If yesterday was a chill day, today was practically a deep freeze, as we enjoyed the last of summer vacation before officially embarking on Ethan’s home learning journey. We’re all excited about what’s to come, but we also realize it will be a learning process for all of us. The most important thing I can think of going forward is maintaining good communication with Ethan and doing things in moderation, rather than trying to squeeze in as much as possible. Let’s see how it goes!

Morning

This morning, Ethan spent part of it just snuggling with us when he got up. I think not having a time to go to school will allow for more family time, which is always fantastic.

After breakfast, Dong Eun took Ethan out to the playground for about an hour. Ethan rode his bike but it was quite hot, so they came back a little sooner than expected.

One of Ethan’s birthday presents, Monopoly Deal, has been a huge hit with all of us. Monopoly Deal is a fun game because of the strategy and planning involved. And trying to take all my money seems like great fun to him.

Home learning Unschooling

Ethan did find time to help Dong Eun make lunch, so it’s been nice to have him participate in preparing meals.

Afternoon

Another couple hours of playing Monopoly Deal, along with working on his Snap Circuits set. He experimented with creating wacky sounds, as certain circuits play music. He mixed up the circuits and was able to make some pretty unique and wacky sounds.

Later in the afternoon, I took him swimming in our pool for about 30 minutes. He definitely fulfilled his physical activity quota for today.

Ethan has been recording his daily activities in his journal every night before bedtime, but that seems to be difficult to accomplish, so we switched to starting in the afternoon before dinner. He was certainly a lot more energized and into the writing.

Evening

After dinner, Ethan completed three chapters from his Gr. 1 to 3 workbooks. One of the activities was identifying compound words from scrambled words. He seemed to really enjoy finding out what the scrambled words were.

He then practiced violin for about 20 minutes before cleaning his room.

We played more Monopoly Deal, and then we discussed the week ahead and mapped out a plan together with Ethan.

He really enjoys STEAM activities, so we found some books on the library’s catalogue.

We decided that having a weekly project or challenge would be a good goal and Ethan suggested how he could spend each day working on the project or challenge.

Ethan and Dong Eun wrote their ideas and schedule onto the balcony door. 

The first challenge is to make something out of cardboard. He planned each day like this:

Day 1: Plan

Day 2: Draw what he’ll make

Day 3: Make rough draft

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Make it

And that was the day!