This past week of unschooling saw Ethan overcome fear and had his picture published in the BC SPCA’S kid’s magazine. In other words, another week full of activity and learning.
November 4
We are trying to be consistent with our jogging and take advantage of the nice weather. Ethan’s still wearing shorts!
One change we made is that I let Ethan use my phone to track our runs and it’s helped motivate him to run more and take different routes. The app shows our route, so it’s fun for Ethan to see the squiggles and zig-zags he does.
Caring for his fern.
I mentioned how some people talk to their plants and others play music to help them grow, so he tried both.
Tracking his fern’s growth.
We went to IKEA to find some things for Ethan’s room.
And while there, Ethan entertained himself by trying to move an IKEA pencil on top of some boxes by only blowing the pencil. The challenge was to try and make the pencil go straight down the box.
After we got home, we put up the blackout blinds we got for Ethan and did some final organization, which we’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. He’s now very happy with his reading area and immediately spent time there.
Before bed, he watched an episode of Mystery Science and found an activity that he planned to try, which was making a robot finger using paper.
He also watched something on Mystery Science about how animals, such as octopus and chameleons can camouflage themselves.
November 5
Jogging in the morning again. He has a goal to jog every day for a week because if he does, he gets a reward of going to A&W for a hamburger.
And this is his chart to track his jogging by time and distance.
While having breakfast, Ethan folded this big origami and he said it was a person giving a hug. I said it was an attacking bear 🙂
He read an article in Classroom Ready Science News and learned about how e-scooters are becoming popular forms of transportation in some major cities. Afterward, he looked up how much electric scooters cost because he thought they would be a great way to get around, instead of walking or driving.
He learned about multiplying positive and negative numbers on Khan Academy.
And he also practiced the violin, something he loves doing. When he’s not practicing, he is often heard whistling the music he is learning, such as Minuet 1 and 2.
We saw a Korean musician who grew up in Toronto play the violin like a guitar, so Ethan was inspired to try it himself.
We then tried to play his classical music pieces on the bass guitar, but the strings are arranged differently and the bass is out of tune. Nonetheless, it was a cool way to take what he learned in violin and try to apply it to another instrument.
He did some more practice with multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers.
He practiced making marble tracks using Marble Run. This is a physics-based game that he really enjoyed before.
For his history learning today, he read about the Great Wall of China, as well as the Silk Road.
He continued learning about China by watching a CrashCourse episode about China’s history.
He made the robot finger. And it actually worked!
He loves Mystery Science and learned about how bridges can be so strong.
The experiments make the lessons realistic. Here, he tested different bridge designs to see how much weight they could hold.
He had to record his observations after testing each type of bridge.
With Remembrance Day coming up, there was an article about WW I in The Canadian Reader.
Time to play outside with his friends.
Once he got back, he learned about pronouns on Khan Academy.
He then used Universe Sandbox to do some experiments with space objects. He loved this app and hadn’t used it in a while. It’s great for learning about the effects of gravity in space.
Ethan read Bark!, which is a kids magazine put out by the BC SPCA. He got a free subscription after donating money to the SPCA earlier this year.
We were surprised to find that his picture was included along with other kids who had donated money this year. Very cool.
After violin class, he wanted to show us what he learned. There was one part of Minuet 1 that he learned how to play properly so he was eager to demonstrate.
Specifically, it was this part shown in the photo.
He was also excited because his teacher said that he could start learning Minuet 3.
After violin, he listened to the Wow in the World podcast and learned about superbugs.
We then reviewed the comprehension questions he answered about WW I. We finished the night by reading The Secret Garden.
November 6
Jogging first thing in the morning. Ethan wanted to jog more, to keep adding distance to his jogging each day, which we did.
At breakfast, Ethan said his egg yolk looked like a sad face or a surprised face, depending on what you included.
Time for violin practice. As usual, Ethan listened to the Minuet songs in the morning and then wants to practice them.
Onto Classroom Ready Science News and a story about giraffes.
He’s doing much better with sentences. He still needs to practice writing answers in his own words, but he’ll get there.
Next up was an experiment to see how fast ice cubes melted.
He made a timelapse video to record what happened.
Here’s the video…
Next up, he learned about different types of angles.
Used IXL to learn about angles.
Then practiced violin.
He continued learning more about ancient China.
As well as learning more about the Silk Road.
He continued his learning about the Silk Road by watching a CrashCourse video about it.
He made some origami leaves from a sticky note.
And learned more about plants by checking out a lesson about why plants give us fruit on Mystery Science.
He also learned about volcanoes and how it’s possible that a volcano could pop up in someone’s backyard.
He learned about the types of rocks that are left by a volcano and mapped out volcano locations; in particular, he saw how we’re a part of the Ring of Fire.
He had to find the volcanoes using coordinates. There was also information about when the volcanoes last erupted.
He learned how volcanoes always come in groups, such as with the Hawaiian islands.
