Still catching up and trying to include as many of the thoughts we’ve had as possible. The nice thing about unschooling is how Ethan can explore different topics and spend as much or as little time as he wishes on them. Sometimes we’d like him to spend more time with certain skills, such as writing, but we’re slowing working towards that.
April 8
Breakfast usually includes a book. We’re always reminding him to put his book away when eating so he can concentrate on eating and also on interacting with us. Good problem to have, I suppose.
Dong Eun has been sitting with Ethan and helping him with math. He really enjoys it and it’s a good way to encourage him to practice.
Subtracting decimals was on the math menu today.
Space, space, and more space!
Ethan told me about Pluto’s moons and how it’s orbit is egg-shaped and how it was discovered.
We had plans to visit Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre for a kids workshop on bees and how we can help them by planting flowers.
The kids learned about why bees are important from the Queen Bee. Can you guess who that was?
Different types of bees arranged according to size. The kids also learned about how not all bees sting.
The workshop was good but a bit too long. Ethan sat through it quite patiently, though.
Afterwards, we were supposed to do some planting but because the forecast called for heavy rain, the kids got some seeds and soil to start their own plants.
We’re trying to set time limits on Ethan’s computer usage because we see how he’s not able to find activities or things to learn about like he used to do.
So we started to impose a one-hour time limit but he could use the computer anytime he liked, not just after finishing other tasks. We’ll see how it works out.
He learned about the Great Filter, which is a theory about why we might be the only planet with intelligent life.
Apps such as Universe Sandbox 2 seem like great tools, however. This app has helped understand the effect of gravity of celestial bodies in a way that would be hard to picture.
Anyway, these videos about the history of our universe have been excellent resources for Ethan.
In this part of the video, he learned how wide Saturn’s rings are, that the distance from the inner part to the outer is over 2 1/2 times the distance around the earth.
April 9
Starting the day with learning Roman numerals. He learned about them in the past but wanted to learn how to read them again.
Practiced subtracting decimals.
Then some yoga practice with Dong Eun.
Practice drawing equilateral triangles.
He made a geometric puzzle.
Using Universe Sandbox 2.
Doing some division and seeing how the remainders can go on for infinity.
He wanted to play with his dominos. He hasn’t played with these in a while. He used to be completely into dominos so it was nice to see him setting these up and trying some new ways to hold up the dominos.
Building a domino pyramid.
Then filming the pyramid come crashing down in slow motion.
Ethan taught me how to build a dominos pyramid.
We then set up to knock down, just for fun.
I liked the creative ways Ethan was using to get the dominos to stand up.
After playing with the dominos, it was time for Universe Sandbox 2.
In this experiment, Ethan added large asteroids and dwarf planets that orbit the sun but may not be commonly known. For example, Ceres is a dwarf planet that is the largest object in the asteroid belt.
Ethan learns about these things from the books and videos about space, then he places them into the gravity simulator to see how different objects interact with each other.
April 10
Ethan continued practicing reading Roman numerals, as well as working on area and perimeter questions using some worksheets. Ethan has been good about using the math worksheets because they are a good way to get some of the repetition practice required to remember how to solve math problems.
Worked on quadrilateral shapes via Khan Academy.
And did some more dominos afterwards.
Ethan likes to pick flowers for Dong Eun.
After taekwondo practice, Ethan loves hanging out after and playing with his friends. He has friends from different social groups or activities, like taekwondo, his old school or nature school.
For violin, he likes to play for us as his practice. Although we love it, we’ve been asking him to practice in his room before coming out and performing for us.
We’ve been trying to read more about topics he enjoys, such as space, so I started sending him articles
He reads the article first, then we read it together later that night. This is one area where we can find ways to ask comprehension questions and discuss the topics in more detail.
After we finished, Ethan wrote a story about distances in space.
We can see how he likes to incorporate the things he’s learned into his writing.
This was part of the research he did for his writing.
Ethan drew a picture comparing the size of different objects in space relative to each other. He then showed Dong Eun what he made. He really loves telling us what he’s learned about space.
April 11
Nature school today.
When he got home, he continued to work on comparing objects, such as people, planets and the solar system. This time, we suggested that he colour everything so that it was easier to distinguish between different things in the drawing.
Then Ethan did some practice calculating the area and perimeter of triangles and rectangles.
Ethan used Powtoon to create a video comparing the size of planets compared to different types of stars in space. He used the colours to help differentiate between the planets and stars he was comparing.
He added spiral galaxies and non-spiral galaxies.
Here’s the final video…
Later, we worked through some articles in the Self Design library to practice language arts skills.
