Unschooling Journal Sept. 13-19, 2020

This week, I did geometry, and worked on improving the piano, and in piano, I finished 3 songs, and I read the whole Harry potter series. I also started taekwondo, violin class, orchestra, and swimming.

Hi Natasha!

Thanks for responding!

I’m Definitely going to do that music songbook Idea.

Ethan are you familiar with Orange Shirt Day?

Yes! in fact, I started doing it today!

Im also not going to be doing the music camp.

I rad about what we will learn about, and it didn’t seem fun. It Would be nice if it did have Violin and PianOOOOOOO

so im going to not do it this time.

See You Soon!

bye!

Ethan your Observing for Learning write up was excellent. I really appreciate how you picked your top 8-10 things you did for the week and not only posted a picture, but commented on the process and what you learned! 

Your work with Loci and hexidecimal counting systems were intriguing and I am afraid I needed to do a bit of research to understand what you were doing! 

Your sheet music writing was impressive, maybe you will write a sheet music songbook by the end of the year.

My comments and response will be shorter this week as I spent most of my time on Learning Plans. Your is now posted in the Platform under the Learning Plan tab. Remember it is a work in progress and can be changed throughout the year. 

Ethan are you familiar with Orange Shirt Day? You said in your Learning Plan that you wanted to be more aware of social and historical issues, here is one way to learn more about the history of indgenous people here in Canada as well as some of the long term consequences of residential schools. There are several ways to participate as part of the Self Design community: https://bulletin.selfdesign.org/2020/09/orange-shirt-day-2020-many-ways-to-get-involved/

I am not sure if the Music camp still has room, but it starts next week, in case you are interested here is the information. 

Online Music Camp

Due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, we are not hosting an in-person Jam Camp this year, but are excited about our new online offering. The online camp will allow us to expand our capacity to welcome more learners of a broader age range, as well as work with professional music instructors from around the province.

Each daily session will feature two distinct hour-long sessions with different guest instructors, each exploring a different topic/area of music and adapted to the online setting. The topics will include Indigenous Singing and Drumming, Movement and Song, Rhythm and Poetry, Improvisation and Creative Song Making, Singing, and Ukulele and Song. On the final day of camp, participants will create a collaborative project to bring together and showcase the activities and learning of the entire week.

• Dates: September 28 – October 1, 2020
• Cost: $30 Learning Resources and Services (LRS) funds may be used to pay the fee for this camp.
• Ages: Grade 5-8 and 9-12
• Times: 
  • Grade 5-8: 9:00 a.m – noon
  • Grade 9-12: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Registration opens: September 11, 2020
• Maximum Capacity: 30 participants

For more details about the camp, activities, guest facilitator bios and to register please visit the Gatherings website.

If you have questions please email events@selfdesign.org for more information.

Week 2: Sep 6-12: Direct Contact

I had a Zoom meeting with Ethan and his parents, here are some of the highlights from the conversation: 

Enjoyed doing the strengths and stretches LP slide. Very self reflective and it took time to really consider each section. 

FSA going to be doing that again this year in October. I will enter it as Week 7 Oct 12-17th, but you have the whole month to work on it. I will send more info at the end of the month. 

Also Doing the 6/7 workshop and maybe drop in for the genius hour. 

He will be doing his own reflection, try writing them up in different ways this year, try different formats or ways of collecting, writing and reflecting. 

I am going to start nature school next week

Engagement Experience: 

Learn something new

Starting to learn Javascript, using youtube videos, using books about javascript

Make games, simulations

Coding, like it about the same, can do a lot more things because it runs more things,

Maybe if I get bored of a language will learn a new one

I started to learn piano, got a keyboard

Spent the entire day on it, got it for his birthday

Been every single day on the piano, as much as possible he is on it

Hoffman academy youtube using that

Recorded a song 

Fun to play another instrument

Currently watching youtube videos

Really likes his big screen, easier 

Recorded a new piano piece with accompaniment, fascinated with the piano

He wanted lessons two years ago, he is already doing violin, 2 instruments is a lot

Ethan knows a lot about what he is interested in, good timing for the piano he loves it

Drawing Class- started yesterday, teacher called maybe the class would be cancelled. 2 students. He didn’t like, the whole thing. Might have to change that. Likes to do it at his own pace. Was a bit too basic, not enough a challenge. 

Probably going to be doing piano a lot. 

Connect with Layla

EMF math support chat, he was in contact with one other student

Switched over to discord chat program who like to play video games

Ethan was chatting with her about math and coding been interesting

Connect with her as well, similar situations 

Helps him to be more engaged in what he is learning

Send me the theme of the week, include the highlights

Share your experience with others, homeschooling videos for others to see and learn from

How do you do it Ethan? Hot tips? key understandings? 

How to get started. Home Schooling 101

LRS: please send me the email contact, phone number and name for the violin lessons and I can submit that right away.