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.