June 3

Sundays are Ethan’s rest day. So we went for dim sum with Ethan’s friend’s family.

They came over to our place for a coffee.

And after they left, we played tennis and took it easy the rest of the day.

Ethan found another podcast that he enjoys listening to.

June 4

Ethan needed to create a daily to do list to keep himself on track. We’d like him to learn to focus better and get things done that he needs to do before playing.

Working on Canadian Reader and Classroom Ready Science News articles and questions is part of Ethan’s daily routine.

He also works on math. He loves this because math is his favourite subject.

Measuring weights of cherry(?) tomatoes to practice converting between different weights and measurements.

He also really enjoys playing the violin.

Typing practice is also fun.

And then he listened to some podcasts. His favourite is Wow in the World, a science podcast that’s really fun and entertaining.

He’s writing an overview of a book called “Infinity and Me.”

Watched a video about how LEGO was invented.

We played tennis after dinner. Ethan hadn’t hit his step target so here he is trying to make them up quickly.

Tennis!

Reviewing the comprehension questions from the articles.

Trying to get voice dictation working on the computer.

After cleaning his room and tossing out recyclables.

June 5

He’s still really into making hexaflexagons.

He spent some time listening to podcasts.

And learned about the Mars rover.

Played violin.

Worked on patterns in arithmetic.

Learning about cross sections when you slice open 3-D polyhedrons.

Learned about solving for unknown variables.

Practicing solving for unknown variables online with Prodigy.

We’ve been researching and collecting classic books for Ethan to read.

Heading out for violin and taekwondo class.

Creating tutorials for his website.

Reading from the “What If” book before bed.

June 6

Learning about angles during breakfast before heading to the last nature school class for this school year.

Not wanting to get their photo taken.

There was a final circle time where parents were invited. It was cool to see how the circle was conducted. Everyone had a chance to talk about their own most memorable moment from the past year.

Each teacher talked about the students in their own groups. The teachers talked about qualities of each child that made them special and memorable. It was a great demonstration of the care, kindness and thoughtfulness of the teachers.

Food time! Dong Eun made some delicious brownies that disappeared pretty quickly.

Ethan found a salmonberry for me to try. He said they are called salmonberries because they resemble salmon roe.

Ethan with his teacher, Tom. Tom is going back to school to get his B. Ed. degree. Hopefully, we’ll have him back at Soaring Eagle when he’s done, but we also wish him the best of luck on his new journey.

And Ethan is sporting his new Soaring Eagle t-shirt. Proceeds from the sale of t-shirts go towards a scholarship fund to help children attend nature school who may not normally be able to financially.

Group photo with the other teachers.

Back home, Ethan worked on a new marble track.

Some after dinner tennis.

Played with DIY slime after tennis.

He’s really enjoying playing violin lately, even more than usual, and practiced that evening before getting ready for bed. We read more of the “What If?” book before he went to sleep.

June 7

Violin practice in the morning.

Practicing violin led to working with Garage Band to record himself playing. He also likes the metronome function to help him practice his timing.

He practiced recording his playing, then piecing together his best performances into a single track using Garage Band.

Learned about the pyramids of Egypt and Giza.

Reading about how to ace middle school science. We ended up purchasing this book because this series of books has a great visual layout, as well as making it easy to learn the different concepts.

Learned about Google’s self-learning AI.

Watched videos about Pi.

Practiced more solving for unknown variables.

Did some Grade 5 word problems.

He wrote about Graham’s Number.

He summarized Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” by describing the characters, plot, the setting and the problem and solution faced by the main characters.

Ethan worked on coding in Scratch. Lately, he likes to modify existing games made in Scratch.

Ethan finally got tired of his bangs falling into his eyes and cut them himself. Dong Eun cleaned up his hair a bit after.

We ended the day reading the “What If?” book again.

June 8

Ethan started the day in his room, drawing some shapes.

At breakfast, he was reading the “What If?” book. This book has been a lot of fun for Ethan because of the unique questions asked and the scientific and fun answers given.

After breakfast, Ethan practiced violin. But today, he wanted to learn a new song, Minuet 1. So he looked online for a tutorial.

He also looked at the previous pieces he’s learned to try and figure out what the notes were. The music book he uses doesn’t have the notes written, so that’s why he had to figure out what they were on his own.

He managed to successfully play the song, so it was quite the achievement.

Next, Ethan turned to math and did some 2-digit multiplication, as well as some Grade 5 word problems.

