Unschooling Journal August 25-31, 2019

by | Aug 31, 2019 | Blog, Home Learning, math, My Videos, Unschooling, 언스쿨링 | 0 comments

First week of SelfDesign started this week so Ethan is enjoying the last days of summer weather and also started getting ready for the new school year.

August 25

We started our week with a camping trip up to Alice Lake.
We thought about buying a hatchet but didn’t. I asked Ethan if he knew how to split wood with a knife and so he showed me how. He learned how to at Soaring Eagle Nature School. It took a while but it worked! A bigger knife would probably make it easier but it worked and I was really impressed that he knew how to do this.
Fire going. Dinner being cooked.

August 26

We spent the next day playing at Alice Lake.

August 27

Back home and officially back to work for Ethan. We talked about planning out a long-term strategy to help Ethan work towards his goal of working at NASA. So Ethan did some research into what educational requirements he would need, such as earning a PhD in astronomy. Cool.
He also did some research into how to get into MIT so he could study science and math.
In order to get into those American universities, Ethan will need to take the SATs. So he found an SAT practice program on Khan Academy. He knows he’ll need to work on his writing skills, as well as continuing to develop his math and science knowledge.

August 28

During the camping trip, Ethan asked if combining the carbon monoxide from the van’s exhaust and the carbon dioxide that humans exhale would create a new compound. He was very curious about this so when he got home he did some research and found out that there is in fact, a compound made up of those two things. This led him to learn about how to write electron configurations.
He learned about the photoelectric effect on Khan Academy as part of his learning about electron configuration. He also made a couple of videos to demonstrate his knowledge.
Here’s the new daily task list.
We spent the evening out at the beach with Ethan’s friend Eldon. Ethan, Eldon and Eldon’s dad Simon went kayaking.
Ethan’s summary of his day to make it easier for me to write up these posts 🙂

August 29

this is all Ethan’s work(for today)

so, first, I did this fifth root thingy
then I made a video about it.
then I learned about a mole(not the one that wrecks gardens)
then I wead(read) the magicians nephew by C.S.lewis
then some scrach coding…
here is the project!
then I entered for a contest to name the new mars 2020 rover!
then I learned more about moles, even though this shows ram
then I made a video about the mole! go check it out!
now I’m going to jhon lawson park, even though Im climbing a tree
getting down…ERR!
then I wrote “da random post”

August 30

again,Ethan wrote this post

hi! so, first, some math
violin time!
more khan academy, but science!
two vids about atoms and stuff!
me climbing a tree. can you see me?
then finally, a piece of writing about a black hole.

August 31

Ethan did some practice with solving square roots without a calculator.
We went to the library and on the way home, Ethan played at the playground. Like always, if he doesn’t know anyone, he’ll find kids to play with very quickly.
He made a video about how to calculate cube roots without a calculator.

Ethan made a lot of videos this past week! He also learned about what it would take to prepare for the SAT. He seems pretty motivated to learn more and push himself. Let’s see how the rest of this school year goes.

LC short response

It’s a good thing I did a bit of research on the SAT because they have made some changes in the types of questions they ask. 

I was going to suggest studying analogies, but apparently they have been removed. Some of the math questions have changed as well. I guess the 2016 version is the most recent version of the test. 

https://blog.prepscholar.com/sat-analogies-and-comparisons-why-removed-what-replaced-them

Vocabulary is still an important component, it is just asked in different types of questions. 

I took the SAT before it had an essay component. 

I think essay writing is an important skill to practice. 

I checked out the Khan Academy SAT test prep and it looks very good. So it is a great place to start for sure. 

I suggest reading some articles and having Ethan do more analytical written responses to them or argue a position.

