As unschoolers, we try to let Ethan lead the way with what he wants to learn based on his interests. Sometimes, we throw something new at him to see if there’s something else that might pique his curiosity. And today, we had two such somethings…
Ethan’s friend Kenson invited us to visit the North Vancouver Archives, as Kenson has been working on a family tree and the archives are an amazing place to do research. I wasn’t sure how much Ethan would like it, but anytime we can hang out with Kenson and his family is ok with us.
Later in the day, the plan was to bring Ethan with me to the law firm where I work part-time as the business development and marketing director. He was very excited about coming to work with me, but first, he had to get through the archives.
Up and at ’em
Denise arranged a private tour for us, so it was pretty cool to get to check the place out on our own. The archives were on the second floor and the first place went to once we got off the elevator was the main reading room.
This was a very cool place with an awesome table from the boardroom of an old shipping company. There’s a button under the desk that was apparently used to call the secretary, but it was more fun to think it activated a trap door.
Some information about what the archives are all about helped us understand just how useful of a resource this place could be. In particular, the things they have related to the World Wars made what Ethan has learned so much more real.
This was a sort of photo album showing people from the North Shore that had a significant impact on the area. People like Karen Magnussen, who was an Olympic silver medalist and world champion figure skater was one example. You have to drive by the arena named after her to even get to the archives.
The room with cool stuff
This was the room that was most interesting to all of us, but especially Ethan and Kenson because now we got to see the actual artifacts stored in the archive.
We learned that the humidity is maintained at a certain level to prevent mould and drying out of the paper in the room. We also learned that if the paper is too dry and can’t be unrolled, that the paper could be rehydrated, something we would check out later.
We then got to see our first cool thing, which was a Greek passport from someone who had come to Canada in 1906(?).
We learned a little about who this man was and what he did in North Vancouver, including the business he ran.
We asked how the archive gets these artifacts and found out that they are donated by the family if the archives have a particular interest or need for the artifacts. I think she also said the items are donated but I don’t remember exactly.
This was the man’s naturalization document, which was made from the same paper as money. We found out that this paper was made from cloth fibres, not wood.
And we learned that the boxes they use to keep these things are made from cloth, as well, to prevent acid from destroying the delicate artifacts. Also, each box has some metal along the edges to prevent the box from getting damaged badly from a fall.
We then went around the corner of the shelves and saw how massive this room is.
In this row of artifacts are diaries of a man who kept a diary since he was a child until he died at 101 years old.
Among his diaries were some little ones and the archivist asked why they were so small. Ethan correctly guessed that it was to keep the diary in the man’s jacket pocket while he fought in WWII.
The archivist explained that this man had fought at Vimy Ridge and that his job was drawing topographical maps of the battlefield. Later, we got to see the map he drew.
As the man got older, it because difficult for him to write, so he had someone dictate for him. It was like using outsourcing!
The archivist wanted to show us some more but needed to move the shelves. She got Ethan and Kenson to turn the big knobs and move the shelves.
She then pulled out a massive book that contained all the property tax payment records from 1906 or something like that.
She showed us the letters the city wrote and how a record of each letter was kept.
Then she showed us a cool book that had all the fire department records. The records showed where the fire department went and what kind of fire it was, among other interesting information. For example, it was interesting to see how the cause of fires changed over time.
The handwriting in these old record books was immaculate! It was rather artistic, in my opinion.
The archivist pulled out a great big scrapbook put together by the fire department, but a lot of photos had been cut out because someone thought they should save the photos. Luckily, they stopped part way through the scrapbook.
Photos like this training shot were a hit with the kids because it was a mystery as to what exactly was going on.
We then got to look at an adoption agreement that was written on real parchment paper, which was made out of animal skin.
This family tree was very cool. We got to see that this particular family’s history goes back a thousand years! At least I think that’s what they told us. Either way, it was cool to see something like this.
Ethan also got to practice looking up names in a directory, which is a handy skill to have.
Remember the little diary from earlier on the tour? Well, the writer was the battlefield artist and drew this amazing and historic map of Vimy Ridge after the battle to take the ridge. Amazing.
The kids enjoyed reading some of the interesting stories from the fire department’s scrap book.
We wondered what the arrows were for and found out some joyriders did this and one of them got killed when the truck they were in flipped. Yikes!
And there was a bear that needed rescuing who “bearly made it!” 🙂
We used a directory and found my parents’ house, along with a letter N that denoted ‘new resident.’ This was the year we moved into that house is why. Neat.
Kids don’t often get to see an microfilm projector so they quite enjoyed this and even printed out a little souvenir.
Time for lunch before heading to work.
Ethan at work
Ethan has been waiting for this day for quite some time. I promised to take him with me when I did one of my days at Winright Law and today was finally the day.
I thought it would be great for Ethan to experience being in an office environment, especially a law firm like Winright Law because there are people moving around all the time and there is plenty going on.
Also, today was Innovative Friday Jam where we have a team meeting to discuss ideas and issues from the past work week and have some yummy food, too.
Getting settled in
Ethan hasn’t been here since last Easter so there have been some changes, including meeting some new staff and seeing the new open concept space. That’s Winston Kam, the founder, on the right, taking Ethan around to say hi to everyone.
Now it was time to get to work, which meant doing some coding and making a new game. This time, it was a Pac-Man type game based on Star Wars characters.
Left him alone
I had to leave the office for a meeting so I left Ethan at the office alone. He was fine and he obviously wasn’t actually alone, since all the lawyers and legal staff were there.
Ethan had a great time with Amy Diaz, in particular, who came and hung out with Ethan. It was very kind of Amy to spend time with Ethan because I’m sure she was busy. But that just shows how awesome the team is at Winright.
Once it was time for Innovative Friday Jam, Amy had Ethan come into the boardroom and prepare to take meeting notes.
Meeting started with a welcome to Gurinder, a student who is helping out at the firm. I had a meeting at a dental clinic, so Gurinder got a new toothbrush as a welcome gift.
And there was Ethan right in the thick of things during the meeting. We talked about customer service and pricing for different legal services and products, so it was good for Ethan to hear and see how a meeting is conducted.
Day’s not over, yet!
When we got home, Ethan got right into his own stuff starting with showing Dong Eun the Pac-Man like game he made.
Afterwards, he was talking about Lunar New Year coming up and wanted to find some crafts to make since we’re going to host a Chinese New Year party at our place.
So Ethan did some Googling and ended up printing some Chinese characters that I suppose represent something about Chinese New Year. He stuck them around our place and I’m guessing he’ll do more in the coming days.
So that was a very full day of learning and new experiences for Ethan. He handled them all with aplomb and I was particularly impressed by how well-mannered and polite he was at the law firm. Makes it easy to take him back another day!
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