Today, Ethan didn’t seem to do as many things compared to the last couple of days. This led to moments during the day when it seemed like Ethan was inactive and it would cause Dong Eun to suddenly get a little worried, to think, “Maybe we should do something,” and suggest an activity.
But when we looked back on the day through our photos and videos, we realized that he had another full day of non-stop discovery and creativity. It reminded us to get out of our own heads and trust Ethan’s instincts, rather than feel like we need to provide stimulation or activities for him.
Upon further reflection, Dong Eun told me that she used to feel more worried when Ethan was in school because we never knew what he was doing. She also recounted how walking with him to an after school class and trying to be on time was often a challenge because Ethan wanted to stop and explore just about everything that he passed by.
She would insist that they keep going, but it’s now clear that the problem was us and our judgement of what we were supposed to do to provide learning or activities for Ethan. All along, he already knew what he wanted to do. We just needed to allow him the freedom to do it and to be patient.
Dong Eun asked him if he liked learning at home better or at school. Ethan quickly answered “home” and we were actually a little surprised. Dong Eun asked again just to be sure he was listening and again, he said that he preferred learning at home.
But we shouldn’t have been surprised because he has been so happy having time to explore his interests.
We also talked about how the day seems so much more relaxed compared to when he was in traditional school. When he would come home after school, we would rush him to an after school activity…and we only had him in swimming once a week, taekwondo twice and violin once.
He didn’t have much time to work on the things he was interested in or curious about. He also complained about not having enough time to do things and always wanted to stay home.
We look back and feel like we were prisoners of time, forced to restrict what Ethan, and us as a family, could and couldn’t do. This first week of unschooling has been a revelation and completely reinforced our decision to take Ethan out of traditional schooling.
We feel like our days, and especially Ethan’s, are now richer, more fulfilling and right. It’s like we have 48 hours in a day, whereas before, it felt like we only had 12 hours in a day.
This is something we have quickly come to enjoy about unschooling and home learning… the ability to let things happen on their own, to let the flow and energy of the day guide us, to be facilitators, and to trust Ethan’s instincts.
Morning
Ethan woke up and read Minecraft Guide to Exploration for about 15 minutes. He’s read the book already, but he finds it a fun book to read so he read it again.
After breakfast, Ethan decided that today should have a theme. The theme he picked was “game day,” which meant he wanted to play board games and card games all day.
He then worked on his Gr. 1 to 3 workbooks because he didn’t want to do them later in the day.
Afterwards, he chose the word of the day, which was “environment” because he borrowed a book from the library about the environment.
He tried out the sundial he made yesterday but since there wasn’t any sun, he couldn’t tell if it worked.
Listened to classical music and read the Maps and Navigation book.
Ethan played with some ball clay, which has a bunch of styrofoam balls in the clay, and made random shapes.
He also made a bird from clay.
Ethan made card game using card stock called The Universe. It’s based on Monopoly Deal, but has planets, instead of property cards. He made Action Cards, just like in Monopoly Deal, but he made some creative and unique cards, such as a Black Hole card. If you draw a Black Hole card, you have to put back all your cards because a black hole sucks everything in. After playing one game, he decided there weren’t enough cards so he made more.
He then helped water the plants in our home.
Afterwards, he played Monopoly Deal again.
Afternoon
He spent some time reading the STEAM book and was inspired by a project about marbles. He made a marble run on his corkboard using old cardboard and toilet paper rolls.
Later, he and Dong Eun went to the playground where there were some French speaking kids. Ethan wanted to play with them so he spoke to them in English. They also spoke English so they all played at the water fountain together.
Evening
We went out for dinner with family, as Ethan’s aunt was in town.
After dinner, we went grocery shopping. Inside a bunch of bananas was a wasp and Ethan thought it was a bee.
Afterwards, we came home and worked on our daily observation.
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