I was talking about how much a package weighs and Ethan wanted to know how much a kilogram actually was. So we got out his cubes and started adding them up on a scale to get to 1 Kg.
April 12
After a day that included a swimming lesson and taekwondo class, Ethan got some time in at the library before heading to SFU again for a different event.
Up at SFU, he was happy to have a burger and onion rings before heading to a lecture hall to listen to a talk on neutrinos.
Neutrinos are extremely small particles that travel through space. They can only be detected with highly specialized equipment. Neutrinos are created by nuclear reactions and about a billion of them will pass through your hand if you hold it up to the sun.
However, they are massless and are considered one of the building blocks of nature.
So we were about to hear more about them.
During the lecture, I wasn’t sure how much Ethan would really understand or enjoy, even though the lecture, which was hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, was supposed to be geared towards all ages.
There were a few other kids in attendance but most of the audience seemed older.
Surprisingly, Ethan was really into the lecture. He especially liked the bits of trivia and fun facts that used big numbers.
Ethan said he really enjoyed the event so we’ll look out for others like it to attend in the future.
April 13
Friday the 13th started with nothing freaky or odd, just Ethan reading and doing math.
He managed to do a yoga headstand against the wall, though!
He also worked on the self assessment he had to do for the BC Ministry of Education.
But his favourite thing to do is see how things play out when you place objects near a black hole.
He found an interesting article about how Jupiter doesn’t orbit the sun.
He also looked up projects you can do with a friend since he was going over to a friend’s place for a playdate.
So he took a bunch of toilet paper rolls and ended up making a bowling game.
April 14
The most exciting thing for Ethan today was looking forward to going 5 pin bowling. One of the staff at the law firm was part of a fundraiser to help people that wanted to join a dragon boat team but couldn’t afford to. It was also specifically to support the LGBT community so it was also for a good cause.
Anyway, before going there Ethan and I went for a jog. It was our second day of jogging and after today, Ethan drew a map of our route.
He then drew 4D shapes, along with 5D and 6D and tried explaining how it was possible to draw them.
We talked about how many times we would have to cross Canada, like during our road trip, in order to travel one light year.
And we used the computer to verify that his answer was correct. He was quite proud.
He then created a video about big numbers and used exponents to explain them.
Reading about planets before we had to go bowling!
The moment he had been waiting for. He ended up bowling a lot of frames and had a great time.
He especially loved it when they turned out the lights and lit up the disco balls.
And that was the week. The highlights were definitely the neutrinos lecture and the bowling. I’m not sure the lecture would have happened if Ethan was still in traditional school so it was great to have gone to it.
Any questions or comments about unschooling in BC? Happy to hear from anyone who’s reading this and wondering if you can do it, too.
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LC Response
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I loved the video of what collaboration is not. It was very clever. I thought the music was quite catchy, I liked it so much I think I watched the video 3 times. Choosing the right music is a very important part of filmmaking. I was struck by how you showed students all in rows and the teacher delivering instructions. I too think this when I walk into real classroom I substitute in and all of the desks are separated and in rows facing forward. I wonder, “How are there any opportunities for these students to collaborate and work together and learn from each other not just from the teacher.” Other classroom I walk into have groups of desks together or kids sitting at small tables together. In this way they are able ot talk and share ideas much more easily. They learn from each other and with each others support much better!
I laughed when i saw how long the girl made the boy wait when he wanted to collaborate with her. No doubt he must have been quite disappointed and dismayed.
Your worksheet response was well written. Did you type it yourself? I read about many collaborations you have with your friends when they come over to your house or outsdie when you build and create projects together.
You make a very interesting point of how animals collaborate together too. This is a very interesting concept. There are many interesting relationships between species. They have other names such as symbiotic relationships, but it is collaboration in action none the less. Here are some of the more technical terms in case you are interested:
Obligate symbiosis is when two organisms are in a symbiotic relationship because they can’t survive without each other. Facultative symbiosis is when the species live together by choice. There are four main types of symbiotic relationships:mutualism, commensalism, parasitism and competition.
Here is a cool article:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/social-sciences/symbiosis-when-living-together-win-win
I had a wonderful Chemistry teacher once who encouraged collaboration in the classroom. Of course he would give tests and individual grades, but he reminded us that in the real world you mostly work with others so it is a very important skill to develop. We rarely do things entirely on our own. So yes Ethan many brains are surely better than just the capacity of one!! You use of huge numbers was impressive.
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Collaboration video
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Here is another collaboration video with a catchy tune. it animates how collaboration is so important in the workplace. I know you see a great example in action it when you go to the meetings at your father’s work!
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Self Assessment Week 32
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Self Assessment Week 32: collaboration (NOT!)
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