This past week was quite busy for all of us and Ethan was just as busy as usual, too. Here’s a look back at what he was up to in his unschooling journey. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that after a great talk with Ethan’s LC, we’re far more comfortable in following our version of unschooling.
And what we see unschooling as for us is a mix of some structure, along with the freedom to explore topics. What we’ve asked is for Ethan to choose topics of interest in math, language arts, second languages, and history and do something related to those topics each morning.
As an example, Ethan will open his math book and find a subject, like probability, and practice it by creating worksheets. He practiced volume by trying to figure out the volume of our sofa. Our goal is to have him deepen his interest and understanding of a certain topic, to further explore and learn.
Ethan can then do whatever he chooses for the rest of the day. As you’ll see in the following pictures, he often continued exploring topics for the entire day, but he also tried several things in one day, too. Overall, he seemed to enjoy the variety and the time to make discoveries and deepen his learning.
January 14
This was Ethan playing Blocky, the game he invented when we were on the phone with Ethan’s LC.
Then it was learning about volumes of solids. He used the cubes from above to practice calculating the volume of a solid.
Somehow, Ethan wanted to learn a little about Mount Rushmore. He found an introduction to Mount Rushmore in the history book we borrowed from the library.
We took a walk down to the beach to get some fresh air.
We enrolled Ethan in the Soaring Eagle Nature School, so he was packing his backpack to ensure we could fit everything he needed and so he could learn how to pack his own bag.
That evening, Ethan made a worksheet to practice locating objects using coordinates. He learned about coordinates from the math book and also knew about coordinates from playing chess and Battleship.
January 15
Ethan was quite interested in a board games book we borrowed from the library and made a couple different games to play.
 
He also spent some time working on long division. He likes the challenge of new math problems and created some of his own problems to solve.
He also practiced some large number multiplication, as well as long division.
Next, he wrote and illustrated a new comic book. He has a good understanding of using composition to draw the reader’s attention.
Ethan learned how to scan his comic books into the computer as PDF files. He also learned how to upload the PDF files onto his website so people can download the books or view them online.
Ethan likes making math worksheets on his computer to practice whatever he was learning.
And in the evening, I read Pinocchio to him, even though he has read the book on his own. We also read a book about 3D printing, which he is very interested in because of all the different things he can create.
January 16
The day started with Ethan noticing how the soy milk mixed with the berries as we prepared to make a smoothie for breakfast. He’s talked a few times about which liquids would float and which ones would sink, so this was a fun thing to observe.
It was Dong Eun and I’s wedding anniversary today and Ethan made a heart from his blocks and he also made a nice card for us.
Inspired by the board games book and our anniversary, Ethan made a kind of snakes and ladders game, but with hearts replacing the snakes.
While he was making the game, we were listening to Bach on YouTube. We just happend to have a book with famous musicians so Ethan was able to read about Bach.
And here is the completed “Hearts and Slides” game, complete with paper clips for game pieces that have been shaped into hearts.
Next, Ethan went through a math book we borrowed and tried an experiment for folding a parabola.
He was getting hungry and wanted to cook something on his own. This was the birth of Ethan’s Eggza, the egg-like pizza!
Ethan saw that I created a picture frame using card stock so he made his own version that also had a message on it for Dong Eun.
He then practiced a bit of converting fractions into decimals because we were talking about how the eggza was divided up.
And while flipping through the history book, he saw Einstein’s equation for the theory of relativity and recognized it from somewhere else.
This led to Ethan working on creating a new math book and worksheet.
And he really enjoys Pinocchio.
That night, he practiced more multiplication.
And in his mindfulness class, they created a gratitude jar and used an outline of their hand to write five things they were grateful for.
And to wind down the day, Ethan read “The 13 Story Treehouse.”
January 17
Today was an exciting day because Ethan attended his first day of Soaring Eagle Nature School. We were fortunate to grab a spot halfway through the program and Ethan loved it.
Maybe he was reading the survival book as a prep for the day outside?
After getting home, he chilled with a book.
He then read up on units of measurement and created a worksheet for measuring volume and area.
And for a snack, he made another eggza!
He also wanted to make a recipe book, so he used iBook Author to start the book. And of course, eggza was the first recipe.
January 18
Each day usually starts with Ethan waking up and quickly finding something to do, such as today when he wanted to complete the area and volume worksheet he made last night.
He also looked at multiplying decimals because we weren’t sure if the decimals should be included in the original calculation or added back after. We saw a YouTube video to help us and also found the answer in his math book. This led to practicing multiplying with decimals.
Ethan had a swimming lesson, but once he was done, it was back to volume and trying to figure out the volume of our sofa.
And some more multiplication practice.
Taekwondo came next, which meant a walk to the community centre.
And that night, he made a worksheet to practice probability.