When I was in Grade 6 I scored high on a standardized test and was asked to take the SAT early as part of a talent scouting.It looks like John Hopkins University is still doing it. So it is possible for Ethan to take the exam early if he wanted to. I think he is an excellent candidate, especially in math and with a little bit of test prep. 

https://cty.jhu.edu/talent/testing/

The SAT is a timed paper-and-pencil-based reading, writing, and math assessment with optional essay that’s used globally as a predictor of college and career readiness. It is open to Talent Search students in grades 7-8*. The SAT is a good choice for students who seek early exposure to the SAT and want to potentially qualify for CTY’s Study of Exceptional Talent, which provides resources and support to exceptionally bright students. Registering for the SAT through MyCTY ensures that scores are reported by College Board directly to CTY.

When were you thinking of having him take the exam? 

I think in order to best develop critical reading skills is to ask lots of open ended questions and engage in discussion about pieces of writing/text. In addition to discussing it , writing about it also develops these skills:

Critical reading is a more ACTIVE way of reading. It is a deeper and more complex engagement with a text. Critical reading is a process of analyzing, interpreting and, sometimes, evaluating. When we read critically, we use our critical thinking skills to QUESTION both the text and our own reading of it.

The skills that we need in order to be able to think critically are varied and include observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making.

The benefits of critical reading is given below:

Helps to organize main ideas from a given topic. Helps to understand more difficult reading assignment and to obtain a better understanding for what was read. Helps to make opinions and assumptions based on what is read. Helps base judgement on evidence.

Here is an article on how to develop critical reading skills. I think we will have ongoing conversations about this: http://www.edu-nova.com/articles/critical-reading-skills/

I am not responding in full to this observing for learning as I am working on the Learning Plans this week. I am really excited to see that Ethan is starting to do more of his own reporting. This is fantastic and looking forward to reading more of his thoughts and reflections.

I am so happy to hear Ethan had a fantastic summer. I did too! Here are a few pics from my trip to Slovenia

My favorite bridge sculpture in Slovenia, three blocks from my father’s house and a view of the castle from the city center. 

Panorama from the top of the highest peak in Slovenia


Have a great weekend, 

Natasha

Our summer and thoughts for this school year

Hi Natasha!

As mentioned in my email, we’re excited about the upcoming year and have thought about helping Ethan work towards his long-term goal of working at NASA. We’ve done some research into what he would need to study for university but would love some guidance on how he can prepare to take the SAT.

We’ve found SAT test prep on Khan Academy so Ethan will be using that. We’ve also looked up book lists and would like to continuously introduce those books to Ethan.

The biggest questions we have are:

  1. What can we do to plan and help Ethan reach his goal? Even if he doesn’t actually achieve it, we still want to encourage him and offer any support we can.
  2. We know that critical reading skills will be necessary. How can we help him develop those skills?

The idea is that we want to be a little more strategic and purposeful with Ethan’s learning. He obviously loves to learn and is highly self-motivated so we want to take advantage of that and see what happens.

Anyway…

Summer was good. Ethan took swimming lessons twice a week in July and August. He was able to pass level 8 so he was very happy about that. 

He mostly kept up with jogging in the morning. Combined with swimming twice a week, we noticed how much faster he could swim and that his endurance was much better than before.

He did a lot of reading. One of his favourites was the Philosophy Files and his absolute favourite was Wild Robot. He must have read Wild Robot at least 5 or 6 times and he listened to the audiobook over and over, too.

We went camping a number of times at local campgrounds in Squamish and Porteau Cove but only for 1 or 2 nights. We’re going again for a night on Sept. 2 to celebrate Ethan’s birthday. He’s invited a few friends to come up for the day for his birthday party. He’s really excited and counting down the days.

But back to the upcoming school year…

Ethan is currently enrolled in the following activities:

  • Taekwondo twice a week
  • Swimming twice a week
  • Violin class once a week
  • Symphony class once a week
  • Nature school once a week

We put him in two swimming classes because we want him to get as much physical activity as possible. He grew about almost an inch over the summer and we think most of that was due to swimming.

We’ll probably go to public skating sessions whenever possible and may also do some skiing in the winter.

But for now, we’re all looking forward to the upcoming SelfDesign year and really helping Ethan propel his learning even further.

Thanks.

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