As we continue unschooling with Ethan, the questions we get from friends and family are usually about what Ethan does and how does he get any social interaction. Answering the first question is pretty easy because we can talk about all the projects and activities that Ethan does each day. The second part…I’m not sure where the perception that homeschoolers have less social interaction came from, but I have to admit that years ago there was a participant on a reality TV show who was homeschooled and my thoughts about her were similar to what people are asking me now.
For me, after experiencing and learning more about unschooling and what a child does each day, I can see that the questions come mostly from lack of knowledge and exposure to homeschooling. We still have lots to learn, but we’re learning each day and love how happy and engaged Ethan is in learning.
I hope this blog gives some insight and inspiration for other families who are thinking about taking the plunge into unschooling. With that said, here’s what happened this day…
Adventures of a Piece of Paper lives on in Book 16. Be sure to check out Book 15 or even Book 1, if you haven’t seen the whole series.
He then read a book about climate change, though we haven’t heard him talk about this topic much afterward.
Using instructions in a math book, Ethan made a Mobius Strip. He’s made one before but they’re pretty cool, so he made another one.
What shouldn’t be a surprise is the amount of time Ethan spends on a topic that he’s interested in. This is the same for everybody, I suppose, and it’s the greatest benefit of unschooling, the ability to allow the child to spend as much time as he or she wants on a certain topic.
For example, Ethan has learned about the Fibonacci sequence but he continues to come back to it. He has seen it in certain videos about nature and this exposure deepens his interest and knowledge. It’s pretty cool.
And in the two photos below, he cuts up a square into shapes based on Fibonacci numbers and is able to rearrange the shapes into a rectangle.
Afterward, he practiced some more standard form, as he’s very interested in using and writing large numbers.
And then he used the Korean math book to calculate speed and learned that speed is distance over time.
And was able to figure out how fast a slug is compared to a cheetah. HINT: Cheetah is a wee bit faster.
He attended mindfulness class tonight and came back with a stress relief toy made from a balloon and filled with flour. We also read our messages of gratitude that we wrote.
And here are some new books he borrowed from the library. We’re trying to find books about topics that he has shown an interest in, such as climate change after watching about climate change on Bill Nye’s latest show.
Overall, it was once again a pretty packed day of learning but it never feels like it’s too much because it’s all based on his natural flow for the day.
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