played with pasting and typing text on my iPad. He got to the 900000 character limit. We had only gotten through about 45 minutes of Carmen today, unfortunately. Our internet speeds have been horrendous and we couldn’t stream video. Video chat seems to work okay, but watching videos or even doing August’s podcasts at bedtime has been difficult.

August asked about finger snapping, so we watched a slo-mo snapping video and another video of normal things in slow motion. We watched the latest Grian Hermitcraft video and cahoots was a word of the day. He then came up with a new paradox, arguing that a circle should be impossible, since if there are an infinite amount of sides that the left turns should infinitely small; basically, that turning should be impossible. He realized that it was a version of Xeno’s Paradox.

I did dishes. He told me about his mob farm in a jungle in Minecraft. We went upstairs and said good night to Carly. He describes his equation to find the area of any polygon and talked about wanting to move both hands on piano. I gave him a bath. In bed we listened to two episodes of Stories Podcast: “In Your Dreams” and “Extra Scoops!” He liked that as a news show, so we subscribed to that as well. He went to the bathroom, then we listened to “Triceratops” from Bedtime Explorers. It was 10:10. Followed that up with Philip Glass, and he was asleep between 10:30 and 11 again.

Lunch outside:

Cleaning up paper and listening to Carmen:

Practicing a new lick:

Programming with Swift Playgrounds:

Humming along with his playing:

Playing the jinx game with Stories Podcast:

He called out at 2:15 at night. I went in and he was soon back to sleep. He woke up at 8:20. We read Juna’s Jar, actually finishing it this time. He wanted to play Minecraft, but said, “First I’ll say good morning to the piano.” He played “Fairy Flight” and has the first three lines down smoothly. He went out to Carly and said good morning, then asked her to come see all three lines.

We then worked on more. He knows the fourth line. He then asked about Glissando vs. portamento, which he had seen in Notion, so I looked that up. He then played the piece in 5/4. That was pretty cool. After that he was changing up the rhythm in all sorts of interesting way. I then taught him how to play it in 7/8, dropping the last eighth note of each measure.

We finally played Minecraft after 9. After playing we had oatmeal, then did more piano practice. Earned a star. Muscle memory was a word of the day. He then spent time looking for pieces in Supersonic Piano. I showed him how to bookmark them so I could then send them to Carly to print later.

I took him upstairs and measured his height on the chart. Did actually calculate the height yet though. I took a shower and he watched Phineas Rage. We then did math time and investigated the tan(x) equation. We used the section in the trigonometry class in Brilliant and I put pictures in Paper and we figured out the math for why the asymptotes are the way they are. We then did music time and he got the fourth phrase of the song.

I made lunch, a tuna sandwich and pickle, and Carly came in for lunch. He showed her the first half of the song, then went outside with her for a few minutes while I was working on sending her an email with the music to print. He found a bone, a vertebrae of something, in the dirt and brought it in and put it in a bag. We read Juna’s Jar again, at his request. I got snacks together for a little outing. On the piano I taught him that moving the left hand was a mirror of the right. He was shocked when it clicked for him: he had his mouth wide open and said “Faint”.

We then got out on our bike ride. Didn’t go too far. Just over towards the strawberry fields, then up to the park on Vatikim. Empty, as usual. He played around a little on the playground, then we had a snack. He went on the swing a bit, then we headed home when he needed the bathroom. We were home at 2:45. He went to the bathroom, then went outside on his own. He still had his helmet on, and closed the door behind himself. He was out there for a good 30 minutes: singing and humming much of the time.

He came in, Carly headed to school, and we played Minecraft, then did more piano practice. We then did writing and reading time: he wrote the first half of the alphabet, then read two books to me from Rivet, after rejecting Hooked on Phonics, calling it boring.

Carly got home, and he first wanted to do more piano time, so we worked on the two remaining lines of it, then I went up to work. He used five stars with Carly to do Minecraft, and ate artichoke, broccoli, noodles, and a few crackers for dinner. They then spent a long time talking with Vivian and Colin. When I came down they were doing a ccience lesson together, watching a BrainPop video together through Zoom: August was the know-it-all, Vivian the studious one, and Colin the class clown. He would ask silly questions: One time it was “Banana (something).” But he also asked, “I have a question, Ata: How the body works?”

Eventually they hung up. Carly headed upstairs and he and I did a Brother and Sister game. He was asking me math problems, and I realized that he needed to know about order of operations. So we watched three different order of operations songs (on PEMDAS). He found those pretty funny. We then watched a video on Xeno’s paradox: Xeno:https://youtu.be/EfqVnj-sgcc

He asked, “Can I have the calculator?” When I asked why he replied, “Oh, reasons.”

When Carly came down we called my parents and August opened the presents that had come from both them and Dee. Dee got him a swim shirt and suit and a pair of planet socks and a snorkel set. My parents gave him a couple kites, a paddle ball kit, and a science kit that makes a nightlight with crystals on it. We talked to them a bit more, then said goodbye and headed up to a bath. Carly still had work to do so I gave him a bath.

He was still hungry and I had told him in advance that he could have crackers and peanut butter after his bath. But then I realized he hadn’t had pie today. Nor had I. So we went down and each had a slice. Back upstairs we discussed the feelings posters. It was interesting, because there were a few on the negative side, like sleepy and scared, but especially determined and confused that he said he really liked. I brushed his teeth, he said good night to Carly, and we listened to Stories Podcast’s “King of the Frogs” and Circle Round’s “The Enchanted Paintbrush”. We listened to Philip Glass, and he fell asleep after 10:30.

