With the school year over, it’s time to enjoy summer. But as any home learner will tell you, the learning never actually takes the summer off… and that’s how we prefer it. Ethan will continue with his unschooling because there isn’t a day where he doesn’t learn something.
So that means the blog posts will continue as usual throughout the summer as we follow along on Ethan’s learning journey.
July 1
Math is a usual part of Ethan’s day and here, he was asking me to solve a math riddle where you take four 1s and make them equal 5. Needless to say, I couldn’t figure it out and got Ethan to show me the answer.
He also showed me how three 0s can equal 6.
Ethan helped out one of our neighbours and got a little gift from her for Canada Day.
Ethan has started reading Encyclopedia Brown again to help with writing his book summaries. The stories are fun, short and good practice for writing a summary.
After, he watched Brain Games on Netflix, a show that teaches people about interesting things related to our brain.
We then played some tennis. Ethan has been working on hitting his forehand with one hand.
He practiced violin by following along with a video.
He made this cool structure with a triangular base. He taught me that something with a triangular base is much stronger than a square or rectangular base.
He spent some time reading about science stuff that’s in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Later, we went out to the beach and Ethan played with his friend Kal there.
That night, Ethan left Jane an origami thank you note that he made.
We watched some documentaries on Netflix after dinner.
Ethan wrote something in his diary.
Since it was Canada Day, we went up to the penthouse to watch the fireworks.
Ethan brought a notebook and was busy writing things down as he watched the fireworks.
Back home, he read what he wrote and it was hilarious. He had made a log of what he saw and added his usual fun twist.
July 2
Starting the morning off by learning about dilations and properties on Khan Academy.
We don’t see too many selfies of him lately.
He practiced solving some equations with exponents, including negative bases.
I asked Ethan for some help making a review video for a microphone.
Then we played some tennis and played a game where we just try to keep the ball from hitting the ground. We counted how many times we could volley back and forth. Our best was 7 or 8 times.
We wanted to share with others in our building that Ethan donated $100 to the BC SPCA. We have since heard some nice comments from random neighbours.
Unfortunately, someone in our building took down the notice, crumpled it up and tossed it in the garbage. Fortunately, someone else kindly put it back.
Ethan wrote in his diary. He has to do a few things, such as math, playing the violin, and writing, before he can use the computer.
When he does use the computer, he likes playing Prodigy, the math game, the most.
Ethan helped prepare his own avocado toast for lunch.
And read about coding in Python.
He worked on some new origami designs by watching YouTube videos.
It’s Kermit the Frog!
Later on, we played at the playground. We shot some hoops, played catch with our baseball gloves and practiced kicking the soccer ball.
Ethan is much better at catching a baseball now. It might be because he’s improved his hand-eye coordination from playing tennis.
We also threw the football around a bit. When we played soccer, we had some fun with me turning around backwards when I was the goalkeeper.
Ethan worked on another origami design. This time, he learned how to make a winged dragon. He spent quite a lot of time working on this one.
Since it was a nice night out, we took a walk along the seawall. Ethan found a big stick and drew designs as we walked.
We finished off the night with reading “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,” which has been something we’ve been doing almost every night.
July 3
This morning, I brought Ethan with me to one of my networking group meetings. They serve great pastries and he got to watch some TV while waiting for me. He was very well-behaved so it made it easy to have him come along.
Once home, he got to work on his tasks and started with practicing violin.
Can only guess what was happening here.
He practiced some typing.
And learned some Italian.
He wrote a story in his diary, which is a recap of his day.
He did some math problems about exponents.
He learned about permutations from Khan Academy.
He wrote a summary for an Encyclopedia Brown case.
He made some more origami dragons. It’s kind of hard to tell, but each one is slightly different. He added some extra details as he became better at folding the dragons.
That afternoon, Ethan and Dong Eun went to the water park and he had a great time playing there.
Back at home and more origami.
We also played some pool downstairs. We played normal 8-ball but then played 9-ball without the pool cues, which turned out to be way more fun.
An origami flower.
July 4
He made this and placed it in a dish of water. As the paper got wet, the folded parts unfolded, sort of like flower petals.
He did quite well with equations with exponents.
And he’s also doing well with summarizing stories.
He practiced some Italian again today.
Some typing practice. We could all use a refresher, actually.
The comics that he includes with his diary entries are hilarious.
Something much more interesting to him… origami.
He brought his latest origami project out for our walk along the seawall.
Skipping stones and playing with other kids that he just met.
He found a tree to climb.
After our walk, he made a Facebook symbol origami design.
Some of the origami he’s made recently on display. Most were made the same day.
Reading Robin Hood to Ethan while he folded origami.
July 5
Math in the morning, just because. Practiced more equations with exponents.
Wrote a summary for “The Case of the Two-Dollar Bill.” He’s gotten much better at these and just needs to remember that the reader needs enough details so they can understand what the story is about.
Learning about non-congruent shapes and transformations on Khan Academy.
More typing practice with typing.com.
A fun comic to go with his diary entry.
More origami, including a fidget spinner type of design.
July 6
Getting started early, as Ethan had a dentist appointment in the morning.
Finding something to do while waiting for his dentist appointment.
We really like Tot2Teen Dental in Vancouver. They always make Ethan feel comfortable and are just genuinely nice people.
Back at home, he solved his 5×5 Rubik’s Cube.
He then learned some trigonomety with right triangles.
We went shopping for a birthday present for Ethan’s friend, Sophia. Ethan was invited to Sophia’s birthday party, which was on the following day.
July 7
Ethan made Sophia a special birthday card.
Party time at Extreme Air Park for Sophia’s birthday party. Ethan was very excited about coming here.
The kids loved Ethan’s card. One of them mentioned how creative Ethan is.
After the birthday party, I took Ethan to a friend’s office launch/client appreciation event. Ethan was happy to get a Freezie.
After, the party we headed home and had a family movie night. We watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” but it got a bit too scary for Ethan so we switched to “Brain Games.”
And that wrapped up Ethan’s week, as we get full-on into summer.
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