Here’s Ethan’s last week of January 2019 and all his unschooling adventures. We started the week with a chill Sunday at home and at the beach.
January 27
We started the day by going for a jog along the beach.
After watching Solo: A Star Wars Story, we went out for a walk along the beach again because it was such a beautiful day out.Ethan loves the beach. He always finds things to do with just a stick.He wrote stomp in the sand and then jumped around, stomping, of course 🙂He then started drawing frames/borders around footprints.He also drew or wrote inside the footprints.After we got home, we played a few games of Monopoly Deal, UNO and Bears vs Babies.After dinner, Ethan watched a NOVA program about robots and finished his night by watching The Secret Life of Pets. Definitely a chill Sunday.
January 28
Ethan learned about loci today and explained what they are to Dong Eun.Ethan made a card for strontinium for his big periodic table.He also cleaned his room today.He worked on a Canadian Reader story about the massive cave discovered in BC.Ethan learned about Roman law today.He wrote about how Roman law influenced our modern day laws.And he also taught Dong Eun about Roman law.He learned about complex sentences.Looks like he needs some more practice with complex sentences.He wrote a story explaining what complex sentences are.Ethan successfully completed his 60-second exercise challenge for 28 days and received his new 8×8 Rubik’s Cube.He was definitely happy and proud.He made a super flip pattern with his 7×7. He didn’t want to start solving the 8×8, yet.But then he mixed up the 8×8 and was able to solve it pretty quickly. He said that if you can solve the 4×4 and 5×5 cubes, you can solve any cube.He made a heart shape pattern for Dong Eun.Ethan’s tooth finally fell out this morning and Ethan was prepared to leave his tooth for the tooth fairy. But just before bed, he had second thoughts and decided to leave a note for the tooth fairy asking if she could not take his tooth. He offered her an apple, instead. we read the apple is one of her favourite foods, so…
There were other things he did today, too, such as playing the violin, editing and uploading a new video to YouTube about Rubik’s Cube combinations and reading a book about Roman soldiers.
January 29
UPDATE: Ethan and Dong Eun took a walk this morning along the beach and took notice of all the birds that were there. Ethan observed their behaviour as there were many birds there.
Ethan wrote most of the descriptions, except the ones that are capitalized correctly.
in the morning, Ethan got a note from the tooth fairy saying thanks for the apple, and she also left the tooth!after that, he did his math, how to “solve for a variable”.khan academy video again.after this, he explained his math to Dong Eun on the chalkboard. we think the chalkboard is very good, for teaching… and drawing!after that, he did his violin. he practiced the happy farmer, Gossec Gavotte, and his new one, chorus from judas maccabaeus.Ethan worked on some grammar in Khan Academy about idioms.Ethan wrote a fun story using as many idioms as he could.An idioms list he found.Ethan worked on another element for his big periodic table: YttriumEthan practiced the violin.And he went out to play.After taekwondo and violin class, Ethan came home and did his music notation homework.Today’s word of the day was woot.Ethan was reading his periodic table book and told me about the composition of the universe.
January 30
Ethan went to nature school today and wanted photos of his jacket 🙂Ethan learned about the three ways to construct a triangle.Ethan completed his 40th element for the big periodic table, which was zirconium.Ethan practiced Chorus from Judas Maccabaeus on the violin.He also did his music notation homework.And today’s word of the day was cybersquatting.After dinner, we went ice skating. Ethan has really improved since taking skating lessons.After the public skating session was over, there was a youth hockey league game so we stayed and watched. Ethan really enjoyed watching and dancing when the music came on during stoppages in play.
January 31
UPDATE: This morning, Dong Eun and Ethan went for a jog along the seawall and stopped to watch the birds again.
A busy day that started with learning about solving simultaneous equations.Then it was practicing Gavotte on the violin.He learned about the sound of language, things like oxymorons and onomatopoeia.He wrote about what onomatopoeia is.For history, he learned about the rise of Christianity and wrote about that, too.His “element of the day” was niobium. He also looked online to see what niobium is used for. He found out that it’s used in memory chips because it’s an excellent conductor.Coding on Scratch.He worked on remixing a platform game.He played around with making patterns on his Rubik’s Cubes.Spiral pattern.The flower pattern.The E pattern. No, actually, Ethan made his name on the 8×8 cube on his own without any help or tutorials.He had taekwondo earlier and I noticed that he was constantly brushing his bangs away. He also noticed and decided to cut his bangs… on his own, again.