Figuring out trig graphs:

Smashing:

More Fairy Flight progress:

Playing outside on his own:

School time with Vivian and Colin:

Birthday presents 1:

Presents 2:

Presents 3:

Presents 4:

We needed a few things, so Carly headed to the store. We let him sleep, and he woke up at 8:50. I was working on sending sheet music to Carly to print later, so August spent some time on piano and practiced “Oh Susanna!” Carly got home as we were playing Minecraft. August randomly said, “Old favors don’t matter.” Then, “They’re soon forgotten.” Very confused where those came from. Kind of sounded like song lyrics. He finally said they were from a folk tale.

I made us oatmeal for breakfast, and Carly headed to school. We went outside and he walked around talking about Minecraft server and Myna relaxing every block on the server after investigating glitches. We sat in the comfy chairs for quite a while. He went back in and played some piano. Carly got home and showed him some video about the effects of laughter. He later asked me “What’s chronic pain?” A word of the day. Carly went out to the yard to work and we read Ben Braver. On the piano August decided he wanted to work on “Fairy Flight”. It was one that he had chosen and I had intended that one to be one he works on with Dalit, but he got right into it. We learned dim. e rit. As we played it he kept saying “It’s so beautiful!”

After working on that for a long time we then watched the latest Grian video. August really liked when he used “maths.” Carly came in and he showed her his song progress, then played more piano. She got him hummus and cucumber and I made a grilled tuna sandwich. While he went to the bathroom he asked why Catholic Church thought we were at the center of the universe. He seemed to understand the answer (about how that is how it actually looks, if you watch the sun) better than many of my 9th grade students. He then said, “I think I know why Jupiter takes longer to orbit the sun.” He explained about how the circumference of its orbit is a lot bigger.

He ate his sandwich, then worked on another line of the song. Carly then got him ready and they headed to the beach, the one in Netanya, one north of Poleg Beach. They had fun, then were back before 3:30. He played more piano, then we were listening to the latest episode of Space Programme but paused to have a story with Brother going in a g force simulator. Back on the piano he wanted me to fix the A. It is the first one I fixed, and hits a little soft. I took it out and sanded down some parts and made it rotate more smoothly, but when I put it back it still wasn’t perfect. I’m afraid there might be something else going on with it. Carly and I don’t actually notice the difference much, but August does.

At 4pm Carly and I had our first Zoom meeting with Gabi instead of going into his office. I liked the idea of teaching him more about the science of emotions, and have a book already that August might like. While we met in the office, August sat on the bed and watched Phineas Rage. We went back downstairs and we worked on more of the piece, particularly the first line of the second page. He asked me, “How are you better than me?” I had just been practicing the line several times.

He went and made Marble Maze structures. Carly was working outside. He spent some time searching and listening to songs on SuperSonics Piano. He turned it into a sort of Brother game. He wanted to see 64th notes, so we watched a couple videos on YouTube. I think I used the word integrate and he asked what that meant, so a word of the day.

He liked that you could search for YouTube videos using Google, and we talked about Google owning YouTube and how companies could buy other companies. For dinner I made roasted cauliflower and hot dogs. We ate, then he played Minecraft with Carly in a new world, after some negotiations. Think he actually only played about 20 minutes; he remembered adding time, so then Carly convinced him his time was about up.

They tried to call Cherie, but no answer, then called Vivian and Colin instead. He was a bit hyper, then Carly had him show them the Marble Maze. “Explain what it is. “Physics…it’s all physics.” He ran away when she showed a picture she had drawn a picture of coronavirus. He showed her his progress on “Fairy Flight”.

He talked with Colin for a long time. Colin told him to eat his pie on the floor, which we all did. Then to eat like a pig, then to go outside. August took him outside for a few minutes. As soon as he hung up he said, “I’m bored.” Carly said, “That was inevitable” and he asked “What’s inevitable mean?” Another new word. To Carly he had also said “IB” as an abbreviation for “I’m bored” at some point today.

He was then being really ticklish on the couch. He’d climb on to me, but then be ticklish even though I wasn’t tickling him. We got him upstairs and he told Carly, “I’ll trade not taking a bath for Mr. Addicty Pants.” Apparently that’s the name of the squishy alien toy. He did a lot of spinning on the bed, then claimed he was tired from all the spinning. Carly gave him a bath, then they were reading the cat math book in the big bed. When he came in to me he asked, “Did you know I spinned about a thousand times?” And he told me, “Here’s a golden shape: a rectangle that generates smaller rectangles inside it…” He had learned about ratios and golden shapes from the books, apparently. He asked why the graph for tan(x) makes the lines it does and I told him we could learn about it tomorrow.

We listened to “Drink the river, eat like royalty” on Stories Podcast, then listened to “Stegosaurus” on Bedtime Explorers. passion was a word of the day. He told me, “I don’t think I’m going to be a conductor; I’m going to be a musician. I’d rather play music than conduct it.” We listened to Shostakovich Piano Sonata No. 2 (a piece that we found out earlier in the day has sixty-fourth notes). He was asleep by 10:30.

Singing about how to kill cows:

Punching Some Trees song:

Fairy Flight, first two lines:

Adding the left hand to Fairy Flight:

Moving his hand on the piano!:

Showing his progress on Fairy Flight:

Talking to Colin:

Eating on the floor for Colin:

Taking Colin in the yard: