A little late getting this one published but it was a great weekend. We like how homeschooling, and in particular, unschooling means that learning happens no matter what day it is. It’s also not just what Ethan learns, but it’s also what we as parents are learning, too.
Morning
We registered for a mindful parenting workshop hosted by Shahin Najak, who is also Ethan’s mindfulness teacher, so that would be our major foray out for today.
But before that happened, Ethan was right into a new coding book he borrowed from the library.
Ethan has really gotten into coding lately. We still can’t decide if it’s a good thing, but he seems to be finding ways to be creative with it. Our biggest concern is screen time and not doing other things that he was into.
But perhaps it’s a part of the unschooling journey for him and will lead to other interests. I guess our job is to observe and see how we can encourage him to continue exploring and learning.
One thing that Dong Eun wants to do, which is a great idea, is to have things that might be interesting to Ethan more visible around our home.
For example, just having his Rubik’s Cube collection visible has gotten him to pick them up again.
After breakfast, Ethan watched a Discovery Education video about black holes. He really does love everything about space.
We talked about how black holes were formed, how they get smaller, how there’s a huge one in the middle of the universe and how it was detected.
He told me about how smaller black holes can become one big black hole and it’s actually the smaller ones that swallow the larger ones. Very cool.
He read about how scientists want to send a probe into a black hole to see what’s inside. He described what might happen and knew what an event horizon is. An event horizon, according to Wikipedia, “is the points at which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape impossible, even for light.”
Ethan heard about solar mass, which is how we measure large objects like the sun. He then told me that there is a supermassive black hole in our galaxy that is 4 million solar masses. Our sun, in comparison, is one solar mass.
It was very cool to learn about this stuff from Ethan and it’s great how excited he is to share what he’s learned.
Chinese zodiac bingo
Ethan printed this out yesterday but we haven’t had a chance to play. Apparently, it’s just like regular bingo.
Mindful parenting
The workshop was great and we learned some new things, along with feeling validated that as a homeschooling family, we have many more opportunities to connect with Ethan.
Some key takeaways for me:
- Modelling the kind of behaviour and values we believe in, rather than simply talking about them.
- Offering a bucket of choice for Ethan when something has to be done so that he feels more involved in decisions.
- Being more aware of how and why we react a certain way and how to use those moments to change.
- How important it is to Ethan if we demonstrate forms of attachment, which can range from praising him in front of others when we know he’s in earshot to just simply continuing to hug him as much as possible.
Back to coding
Once we got home and had one of Dong Eun’s awesome vegan brownies, Ethan was back to coding and working on his game.
He has been refining and adding things to Beach Blast, which is quite cool because he needs to learn new ways to code.
Evening
Ethan worked on a new Adventures of a Piece of Paper book tonight. It’s been fun to see how he continues to add to the story.
We worry that he’s not practicing writing, but perhaps that’s the next step in his development because he is interested in storytelling.
Taekwondo practice
We’ve been encouraging Ethan to practice taekwondo each night to work on his patterns and kicks. What’s been helping is working with him and doing the martial arts movie sound effects and making it fun when he’s practicing his kicks.
One thing for me is that I want to enjoy him as a little kid while he still has that kind of attachment to us. I know he’ll grow out of wanting to be tickled or given piggy back rides, but hopefully, not too soon 🙂
After taekwondo practice, he took a break and read some more about coding, of course.
Feeling creative
Ethan suddenly felt creative and started making drawings with his compass. He made quite a few new designs tonight.
So that was our Saturday. Tomorrow, Ethan’s cousins are coming over so I’m sure he’s excited about that.
Week 22:
What a week!! Ethan did so much.
It took me a long time to read through everything and digest it. I am not sure I will have a ton to offer in terms of resources or direction as he seems to be on fire right now. Continue to let him lead and provide the space for new opportunities like going to the archives and accompanying you to work. His world is now that much more enriched and expanded. He is aware of how records are stored and places he can go to see real artifacts and conduct his own research. I think this is such a powerful experience as we become more and more dependent on the Internet for our research needs.
How exciting for him to be a part of your work meeting and see your world in action as well. I am curious to hear how he processes that experience and if you see its influence pop up in surprising ways in the weeks to come. Perhaps he will have a deeper understanding of what you do or how your work is important in your life.
He seems to have an explosion of creativity, exploration and learning lately. I think your renewed trust in the unschooling process is supporting this greatly and Ethan is thriving! I am in awe of how his questions are leading him down different paths of discovery and leading to more questions…
His exploration of geometry is awesome! I am so excited to see what else he creates with his compass. I remember loving how such a simple tool can be used to find the exact middle of an angle…
or the complex designs one can create with them.
Maybe he could create a compass rose and learn more about mapping?
https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Compass-Rose
I imagine there is also coding he could do with circles and mandalas.
He is so motivated to code right now too. I appreciate how you would like to limit his screen time yet still allow him the freedom to complete more complex coding creations. It sounds like he a plentitude of resources in terms of coding, but here are some from Self Design in case there is anything her of interest to him.
https://selfdesign.learning.powerschool.com/selfdesignlearning/library/cms_page/view/31259631
Here are the Learning Experience Library resources for space. I am so glad he enjoyed finding the space information on Discovery Education.
https://selfdesign.learning.powerschool.com/selfdesignlearning/library/cms_page/view/28925551
Not to mention all the cooking he is helping with too!
I am so glad he is really enjoying his time at the Nature School. It seems like a wonderful and important balance to be outside in nature. It will strengthen his connection to the natural world and offer many opportunities for observation, social interaction and inquiry.
I fell so in love with the mountains and trees here in Japan. I feel as though they have many stories and wisdom to share to those who listen.
The mountains here in Japan are stunning
I remember in Week 21 Ethan was exploring the Fibonacci sequence. The founder of Self Design was also very interested in it and created a life cycle based on it:
http://www.cosmometry.net/in-honor-of-brent-cameron
Brent Cameron’s TEDx talk on the Fibonacci sequence and the life spiral. He is the founder of Self Design
Brent Cameron was the founder of Self Design. He also was very interested in the Fibonacci sequence and how it can be applied to the development of the human being. I thought this might be of interest to you in light of Ethan’s interest in the sequence as well.
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