He read some answers about why volcanoes are located near a coast because of fault lines.
He then learned about irregular plural nouns on Khan Academy.
And he watched an intro to adjectives.
He read a story about an aboriginal musician named Jeremy Dutcher who won an award for a song he wrote and performed in his traditional language. Jeremy is using his music to inspire young people in his community to learn and reclaim their traditional language.
Ethan also wrote in his diary.
He practiced angles again by playing Prodigy.
He did some space and physics simulations in Universe Sandbox.
And was happy to get out and play, too.
Ethan found this tall bamboo stalk and brought it home.
That evening, we went over his answers to the Canadian Reader story about Jeremy Dutcher, the singer, and while reading we came across an unfamiliar word: merit. So we looked it up together because Ethan will often skim through his reading and skip words he doesn’t know.
We also went over the things he learned about volcanoes, as he was eager to share them with me. So he showed me this Quora answer from earlier today and we had a chat about volcanoes. Ethan ended the day with me reading The Secret Garden to him.
November 7
The morning before heading to nature school gave Ethan some time to practice the violin.
Arriving with his friends at nature school for another day of fun and learning outdoors.
Back home and that evening, we went skating. Ethan has really improved his skating and was quite confidently getting around the ice without help. Next thing to work on his stopping!
A special treat… hamburgers for dinner after a long day of activities.
Ethan wrote out some music from his violin practice.
He wrote about being respectful and thinking about other people. His teacher at nature school told me that he and his friend Kal have been disrupting the group by constantly saying no to activities.
So we talked to Ethan about how his behaviour affects the teacher and the other kids, as well as coming up with ways to better express himself if he doesn’t enjoy an activity.
He did a Mystery Science mini lesson about world population and there was a poll to choose what would be taught next week.
Ethan again tried the experiment to see how water flows down mountains.
November 8
Ethan read an article about healthy eating in Classroom Ready Science News and answered some comprehension questions.
He went through his math book to mark the topics he knew, didn’t know or kind of knows with sticky notes. He’s done this before but thought it was time to do an update.
While he was doing that, we were having some tomato together. I sang a bit of the song that mentions how tomato can be pronounced in two different ways and I wanted to play the actual song for him.
So we found it on YouTube and Ethan and I watched it together. Fun to see, as I’ve never heard the whole song before and didn’t know where it came from.
Ethan wanted to light a candle but was scared to light the match. He tried several times and finally got the match lit. However, he couldn’t light the candle in time before the match burned.
He was nervous and scared to try again but with some encouragement and instructions, he tried again. On his first try, he was holding the match with the head facing down, so that caused the flame to quickly burn the matchstick.
So this time, he held the match with the head facing up and was able to light the candle, as well as overcome his fear. Nice one!
He then watched a Ted Talk featuring Salman Khan talking about how and why he started Khan Academy.
He did a check to test his knowledge of probability.
Every day, Ethan learns something on Mystery Science. Today, there was how water and erosion works and this lesson about why there is sand at the beach.
And here is the project that goes along with that lesson.
Some violin practice before heading to gymnastics class.
He brought his binoculars just because he wanted to see how they would work in different envrionments. He used them in the van on the way over to the community centre and tried them out indoors, too.
Back at home, he practiced some typing.
And learned more about probability with a lesson on Khan Academy.
He completed the lesson on eating healthy in Classroom Ready Science News.
And learned about irregular verbs from where else but Khan Academy. Such an amazing resource.
He did some work with physics and space using Universe Sandbox.
And he went outside to play with friends.
That night before taekwondo, we went to Home Depot to buy a lightbulb for Ethan’s desk lamp. There was an interesting robotic bear that gave hugs.
I had Ethan find the lightbulb himself. I got the information from the Home Depot website and let Ethan find the correct bulb.
Back at home after taekwondo, Ethan read The Wind in the Willows.
And then Ethan helped me assemble a pull up bar. He read the instructions and helped me find the correct parts I needed to assemble the bar.
And then he got to test it out! Ethan really enjoys the pull up bar because it’s very challenging. It’s one of the reasons why I got it, to encourage him to use it, too.
November 9
Friday! Time for Ethan and Dong Eun to head downtown for the afternoon.
Remember how Ethan had to go jogging every day in order to get a reward of going to A&W? Well…
Afterwards, they went to Indigo and read some books. Great way to find new and popular books that are unavailable at the library.
There was a Harry Potter event at the book store but no one turned up. Ethan was there and got to make a Golden Snitch out of Lego.
They went to the library afterwards and later that night at home, Ethan practiced his taekwondo sparring moves with me.
He missed the first month of lessons because he was away in Korea, so he’s a little behind the other kids. He wasn’t happy last class because he was pulled aside by an instructor to learn the sparring moves on his own.
So we encouraged him to practice at home since the taekwondo school has all the patterns and sparring moves online as videos.
We had some fun while practicing the sparring and Ethan quickly learned them.
