This week was a fun one because we went to Stanley Park to take the Ghost Train with some friends. Ethan also worked on his usual assortment of educational and fun activities as he continues to design his own learning as an unschooler. Here’s how the week went…
October 21
Ethan and I went jogging this morning to start the day. It’s good for me and it’s also fun for Ethan. After jogging, Ethan did some cleaning up, which was like a prelude to what was to come later in the week.
Ethan made a checker board pattern on his Fisher Cube.
We listen to the music from the Suzuki Violin Book 2 almost every day. We all love the music from these books and they’re the songs that Ethan is learning to play. He also whistles the songs when he’s not listening to them.
Showing us one of the unique patterns he learned on the Fisher Cube. This was the switching centre pattern.
Some more cleaning.
Some violin practice.
Practicing equations.
Learning about floods, hurricanes, how they happen and what we can do about them.
Writing his answers to the question in the video.
An exercise on how to protect shorelines from flooding.
Learning about constraints.
Reading comprehension test for The Secret Garden.
Learning about exponential growth from Khan Academy.
It was a nice day out so we took some time to play tennis. Ethan was throwing the tennis balls over into the court.
Afterwards, Ethan learned about different forms of energy. In this part, he learned about the amount of food that Michael Phelps ate at breakfast to convert into the energy he needed as an Olympic swimmer.
This was his breakfast!
Other materials that are stored energy or converted into energy.
There was something about stored energy in a spring and there was a project to build a wind-up device.
We decided to build it because it seemed like a fun project.
Ethan and I collected the materials, then Ethan did the building.
I helped with cutting the hole in the cup.
Threading an elastic through a bead. The elastic will be wound up, which will then drive the cup forward.
Construction complete. On the other end is a straw that you turn to wind up the elastic.
Cutting strips of paper to create the target area for the device to roll to. The idea was to see how many times you had to wind the elastic to make it stop within the target area.
Time to give it a try!
Unfortunately, since we didn’t use a plastic cup lid, there may have been too much friction to move the vehicle forward. It sometimes worked but most of the time, it wouldn’t go anywhere. We’ll have to try again another time.
Completed the exercise on how to protect the shoreline.
Practicing antonyms and writing sentences with them.
Helping me prepare his observation for learning… aka last week’s blog post.
October 22
Jogging in the morning after getting up and reading some jokes.
Continuing with the exponential vs linear growth lesson.
Ethan lost his old bike helmet at the school, so we got him a new one, which arrived today.
Ethan then made a card game about the ecosystem.
He also practiced violin because he had class later on.
Some time practicing math with Prodigy.
Learning about Indian Relay Racing from a Canadian Reader article.
He then designed a chain reaction model.
He wanted to practice equations so he asked me to create a random equation for him to solve.
I wasn’t sure that he was actually doing the equations correctly, so I asked him to print out some worksheets with answers so he could test himself.
He got 6 out of 7 correct.
He then played some Sudoku.
Hanging out before violin class, he told me about the parts of the violin.
After class, he is always eager to show us what he practiced or learned. This was Minuet 1 or 2, I believe.
He wanted access to the SelfDesign online resources so he could access the Discovery Education site.
Then it was time to head to Stanley Park with his friends Nico and Paulo to check out the annual Ghost Train!
Each year is a different theme and this year, it was all about jack-o’-lanterns and the origin of the jack-o’-lantern. The story was told in a fun way by this person dressed up as a devil’s assistant.
Time to hop on the train!
It was a lot of fun to see how they staged the different areas.
Afterwards, we visited an area that had exhibits from the Stanley Park Ecology Society. Here, they had information about bats and owls.
Inside, was a wall of jack-o’-lantern designs that people could make.
After a hard day of playing, we all had dinner together, too.
October 23
Ethan started the morning with some sudoku. He actually made one for me to try, too.
Afterwards, he logged into Discovery Education and learned more about his favourite topic…Space! This time, it was about the end of the universe.
Mystery Science has been a great resource, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned. Today, Ethan learned about where the water from our faucets come from.
He’s not a big fan of superheroes but he did spend some time reading this chapter book, as well as his science book.
He listened to a story podcast but not sure he’s into these types of podcasts. His favourites are still Wow in the World and Brains On Science.
