As we come towards the end of summer and start thinking ahead to fall, Ethan has been spending more time with indoor activities. The poor air quality due to the forest fires has also kept him indoors but Ethan always finds a way to continue learning and make the most of his time. We will soon get ready for Ethan’s second year with SelfDesign and unschooling, but here is what Ethan has been up to this past week.
August 19
Ethan woke up way earlier than us and got hungry. So he made himself breakfast and prepared something for us, too.
He then started watching Khan Academy and learned about using the Pythagorean theorem to solve distance.
He then made a video about how to solve the area of a hexagon.
He made a flasher.
And showed us his finished video.
Here’s the video…
Then we went grocery shopping.
After we came home, Ethan worked on another flasher.
After dinner, we played pool. Ethan likes to make up different ways to play, such as only using your hands, instead of a cue. Another game was “Protect the King,” where each person has a king that is protected by other balls. The object is to sink all the protectors and then the other person’s king. First person to sink the king is the winner.
He then made a bigger flasher, but this one could spin on his finger.
We finished the night by reading “What If?” together and marked our next question with one of the bookmarks Ethan made out of a paper bag.
While I was reading, Ethan made this graph and shapes just for kicks.
August 20
Ethan likes math and math puzzles, so he spent time learning some secret number puzzles.
He made a couple videos about converting repeating decimals into fractions:
He wrote a new book, “Diary of a Star.”
And he made a 3D hexagon from a pattern he previously had.
One of my clients had a lot of flowers left over from an event, so I brought them home and Ethan and Dong Eun made some flower arrangements.
Ethan and I have been reading the “What If?” book and it’s what we did to finish the day.
August 21
Dong Eun and Ethan used the ebook library provided by the West Vancouver Memorial Library to uncover new books. Ethan found Diary of a Wimpy Kid and many others.
He then practiced math using Khan Academy, starting with an intro to square-root equations and extraneous solutions.
He also worked on plotting points on graphs.
He made a video about slopes:
He watched a video about a scale model of the solar system and decided to build his own model at home.
He calculated each planet’s distance from one another in centimetres.
Then he took out the planets he had made before from rubber bands and measured out their approximate distance on the living room floor.
He added moons to each planet using pins and smaller pieces of paper.
He then learned more about life on earth and in the universe from Khan Academy.
Ethan made a video about how the earth was formed:
He made some new paper airplanes from instructions he found online. These are different spaceship designs.
After dinner, we went downstairs to play pool.
Eventually, Ethan wanted to play his own variations of pool. First, we added more balls and had to sink certain balls first.
Later, he made his own designs with the pool balls, instead of using the regular rack.
August 22
Ethan started the day by learning about scatter plots.
He learned about magnetometry from a video on Khan Academy.
Based on what he learned about scatter plots, Ethan made a video to talk about what a scatter plot is, how to mark points on the graph and what a line of best fit is. He also talked about outliers and seemed to really grasp how to use a scatter plot.
Ethan used the RBDigital Books service from the library to listen to audiobooks. We had some trouble with the app but were able to discover a solution from reading the comments other people had left on the Apple App Store.
Ethan made a list of books to pick up from the library so we headed there after I came home.
Ethan wrote down the call numbers and tried to find the books. He also got some help for books he had trouble finding.
After we came home from the library, Ethan and I went grocery shopping. Ethan wrote the grocery list and did all the shopping.
He enjoyed a bowl of ice cream with pretzels for all his effort today. Nice going!
August 23
Ethan started the day working on origami.
Then he played with his snap circuit set.
He also read the book he downloaded from RBDigital and then he played with his marble puzzle game.
Ethan went back to the origami and made quite a few things.
This is a woodpecker. If you squeeze it in a certain way, the woodpecker actually moves.
He received an early birthday gift from our neighbour, Jane.
Before dinner, Ethan was reading “The Martian.” He really enjoys this book and even though it has some curse words in it, it’s a great story and obviously, a topic that Ethan is interested in.
We returned to the library because Ethan had some books on hold.
August 24
Ethan came with me to my law firm client’s office because we were going to have a party to say thanks to the summer students. There were games, activities and lots of food.
Ethan spent the first part of the afternoon doing his own work.
He was given a project by Dong Eun to learn about Mesopotamia.
So he made a video about what he learned about Mesopotamia:
We took a break to go up to the gym.
Then he got back to work.
We were going to make certificates for the students so Ethan helped put the seal on the certificates. We didn’t end up using these certificates because the blue didn’t match the gold very well, but it was fun learning how to make the seal. We actually had to watch a YouTube video to learn how to do it properly.
He worked on a Classroom Ready Science article about daylight saving time.
And he chatted with his mom.
He also made some new videos.
Then it was time for the party.
This was musical beer. Ethan was allowed to play but of course, he didn’t drink the beer. There were others who also don’t drink so Ethan and those people gave the beer to others who were drinking.
Ethan had fun being a part of the activities.
Then it was time for food!
And a candy bar for the ice cream.
August 25
Saturday! Started with Ethan helping with breakfast.
Ethan finished a thank you card he was making for Jane.
He wanted to do something about the letter ‘k’ because when the card was folded, you could see part of it sticking out.
So he drew a stick man and made his legs from the ‘k.’
Finished card.
He also made an origami tulip for Jane as a gift.
He carefully placed the card and tulip by Jane’s door.
We went to the library to pick up more books on hold and get in some reading. We’re so lucky to have such a great library so nearby.
When we got home, Ethan made a box with a flower lid for me. He made a couple for Dong Eun a couple days earlier.
I wanted some coffee and was waiting for the coffee grinds to finish soaking in the hot water. I left to do something and came back to find Ethan pouring my coffee for me. Nice!
When he saw the coffee dripping into my glass, he wanted to make a slow-mo video of the dripping. So I tried to make a drop come out while Ethan filmed with my iPhone.
Afterwards, Ethan edited the video in iMovie and uploaded it to his YouTube channel.
Here’s the finished video:
We then went downstairs to play pool for the next few hours.
This was a bird.
He had a lot of fun racking the balls in different shapes and also in making up rules to play the game. We had to sink balls in a specific order before we could try for the main balls.
He then made a slow-mo video of me breaking up a group of balls.
We also played ping pong and found it more fun to hit the balls across the carpet. But we would hit 2 or 3 balls at once and try to hit them back to each other. It was kind of like juggling and a lot of fun!
When we got back, Ethan made a basketball hoop for me. I need to make a ball and practice!
Ethan also made a video to teach people how to make the origami tulip:
And before he went to bed, he made an origami antelope.
After having made one antelope, he tried again and made a second one.
And this was a bird that he made earlier.
We finished the night by reading “What If?”
Overall, it was a fun week. We will be talking to Ethan’s Learning Consultant (LC) next week so we’re looking forward to hearing from her and discussing our learning goals for the upcoming school year.
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