That night, we watched some of Earth’s Natural Wonders, a PBS documentary series. This was an interesting series because it talked about not only what the wonders are, but how climate change and humans have impacted the earth and people’s lives.
It was refreshing to see this type of material presented in this way.
November 10
Saturday morning and back to IKEA for breakfast. Funny that we started the week last Sunday by coming here and we ended the week by coming here again. We couldn’t help it, as we needed to return some of the things we bought and it’s nice for Dong Eun not to have to think about feeding us.
Once we got home, we stayed in the rest of the day. Ethan did some Mystery Science lessons, such as this one about heredity and how different cat breeds could evolve.
Then he learned about drawing polygons and tested himself.
He continued the lesson on heredity.
He also practiced the violin. This is something about unschooling that we really love… that Ethan wants to learn at all hours of the day, no matter what day it is.
Practicing polygons and shapes of coordinates.
Playing Prodigy that night and testing his knowledge of shapes. I was actually surprised that he knew the answers.
He watched a lesson on Mystery Science about magnets and how they can be used for door locks. There was a project to make your own door lock using materials around the home so Ethan tried a few different versions.
In between, he helped Dong Eun with the password settings on the computer. He’s confident in his knowledge of how the computer works.
Back to the magnetic locks.
Another version of the lock. He ran into obstacles with the locks not moving smoothly. I tried guiding him by asking him questions about why there was a problem and what could be done to overcome the challenges he faced.
Not sure what I did was helpful, but the main thing was to try and get him to keep trying different methods to reach his goal.
He did eventually get the lock to work but it still needed refinement. Good effort, nonetheless. We finished off the night with some reading of The Secret Garden, which we read most nights before bedtime.
And that was the week of November 4 to 10. The next week starts with Remembrance Day so we’ll see what we end up doing.
for sharing another very full learning week. It’s Abbie here! I’m the LC that’s subbing for Natasha. Wow, so much great learning here that it’s hard to think of what to respond to. So, after re-reading, here are some random thoughts that emerge after viewing the pictures and reading your observations:
Under Self Designing, I am reminded of the following: learning about practice and consistency with following through with the goal to jog each day and practicing the Taekwondo moves at home to catch up with the class; setting up the reading area so that he can be fully present for reading; setting new goals such as learning how to stop with skating; taking time each week to review previous content learned such as information about volcanoes and WW1; engaging in a reflection about Math learning with the identification of things that he knows well, things he kind of knows, and things that he doesn’t know; facing a fear of fire and showing his ability to successfully light a match; and being actively engaged with his jogging with the use of the phone app, chart to fill in, and reward at the end of the week.
Oh, how exciting about his picture being in the SPCA magazine. What a surprise that must have been. As well, he’s learning about the fact that individuals, like himself, can indeed make a difference! I can hear how proud you are of him. He seems like a very determined individual, as noted in the picture of him with the pullup bar.
As an outsider coming in, I can also hear his continued passion for music and also his interest in technology (helping with the computer and making the time lapse video about the ice cubes) and anything Science related. Wow, that’s an impressive list of Science resources that he’s using. Again, having such different approaches….reading from the book, engaging online, viewing the documentaries, using the app, building the robot finger, experimenting with making his own magnetic door lock, and designing and testing the bridges….means that he can satisfy all the many ways of learning and then affirm his own learning.
Thanks for the update with his Math, and again the great list of resources used (i.e. IXL, Prodigy, and Khan Academy) to learn about angles, positive and negative numbers, shapes of coordinates, polygons, and probability. It sounds like this area will certainly be part of his accomplishments, along with the music and Science when your family talks to Natasha for week 13 for the Fall Connection.
Si, there are certainly many different words to imply the same thing and yet have a different tone. In this case, I’m referring to Ethan writing about how to be more respectful in sharing that he doesn’t enjoy an activity at the Nature School. I’m wondering as this behavior seems a bit out of character for him (again as a newbie coming in..smile):
So, I’m not sure what activities he has been doing there? and do you think that the activities may perhaps be too easy for him or something he can’t relate to or ? This may or may not be true, as just brainstorming. Keep us posted about this learning activity!
That’s cool that he can continue to practice his sentence structure. He’s certainly getting lots of practice with Khan Academy and the different parts of speech. Si, writing answers in his own words in sentences is one way to do this. As well, have you heard of online or booklets called Mad Libs? This can be a very fun and boyish way to further explore the parts of speech.
As well, I know that sometimes writing about pictures (creative writing) can also be an interesting way to share something one is interested in. So, for example, you can either cut out action pictures perhaps of some things related to Science or playing music and put them in a booklet or use pictures from the internet. He would then either verbally tell you the story and you write down the story and then he copies the sentences or he would work on writing out his own sentences. My boys used to love this activity, even though my younger son really didn’t like writing. He was okay with typing which also might be another option.
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Well, see you next week! Yours in Self Designing, Abbie 
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