We had turkey for Thanksgiving and we were still eating it! This is just to show that and to say how Ethan really doesn’t want to eat anymore turkey, even though he was most excited about it at Thanksgiving.
Learning about baseball while having a snack.
Reading some Captain Underpants.
After taekwondo class, we went to the library. Ethan likes some light reading when we come here.
October 24
Wednesday morning and getting set to head to nature school with his buddy Kal.
After a full day at nature school, he came home and learned about how to protect our homes during a windstorm.
He took a practice exam for The Secret Garden. He took this one multiple times because he wanted to get 100%. The questions get randomized so he had to do a new version of the test each time.
Next, Ethan read an article about diabetes.
We were talking about music and I mentioned how many songs use the same notes/chords and that I saw a TedTalk about that idea. We searched for the TedTalk and watched it.
Ethan really loves learning so perhaps it was inspiring to Ethan to find out that it can take as little as 20 hours to learn something.
Ethan has been learning about graphs and this was a real-life example of how a graph can be used to explain information.
He learned that after 20 hours of practice, your ability reached a high enough level that extra practice time doesn’t really increase ability.
The speaker, Josh Kaufman, then talked about his desire to learn to play the ukulele and how he breaks down skills into smaller skills. He discovered that most pop songs over the past 50 years use the same four chords.
He then performed a medley of popular songs using only those four chords. But it was the idea that you can learn whatever you want by breaking down whatever skills are needed into smaller skills that was very cool.
Ethan then tried playing the same four chords on his violin.
Ethan wants to make a black hole costume for Halloween so we shopped for LED lights that could be placed on his costume. He learned about what features to look for, such as being waterproof and battery-powered.
We started out by looking at LED light strips that need to be assembled but with more research, we eventually found the correct type of lights.
Since we were talking a lot about black holes, Ethan printed a picture of what a black hole might look like.
October 25
Ethan and I went jogging to start the day, even though it was raining a little. Nice to get some exercise early in the morning.
Afterwards, he learned about reading bar graphs and mathematical reasoning on Khan Academy.
He learned about wandering stars on Mystery Science.
And answered some other questions about diabetes.
He tried another exam, this time about math and transformations.
He also took an exam for The Secret Garden. As I mentioned earlier, he really wants to score 100% so he kept taking the exams until he achieved his goal.
He learned about calculating numbers in scientific notation, specifically, muliplying and dividing.
He practiced Minuet 2 on the violin.
And learned some more about multiplying and dividing in scientific notation.
Dong Eun has been asking him to check his knowledge by picking a random question in his math book’s testing sections.
He then added comparing fractions to Prodigy so he could practice the next time he played Prodigy.
He had borrowed some new Garfield books from the library after taekwondo class.
October 26
Learning about square and cube roots.
Learning about perfect cubes and cube roots.
Also learning about irrational numbers.
Practicing violin while listening to the songs from his violin book on YouTube.
He read about how to get rid of mosquitoes from different perspectives.
And how to avoid getting bit by mosquitoes.
He then went out to play with friends at the playground.
We wanted him to find ways to go jogging regularly, so he came up with 13 ideas and put them on his computer.
Dong Eun has been asking Ethan to check his knowledge and indicate what he knows, doesn’t know and what he’s mastered by using coloured sticky notes.
The orange notes mean that he knows the topic, the purple notes mean he doesn’t know the topic at all, and the blue notes mean that he kind of knows the topic.
He printed out a calendar to keep track of the days that he goes jogging.
October 27
Saturday morning and time for orchestra practice. He seems to really love this class as he mentioned how nice it sounds when all three people play the same song.
Back at home, we ate something that was a childhood favourite of mine that Ethan also loves. It’s a dish with beef, tomato and scrambled eggs. Usually, it’s eaten with rice but I told Ethan how I used to also eat it with cheese on a piece of toast. So we had that for brunch and Ethan really liked it.
He then started cleaning and organizing his room. This turned into a BIG job, but it was very necessary to get Ethan’s room organized because it was hard for him to find things or use all the resources he has.
We listened to some music by Dvorak.
Ethan also helped clean our place by doing the mirrors in his own way… by jumping up and down!