He then watched a video about the science of spices. He’s learned about the Scoville scale that is used to measure the spiciness of foods from the Wow in the World podcast.

Over lunch, he read more of “What If?” He has this book in his hand almost all day long.

He learned about parallel lines on Khan Academy.

Then did some practice with some worksheets.

He continued his learning by reading about angles in the how to ace math book.

In between, he read “What If?” again, of course.

He also learned about Ohm’s Law by watching a video on Khan Academy.

Here’s the story about Graham’s Number that he was working on.

He really enjoys science books, especially this book, “The Science of Why?” by Jay Ingram.

He finished the day by learning about how to make an emoji notebook through a Youtube video.

June 9

Ethan has really been into his violin lately and practiced early this morning.

My sister and her husband were visiting from Toronto so we had a family brunch at our place. Ethan helped with setting the table, as well as taking everyone’s order and helping with cooking the waffles.

After my family left, Ethan invited his friend Kal over to play. They spent the day together and had dinner at our place.

Ethan mapped out parts of the game he’s been working on in Scratch.

He had to make two birthday cards: One for his grandmother and another for his friend Eldon’s sister. Eldon invited Ethan to go along to his sister’s birthday party at Playland, so Ethan made a card for her.

The next day, we were having my mom over for dinner for her birthday so Ethan made a card for her, too.

And that was the week!

The post Unschooling Journal June 3-9, 2018 – Daily To Do List & Nature School Wrap Up appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

It wasn’t meant to sound that way. It’s just the truth because it seems like he’s doing something and learning throughout the day.

I mentioned to the mom that when kids come home from school, they don’t want to do anything that seems like formal learning, but that for Ethan, he’s just doing what he likes to do.

Anyway, here’s what Ethan was up to this past week…

February 18th

Last night, at our Chinese New Year’s party, we received this lovely flower and plant. Ethan got something more traditional, as you’ll see.

Ethan received a bunch of cash in lucky red envelopes, a traditional gift for children and single adults. Ethan wanted to take his haul to the bank so a trip to the ATM was put on the day’s schedule.

But first, Ethan spent the morning watching some videos about space and how stars and galaxies collided. He learned that our Milky Way galaxy was on a collision course with our neighbouring galaxy and that this will happen at some point several billions of years from now.

Cleaning up

We had to clean the penthouse unit after last night’s party so Ethan came up to help out, too.

SNOW!

It snowed last night so Ethan helped clear some of the snow from Juju Jr., as we were going to head out later in the day.

But first, we took a walk down to the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.

Lynn Valley Ecology Centre Bug Exploration

Ethan and I went to the Lynn Valley Ecology Centre to go looking for bugs in the forest. The session started with a short talk about what kind of bugs we might find and we also had a look at some of the bugs that make Lynn Valley home.

It was an amazing day to be outside, with the fresh snowfall and sun creating a magical atmosphere.

Under this old log was a spider’s egg sack. We didn’t see the spider but we thought this was just a speck of snow.

Back at the Ecology Centre, we looked at the bugs we collected under a powerful microscope projector called Elmo. Afterwards, there was craft time where the kids made a butterfly from a coffee filter.

Bank run

After leaving Lynn Valley, Ethan deposited his lucky money at the ATM. He got to do the whole depositing process and liked watching his money go in and seeing what his balance was.

Friends came over

We had plans for a few of Ethan’s friends to come over, so the rest of the afternoon and evening were spent playing indoors.

The moms all spent time chatting and getting to know each other.

Once everyone had gone home, Ethan spent the rest of the evening building with his Lego.

February 19th

Ethan started the day by working on book 18 and book 19 of the Adventures of a Piece of Paper series.

Next was an assignment from Ethan’s mindfulness class. The students had to think of words that describe themselves, then make a word collage. Here were some of the words Ethan first came up with.

And here is Ethan working on the collage.

Getting out

It was a nice day out, so Ethan and Dong Eun spent some time at the beach and they also went to the library.

At the library, Ethan found another coding book.

On the way home, Ethan saw a robin.

Making Pac Man

Ethan was excited to get home and start coding. He planned to make a Pac Man game and tackled this project head-on.

Ethan used a combination of videos and reading to make his own version of Pac Man. He had to map out how each character moves by inputting the exact coordinates where the characters should move to.

Who is Ethan?

Ethan spent the evening completing his mindfulness project. We had a few more suggestions for him, so he added several more words.

Ethan wound up the day by listening to and audiobook version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We discovered that we can borrow ebooks and audiobooks via OverDrive and our local library account.