February 1
Today’s element of the day for Ethan’s big periodic table was molybdenum.He practiced simultaneous equations.And he taught us about solving simultaneous equations.Practiced the same math on Khan Academy.He did a quiz about solving simultaneous equations.He learned about climate change for his science work today.Ethan created a mind map to explain climate change to Dong Eun.He made an animated video about climate change.Ethan practiced the violin.He then learned about simple and compound sentences.And then he wrote a story using compound sentences.Ethan learned about Emperor Constantine and wrote about him.He did a comprehension exercise for an article about Lunar New Year.
February 2
Ethan had his symphony class this morning.In between symphony class and skating lessons, Ethan played at the community centre and also worked on his 8×8 Rubik’s Cube.He’s really improving his skating and having fun, too.It was a beautiful day out so we went for a walk to the beach.We were having a family dinner later in the evening and we needed some lucky red envelopes for Ethan’s cousins. We didn’t have any so Ethan made them.One of his cousins didn’t get her Christmas present is why we have a Merry Christmas envelope.And since it’s going to be the Year of the Pig, Ethan made an origami pig to put on our front door.Family dinner!We could see the aurora tonight, which was very cool, even though it was cloudy.After all the cleaning up, which Ethan helped with, we finished off the day by watching Star Wars: A New Hope.
What a busy week, as usual. Ethan loves to spend time doing the things he enjoys. We asked again if he’d like to go back to regular school and again, he said no. Unschooling has really been a great thing for him… and us as a family, too.
LC Short Responsedrag to move
I will be working on the Winter Reflections and will be writing a shorter response to your Observing for Learning this week. After February 24th, you can find my LC version in the “Seasonal Connections” menu on the left hand of the Learning Platform.
I am looking forward to our Zoom or phone call. There are so many highlights from Ethan’s year so far. I would like to hear from you what you would like to see included in the Winter Reflection.
Also please think about how you would like to spend the remaining LRS funds, you have until the end of April so there is no rush, yet I do need to make sure it is in the budget.
I already mentioned how impressed I was by the Climate Change video that Ethan made. He summed up some very key points with his wonderful sense of humour and personability and creativity and design. It is quite simply brilliant! I wonder if he could enter it some sort of contest or submit it to some organization which works with youth and climate change as a resource? Maybe I will see what I can find and see if anything resonates.
Thank you for sharing and documenting his process from brainstorming ideas on the blackboard to the finished animated product. I have watched it many times already and shared it with friends and some students. I had a person subscribe to his Youtube channel right on the spot!
I am so pleased that Ethan found the airplanes and instructional videos of John M. Collins. What a wonderful way for Ethan to combine his honed origami skills with aerodynamics. The planes must fly so impressively. I can only fold a few airplane types and I would like to increase my repertoire so thank you for the great tip.
In response to “Ethan loves to spend time doing the things he enjoys. We asked again if he’d like to go back to regular school and again, he said no. Unschooling has really been a great thing for him… and us as a family, too.” I have to say I completely support him in his decision to continue unschooling at this point. To be honest I don’t know how a teacher or school would integrate Ethan’s current math level into a grade 5 or even 6 class. Not to mention how I truly think he would be quite bored in lots of ways and feel frustrated that he could not pursue his interests at his own pace and demonstrate his learning in all the ways he does. All that being said, perhaps there is an alternative or independent school in Vancouver which allows students to learn at their own pace as develop their own curriculum to a certain extent or at least do thematic multidisciplinary learning. One school in San Francisco comes to mind, perhaps there is something similar in Vancouver in case he changes his mind in the future.
Brightworks is an innovative new K-12 alternative school, located in San Francisco, and dedicated to the principles of hands-on, engagement-based learning.
Motivated by the success of participants in Tinkering School to build big things, Gever, our founder, wanted to translate this enthusiasm, focus, and sense of accomplishment from a one-week summer camp experience to the traditional school day.
Founded in 2010, Brightworks has spent years refining and expanding what is possible with hand-on education.
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