He also helped Dong Eun with dictation because she’s trying to improve her English listening, grammar and vocabulary.
January 19
Today was all about math, other than some reading about the Titanic. He went through several different math topics, as you can see from the photos below.
This first one was writing down probability. He struggle a little with this because he had to write the way the book was demonstrating in order to make his answers clear and easy to understand.
January 20
In addition to the usual math he practiced for most of this week, today Ethan helped prepare for a dinner we were hosting. His friend Kenson and his parents were coming over for dinner. Kenson is another homeschooler that Ethan regularly hangs out with.
Ethan was quite interested in line graphs and made a graph to track his height. He also made a daily plan for himself.
Here, Ethan folded the napkins for the place settings by following instructions on YouTube.
And helping with making brownies for dessert.
Toothpick, anyone?
He used the napkin folding techniques to try folding paper.
After dinner, Ethan made a special area in his room for reading and made signs for his door.
“come to read, read to learn, learn to buy” is the book nook motto đ
He then worked on book 10 of his Adventures of a Piece of Paper comic book series before going to bed.
So that was Ethan’s week. I’ll try to post daily or at least every other day because these big ones are overwhelming, to say the least.
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Home Visit with Ethan
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Ethanâs family had me over for a wonderful visit and Korean meal at their home in North Vancouver. Carl picked me up in their van. It was a treat to get inside their VW and imagine what it must have been like to travel all the way across Canada and the US in the space.
Ethan was dressed up in a collared white button up shirt. His new glasses looked very handsome on him and i appreciated how they had little blue puzzle pieces on the frames. It reflected a bit of his interests and personality. Ethan gave me a tour of his room. He showed me all the books he has been writing. They were laid upon a serving platter. They were in a bit of a comic form, but there were some which had a lot of prose and writing as well. I read a few and took some pictures. I appreciated how he has his own workspace complete with pens and various types of paper, games, and books as resources.
I encouraged him to read the Narnia series. I guess he has already read the first one. This could be a good series to do a book study on since the writing is wonderful.
Ethan was very excited to make me his new food creation: eggza
He cut up bananas and feed them in an egg omelette. It was unique and actually pretty tasty. a bit of a sweet and savoury treat.
Ethan helped set the table, fold the napkins in an origami shape and serve the food.
Carl and I had some discussion about homeschooling as Ethan and his mother finished cooking dinner. Ethan looked very comfortable in the kitchen in his apron, using a stool for height and handling a knife with ease.
I found out that Ethan will be attending the Soaring Eagle Nature School one time a week. He started this last week and Ethan showed the rather large and sharp knife he has for the program. He told me it will probably be used for carving. I would love to hear more about his experiences in nature and with his peers there.
I noticed how the 10 steps to homeschooling I sent the other day was posted on the wall. Ethan pointed to the first step âlet the child leadâ It seems as though he is quite comfortable leading his own learning and his parents are becoming much more comfortable with their role as curators or librarians offering him tools and resources he might need.
I sat under the map of Canada and US where their trip was marked and highlighted. There were several items and memorable from the trip. He showed me the maps, notebooks from the Grand Canyon, the map from the Disney adventure Land etc. The trip is still very much alive and I am glad they are still celebrating and reminding themselves of all that happened and the people they met along the way. I showed them where I had been last summer on the border of the Northwest Territories.
Ethan showed me some stickers from the SPCA and I suggested going there more often to see, visit or even volunteer with the animals since pets are not allowed in their building.
SPCA helpers
link to photographer paraglider of canada in the following windowâŚ
Ethan was so excited to show me all of the incredible short films and worksheets he is designing on his computer! He uses programs such as Pages, Platoon and Keynote. His worksheets are beautifully illustrated with images off the web and well laid out in terms of design. I was very very impressed!
This is the movie I mentioned on standard form and powers of ten.
Powers of ten movie 1977 version and one from 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSNxVqprvM
He seemed quite taken with the history book he has which outlined the highlights of all of human history. I can tell he really likes instructional books which offer a lot of information and he can highlight or skip around to what most interests him. He then does follow up explorations or projects such as watching the Challenger flight videos and building a rocket launcher for his toy space craft. He is definitely self designing. Keep finding books like this maybe one for science, or how things work, even maybe linguistics to help him understand how languages develop and go extinctâŚ.
He is taking a mindfulness class as well. He enjoyed it before and showed me a few of the projects from the class including he gratitude jar and the mind jar.
What wonderful lifelong practices. Here are a few more mindfulness activities to try:
I also really enjoy Brian Gym for ways to increase focus, presence and calmness through body exercises:Brain Gym
Thank you so much for the visit and picking me up and driving me home. It is incredibly meaningful for me to make a real life connection with all of you. If there are any highlights of learning or future directions you would like to share please send them in the next two observations of learning. I sent an email in this regard.
Konichwa from Otaru, Hokkaido
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