We then went for a hike in Lynn Valley so that Ethan could take us on the route he took during his mountain biking camp that led to where his nature school meets.
It was quite fun to have Ethan completely lead the way, even letting him tell us where to park.
We let him guide us the entire time.
This is the area where Ethan goes to nature school.
We then let him guide us to Rice Lake.
We came to an area with a flume and he told us that during nature school, they usually have circle time here.
Dong Eun and I learned about what the flumes were used for, which was moving cedar 14.5km from Lynn Valley to Moodyville.
We got to Rice Lake and saw several people fishing for trout.
Ethan wanted to take us to a place called the island, a place where he often goes during nature school. While walking there, we found some interesting looking mushrooms.
We got to the island, which was a small area away from the main trails. It was very cool to see Ethan confidently take us here.
He brought his knife and found a stick to do some carving. He wanted to make a bow for a bow and arrow.
We watched as he carefully cut away at the stick, using techniques he learned in nature school, such as using his opposite thumb to guide the blade. He said that if he used his left thumb it could slip and he would cut himself.
He then pulled out a string to make his bow.
Time to head back.
They found some more cool mushrooms.
Unfortunately, the stick Ethan found was too weak. It snapped after Ethan had tied on the string and began trying the bow. We saw that he really knew how to tie the string on. Cool.
We needed supplies for Ethan to make his Halloween costume so we went to the dollar store.
Ethan turned his broken bow into a toy and had fun playing with it in different ways, even while grocery shopping.
Ethan and Dong Eun were in the van while I finished paying for something and Ethan snapped a pic of me.
My parents came over for dinner and Ethan had started cutting out a circle for his black hole costume from two pieces of foam core that we got at the dollar store.
He also wanted some glitter paint to paint the black hole and a star that would be near the black hole.
He finished painting on the glitter paint and tried covering the pain with packing tape in case it would be raining on Halloween. This didn’t turn out well so he removed the tape and had to think of an alternative waterproofing solution.
He played Minuet 1 and 2 for my parents and another song he has been learning.
After my parents left, it was time to really tackle Ethan’s room. First, it was sorting and getting rid of stuff. HUGE job!
Ethan ended the day with his room partially organized. The plan was to clean up and organize as best as they could and then head to IKEA the following day to get some storage bins.
And that was the week!
As you know I am off to Nepal tomorrow. Abbie Wellington will be my LC on call and will be responding to weeks 10, 11 and 12. I will catch up with you the last week of November and set up times to call or zoom with you and Ethan for the Fall reflection for week 13. I will be calling from Pokhara! Have a great November and I will keep in touch when I can.
Natasha
We listen to the music from the Suzuki Violin Book 2 almost every day. We all love the music from these books and they’re the songs that Ethan is learning to play. He also whistles the songs when he’s not listening to them.
I think it is so important to listen to violin music as much as practice playing it. That way Ethan develops an ear for how masters play and what he can aspire to. I think that is one of the best parts of the Sazuki method. I really enjoy Mozart’s violin concertos myself.
Practicing equations. Algebra
Learning about exponential growth from Khan Academy.
And learned some more about multiplying and dividing in scientific notation.
He learned about calculating numbers in scientific notation, specifically, muliplying and dividing.
Ethan’s algebra is taking off! I can’t believe the math he is doing in grade 5! This is one of the best parts of homeschooling, he can work on at his pace and to whichever level he is ready for. There is no way he would be doing math like this in a typical grade 5 classroom! Go Ethan go!
Learning about floods, hurricanes, how they happen and what we can do about them.
After a full day at nature school, he came home and learned about how to protect our homes during a windstorm.
Writing his answers to the question in the video.
He is learning all about wind, water and weather. Water is such a powerful force! Has he compared and contrasted hurricanes and tsunamis? Or hurricanes and tornadoes? Hurricanes and typhoones? This could be an interesting follow up activity. Some articles and Prezi presentations:
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Hurricane_vs_Typhoon
https://prezi.com/fyd-nzttwrpp/hurricane-vs-tsunami/
It was a nice day out so we took some time to play tennis. Ethan was throwing the tennis balls over into the court
Afterwards, Ethan learned about different forms of energy. In this part, he learned about the amount of food that Michael Phelps ate at breakfast to convert into the energy he needed as an Olympic swimmer. Amazing amount of calories needed right? Athletes really pay attention to what and when they eat in order to optimize performance. Some athletes have surprising diets though:
https://www.businessinsider.com/diet-nutrition-advice-top-athletes-2016-7
There was something about stored energy in a spring and there was a project to build a wind-up device.