February 20th

Ethan started the day with a book, which is normal. Today, it was a science project book, although he didn’t try an experiment today.

Time to head out for violin class.

He had taekwondo and and then in mindfulness class, they completed the word collage.

Ethan really likes violin class and wanted to play for us the new song he learned. He got a bit frustrated when he couldn’t play the song. We talked to him about how it was the first time he learned it and that he needs to practice to play it well.

He’s done this on other occasions, too. He wants to do things well but forgets that we all start from not being good and improving.

Before bedtime, Ethan watched a couple math videos to learn about Algebraic equations. He likes to learn new things and it’s great there are resources like Kahn Academy to satisfy his curiosity.

February 21st

Today, Ethan asked what material has the highest melting point. We did some Googling and found this from ASM International:

“Computations show that a material made with just the right amounts of hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have a melting point of more than 4400 K (7460°F). That’s about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun and 200 K higher than the highest melting point ever recorded experimentally.”

Another story mentioned that the above material could be used to make something like the comic book character Wolverine’s adamantium that’s fused to his bones. Very cool.

We also found out that the element with the highest melting point is carbon at 3500℃!

After watching the algebra videos last night, Ethan wanted to do some practice, so he made some equations in his notebook.

Ethan then spent the day at nature school. They learned about tying knots and made a big slingshot to launch snowballs with.

Ethan wanted to show us one of the knots he learned. The knot is used for securing things so you can pull them and easily untie the knot after. Very cool.

Ethan spent the evening watching more math videos.

Tonight, Ethan played the new song he learned and was much improved. Dong Eun says he has high expectations of himself, which is why he was getting frustrated the day before.

Something cool is that he remembers how to play the songs by heart after one lesson. He obviously loves playing violin and we think his teacher has a lot to do with it.

We started reading “The Borrowers” tonight because we’d like Ethan to read more of the classics. He seemed interested in the story so we’ll see how it goes.

February 22nd

This morning, it was Ethan preparing his own breakfast… Eggza!

He also made some apple and carrot juice for everyone.

Such a beautiful day this morning.

We went to the library after Ethan’s swimming lesson. At the library, he likes to read comics because he doesn’t read them as much at home. I think this is because we’re always asking him to read classics or something educational, so I think he enjoys this little break from those other books.

Ethan borrowed a couple of cool books on how to make mini weapons, like a catapult.

So he made one to try out and it worked awesome.

He also tried another catapult design but the first one could shoot much further.

Just letting the world know that he loves pi 🙂

Ethan also worked on his own comic book.

And wound up the night listening to Harry Potter and trying to follow along with the ebook.

February 23rd

Today was day two of a workshop at Science World about energy, so Ethan was finishing up some research he had to do prior to the workshop.

He had to measure how far a elastic could fly based on how far back you pulled the elastic.

Then he had to write out his answers.

He had to make a graph showing his data, so he started by looking up graphs and how data was mapped out.

He also wanted to demonstrate how important brackets are when doing calculations.

First graphical representation of the data.

Plotting out the average of how far the rubber band flew.

At Science World, the workshop only had a few participants so Ethan really enjoyed the experience. Each child shared their results with the instructor.

The instructors briefly reviewed what they talked about at last week’s session and then they moved onto some hands-on experiments with energy.

This was a Rube Goldberg-style video showing how energy can be transferred. After watching the video, the kids tried to make their own Rube Goldberg-style project.

After the workshop, we explored the new “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” exhibit.

The Einstein made from toast portrait was very cool.

This suit is for exploring caves with giant crystals. Ethan’s inside the suit!

This room had a camera that dynamically turned your movements into living art. Ethan loved this.

Time to go home. Beautiful out with the snow falling.

Back home, Ethan tried some problems in his math workbook to see where he’s at, in terms of his math knowledge and ability.

He liked the “test” but was a little stumped by the word problems.

Here, Ethan and Dong Eun are visualizing the word problem to help him wrap his head around how to solve it. We like this part of homeschooling where Ethan can take his time and work through things he finds challenging.

We suggested to Ethan that instead of wondering what to do each day, he can plan out what he wants to do the night before. So here’s what he came up with.

He then spent the rest of the night working on coding a new game using Scratch.

February 24th

Saturday! What an amazing past few days it’s been here. The sun has been out and with the snow on the ground, has created this beautiful scenery for us to enjoy.

Ethan started the day practicing violin and taekwondo, working through his to-do list. We think he’s just trying to finish this stuff early so he can work on his computer, but we’ll see.