Ethan and I collected the materials, then Ethan did the building.
Unfortunately, since we didn’t use a plastic cup lid, there may have been too much friction to move the vehicle forward. It sometimes worked but most of the time, it wouldn’t go anywhere. We’ll have to try again another time. Fantastic project, that is how science works, build, experiment, observe and then try again based on the observations that were made.
Practicing antonyms and writing sentences with them.
Ethan then made a card game about the ecosystem.
Learning about Indian Relay Racing from a Canadian Reader article.
He wanted access to the SelfDesign online resources so he could access the Discovery Education site. Afterwards, he logged into Discovery Education and learned more about his favourite topic…Space! This time, it was about the end of the universe. I actually passed this on to another learner. Thanks for sharing the resources that Ethan really enjoys, it helps when I offer ideas for others! Self Design has so many resources and subscriptions so recommendations matter.
Mystery Science has been a great resource, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned. Today, Ethan learned about where the water from our faucets come from. An important lesson indeed.
Growing up in San Francisco I could hardly believe how much better the water tasted than in communities across the bay. The water for SF comes all the way from the Hetch Hetchy Dam in the sierras 260kms away!!
If you live in San Francisco — or even certain parts of Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — a portion of your drinking water travels over 150 miles to get to your tap.
It’s a journey that begins at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, a source of drinking water that has a well-known and crystal-clear reputation: It’s so clear that it isn’t filtered – only treated.
The Very Beginning
It all starts high in the Sierra. So high that the water isn’t water. It’s snow.
“The snow that we’re talking about is the snow that falls on the Tuolumne River watershed, which is 492 square miles,” says Suzanne Gautier, coordinator for citizen involvement for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
He took a practice exam for The Secret Garden. He took this one multiple times because he wanted to get 100%. The questions get randomized so he had to do a new version of the test each time.
He is so determined!
We were talking about music and I mentioned how many songs use the same notes/chords and that I saw a TedTalk about that idea. We searched for the TedTalk and watched it.
Ethan really loves learning so perhaps it was inspiring to Ethan to find out that it can take as little as 20 hours to learn something.
He learned that after 20 hours of practice, your ability reached a high enough level that extra practice time doesn’t really increase ability.
Very interesting idea…It makes learning new things really doable!
And yet it takes 10,000 hours to be a master of something according to Malcolm Gladwill…see video below.
The speaker, Josh Kaufman, then talked about his desire to learn to play the ukulele and how he breaks down skills into smaller skills. He discovered that most pop songs over the past 50 years use the same four chords.
He then performed a medley of popular songs using only those four chords. But it was the idea that you can learn whatever you want by breaking down whatever skills are needed into smaller skills that was very cool. Yes indeed. That is what Youtube is so amazing of a a resource. The fact that so many people have posted videos on just about how to do everything so that others can follow along and learn.
Ethan wants to make a black hole costume for Halloween so we shopped for LED lights that could be placed on his costume. He learned about what features to look for, such as being waterproof and battery-powered.
This is such an original costume and right in line with his passion!
We started out by looking at LED light strips that need to be assembled but with more research, we eventually found the correct type of lights.
Dong Eun has been asking Ethan to check his knowledge and indicate what he knows, doesn’t know and what he’s mastered by using coloured sticky notes. Wonderful study skill, to mark important passages and places in texts.
A great next step could be teaching him a few different note taking skills…there are several methods. He seems to like lists so the outlining method might be a great place to start. Or for a more visual style mapping…I can offer more examples if you are interested.
Brain pop has a whole section on note taking…
https://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/notetakingskills/
I am not sure if you are familiar with Malcom Gladwell’s books, or if you agree with his ideas. I did enjoy Outliersand Tipping Point. In Outliers he argues that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master of something. Or ten years…
I do feel like I am a master preschool/kindergarten teacher after putting my 10,000 hours in with them in the classroom. Here are some interviews with him you might enjoy.
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