Stanley Park Nature Walk

We registered for a nature walk to learn about animal habitats in Stanley Park. The snow and sun made for a magical time.

But it started with some good old-fashioned snowball throwing using the lamp post as a target. The instructor, Jordan, was awesome and made the experience fun and memorable for us all.

Next, they built a snowman for the bus stop.

Time to walk towards Lumberman’s Arch and check out potential creature habitats.

Jordan showed us a spot where she saw some possible locations for burrows.

A muffin tin! Jordan wondered why she had a muffin tin in her backpack, but it turned out to be a great tool for making snow muffins that could line the opening to the burrow.

Some acorns, twigs and leaves and you’ve got yourself a new home for a forest creature.

Nearby was a fort someone had made previously. We went in and made a shelter for other animals to use.

On the way to the seawall, Ethan and Dong Eun couldn’t help but make big snowballs with all the fresh snow that had fallen.

And we turned those snowballs into a giant snowman who Ethan named Fluffy.

Ethan found the sticks to make Fluffy’s face. What a smile!

Fluffy was done and there were people taking selfies with him soon after we left.

At the seawall, Ethan, Jordan and Dong Eun had some fun throwing snowballs into the ocean and watching them disintegrate and melt away.

We were soon joined by one other boy, but Ethan was already busy making some snow furniture.

An armchair seemed like the perfect thing after playing with the snow.

The other boy, who was almost 4-years old, helped make some “food” while Ethan made more furniture.

About to dig in and have some snow muffins. Who knew a muffin tray could be so useful in the snow!

Ethan made a snow angel. The snow and the park were a perfect setting.

On the way back, we found Fluffy but he had been knocked over. Undeterred, we rebuilt him.

We gave him a sturdier, bigger head and a thicker neck. We also put his name with a hashtag so that people can see that he’s cared about. Hope he puts a smile on others like he did for us.

Back home, Ethan rested for most of the day and watched math tutorial videos on Kahn Academy.

He then did some diary writing about his day.

The rest of the evening, Ethan worked on coding his latest game. In this one, you simply move a blue ball around, while avoiding the red ones.

What was neat about his game was that he made it for Dong Eun and I. He had a message at the beginning of the game were he said it was for his beloved parents. Sweet boy. So proud of him.

To finish up the day, Ethan completed his final task, which was making a video. He made a video about how to make a craft stick catapult.

And that was our week of unschooling. Ethan really did a lot but he was a little unsure about what to do on a couple of days.

We let him work through it, but suggested that he set up a schedule, which really helped. He can better visualize what to do the next day, while also learning to manage his time so he gets everything on his to-do list done.

Hopefully, he’ll carry on with the list and maintain this habit.

I apologize for the late response. There is always so much to digest and read about in Ethan’s week. Thank you again for the detailed and rich Observation for Learning with all of the photos. I am way up here at 2100m in a winter wonderland wilderness. It is so wild that I even have WIFI to write this. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until I am back in Nelson to send you some photos. I will do so in the week 26. It sounds like Ethan has been enjoying all of the recent snow in Vancouver! I will write to him and tell him about my snow adventures here. It is some of the coldest fluffiest deepest snow, up to my waist that I have ever skiied. Valhalla means heaven and it surely does feel that way. 

I get such a clear picture of Ethan’s week and all of the natural and inspired learning which is unfolding for him. 

It sounds like he has such a great balance of outdoor and nature adventures such as Lynn Canyon and the nature program he attends with the indoor activities of coding, reading and watching educational videos. He also has found a dynamic balance between hands-on activities like building all the models and small machines he is doing along with written work. 

His writing is really taking off on its own accord as well. I remember how concerned you were about how you were going to get him to write and how dry you were finding worksheets and assignments. Now look at ethan, he is working on his 18th and 19th Adventure of a Piece of Paper books and making his own comic books!! 

I wonder if you would like to try to get him to work on some non-fiction writing as well? Here are a few ideas he might be able to experiment with. He can pick any topic, space or bugs might be a good place to start based on his interests as well. 

I have another student who is also really enjoying Algebra on the Kahn Academy site, but he is in grade 8! I am so impressed with where Ethan’s passion for math and numbers is taking him. 

I have one more idea, in terms of his recent experimentation with making a daily list or schedule. It might be interesting to revisit his learning plan and see if he wants to make a monthly or seasonal “to learn list.” Also let me know if there are other things he would like to add to his mind map. 

Sending you sunny joy from the mountain tops. 

Natasha

The post Unschooling Journal February 18-24, 2018 – Snow and Catapults appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Nature School 

Ethan has to pack a bunch of stuff for nature school and carry it around for the day. We’ve lightened his load considerably and Ethan hasn’t complained about his bag being too heavy.

This week, Ethan’s group did an epic hike down to the Seymour River and learned topography skills, too. I’m going to post the recap his instructor, Tom, sent us.

Tom’s Recap

The following is what Tom sent us after this week’s nature school:

What a fantastic day we had this Wednesday!  This week we sent everyone home with the challenge to find a plant that the instructors don’t know and either draw it’s leaf shape in a notebook or bring a leaf sample. 

Our morning started with a game of Night Safari.  Each of us became nocturnal creatures moving stealthfully trying to sneak up on a hunter without being seen in motion.  The hunter was focussed and would catch the slightest movement from the animals, but eventually with patience and skill we could get close enough to catch the hunter.

After our morning circle we has a snack while Tom shared the story of his time at a nature school for adults.  He talked about the amazing Ghost River valley where he spent 10 days and his experience of doing a three day solo, alone on the land.  During this three days he managed to lose track of his usual trail back to his camp from one of the special places he would visit.  Tom shared about how he found out his way back to the camp after becoming lost.

We then split into our small groups:

Tom’s group went on an epic hike down to the Seymour River and north along the western bank.  As we started our trek we looked at the trail map and got our bearings.  Where is North, what direction does the river run, what landmarks can we use to identify our position?  We tried to figure out the scale on a the map and thought it would be fun to think about how we would make our own map.  We talked about how maps show elevation and went over to a tiny hill nearby and marked our topographic lines as they would appear on a map.  As we started out decent deep into the river valley we decided to keep track of the elevation change.  We decided our (imaginary) map would have elevation marks every two metres and a 1cm:50m scale.  We used Tom with his outstretched arm as a measuring stick to mark when we had dropped two metres.  Tom would run down the trail and the group would shout stop when he’d dropped down two metres below the previous mark.  We counted 39 marks, 78 metres down! Then we remembered we would have to climb at least that much to get back out.  We figured Tom’s step was about 1 metre and we counted his steps between each elevation mark and then figured out how that would look on a map.  The shortest distance between markers was 13 steps (0.26cm on our map) and the longest was 205 steps (4.1cm on our imaginary map).

As we walked we noted familiar plants and ones less familiar.  We saw a number of Red Elderberry bushes and were interested in how easy it is to hollow out the soft pith from the dead branches. It’s interesting for us to see a plant that is poisonous, yet also can provide food, medicine and material from building beads and other crafts.

After a well deserved lunch break we climbed out of the valley and made our way back to meet the other groups.  Along the way we played clothpins ninja, each of us had a handful of clothspins and tried our best to attached these to the clothes and backpacks of our fellow group members without being noticed.

What a fun day of mapping, plants and exploration.

Planes

After getting cleaned up and having a snack, Ethan learned some new paper airplane designs.

Coding

Next up was more coding and updates to Ethan’s game, Beach Blast.

When the character jumps, Ethan made it so that he loses energy. Ethan decided to add energy balls to replenish the character’s lost energy.

The blocks in the air move up and down.

The black arrows fly across the screen so the character needs to stay on the higher blocks.

Density experiment

In one of the science books is a density tower experiment and Ethan wanted to try it.

For the first experiment, Ethan first placed a layer of dish soap and some plain water with blue paint added to it.

Then he added some olive oil.

He added more dish soap.

Then he wondered what would happen if he shook the jar and mixed everything up.

Eventually, everything separated except the water and dish soap, as those two things simply mixed together.

Next up was using something much denser for the bottom, rice syrup. And on top of the rice syrup was soy milk.

Dish soap once again.

Followed by some more oil. The dish soap settled in between the soy milk and syrup. Very cool.

Ethan’s Nature name

Before getting ready for bed, Ethan searched a photo of the common merganser, a type of waterfowl. I was curious as to why he suddenly wanted to find pictures of this bird.

He told us that common merganser is the nature name given to him by his instructor, Tom, at nature school

Ethan found the images and learned about how well the common merganser can dive and catch food. He also learned that the male and females have different colours and that the chicks are left to fend for themselves within weeks after being born.

So today was another full day of learning for Ethan. We’re happy with how unschooling is going for him, especially because it’s so great to see him learning pretty much all day long.

The post Unschooling Journal February 7, 2018 – Nature Name and Density appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.