Toronto Archives - How to Do Stuff With Ethan

Home Learning Journal October 8, 2017 – Downtown Toronto & Making New Friends

carl376 — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 13:09:41 +0000

If you’re just reading this blog for the first time, we are a family of three traveling across Canada (and likely beyond) in a 1994 VW Westfalia camper van called Juju Jr. Our son Ethan, age 9, is unschooling and so we want him to learn from being on the road and traveling. So he’s also now a roadschooler and we are documenting the trip and his learning on this blog.

We spent the day in Toronto today and had a decision to make: Drive or take transit. We chose to drive and it turned out to be the right choice. Road tripping does take some energy and we didn’t want to poop ourselves out by walking around a lot and also taking transit.

Fortunately, the excellent turkey dinner we had last night re-energized us and we all felt great throughout the day. We were able to see everything we wanted to see in Toronto, so it was a great day, overall.

Video to come!

Morning

We were quite fortunate that my sister lives in Toronto because it was the perfect pit stop for us. We’re now just over halfway across Canada and needed to freshen up and recharge. A breakfast of feta cheese and tomato omelette with some homemade maple bacon got us off to a good start for the day.

After breakfast, we got to go out in my sister’s new Tesla for a spin, which was a lot more fun than I expected. I even got to drive it, which was very cool. Dong Eun and I now know what car we’d get if we got another car again.

While we were on the drive, Ethan spent time with Shane and Sue playing Telestrations again. We played last night and it was great fun.

After the drive, it was time to get going. My sister’s place had a massive mint bush growing in the backyard, which we’ve now made a part of Juju Jr.’s decor.

Afternoon

After saying goodbye to Connie, Shane and Shane’s mom, Sue, we made our way to downtown Toronto. First stop was Toronto City Hall to get a photo with the Toronto city sign.

City hall was an impressive sight in itself and we were lucky enough to arrive before 1pm so we could park for free until then. It was only 15 minutes, but it was just enough.

We then wanted to see the CN Tower, and heard that we could park for free behind Steam Whistle Brewery. It was a little tricky to find but we found it and parked.

However, there were no parking signs for all the spots, as they were reserved for employees. But there were a couple cars parked along the curb, so we also parked there and asked a security guard if it was ok. He said we could park there for 30 minutes, which was perfect.

On the way there, Ethan made a new fidget toy from paper.

So we only had 30 minutes to see CN Tower and get a photo with the Canada 150 sign.

When we went to get a photo with the Canada 150 sign, we asked someone to take our photo but we got photobombed by another family.

But we eventually got the shot on our own.

And the old train station relics were very cool to see. Ethan knew what a turntable was from his days as a Thomas the Tank Engine fan.

Our 30 minutes was about up so we took a drive up Yonge St., which is 86km long. It was mistakenly called the longest street in the world up until 1999. Anyway, it was sort of a bigger version of Vancouver’s Robson St. or Granville St.

On the way, we passed Union Station and Dong Eun snapped this cool photo with the light coming from behind the station.

It was time to move on from downtown Toronto and see some nature. While driving towards the beach area, we stopped at T&T Supermarket for only our third meal out. For $13, we all enjoyed a taste of Chinese food, and Ethan ate a ton. Dong Eun’s tummy didn’t quite like it afterwards but luckily, she was fine.

We then made our way to Woodbine Beach and on the way, Ethan was again busy making origami designs. This was a pop up elephant, I believe.

It was at Woodbine Beach that we met a Korean family. Actually, it was Ethan who met the family’s son, as they were playing together. The other boy, I believe his name was Aidan, asked if Ethan was Korean. They hit it off and played together with Aidan’s sister for almost 2 hours.

We talked with the parents and it was nice connecting with a new family who is also sort of traveling. They’ve only been in Toronto for 6 weeks, but will be here for another 4-5 years while the dad gets his PhD. Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to meet them again in the future.

After saying goodbye, we headed to the beach for a few minutes. There were a lot of seagulls and Ethan tried chasing the flock to get them all to take off at once. It sort of worked, but it was just nice to see the beach and water. The sand was surprisingly soft and clean.

Ethan wanted to show Dong Eun a couple of magic tricks he learned from YouTube that can only be done at the beach.

It was now time to move on and head to Niagara Falls. We thought we could make it there to see the falls at sunset. Ethan folded more origami while we waited to get out of the parking lot. Yes, he loves origami as much as ever.

On the way out of Toronto, the views were pretty amazing. From a silhouette of the CN Tower to an orange sunset, it was beautiful.

So we made it to Niagara Falls, but it was already way too dark. We heard they have fireworks, but not after Labour Day. Anyway, we’ll see the falls tomorrow and then head over to Grand Island to meet up with my good friend Nate McMurray. Oh, and Ethan made more origami on the way to Niagara Falls…A Christmas ornament (left) and a house (right).

Ethan played for over 2 hours at Woodbine, and then we drove for nearly 2 hours, so he was rightfully hungry when we got to Niagara Falls. He started off having some orange but quickly moved onto devouring half the leftover turkey we got from my sister.

His appetite has dramatically increased in the past several days since we started eating meat more regularly. This is a good thing for him, and Dong Eun and I are also feeling more energized and healthy.

The post Home Learning Journal October 8, 2017 – Downtown Toronto & Making New Friends appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Home Learning Journal October 7, 2017 – Ontario Science Centre & Turkey

carl376 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 13:40:49 +0000

Leaving Parry Sound, our destination was Toronto; specifically, my sister’s place for Thanksgiving dinner. We thought it would take longer than it did, but it was a relatively short drive.

We’re staying the night and exploring Toronto for a few days. Have friends to see and Toronto has lots to see, too.

Video to come!

Morning

We woke up to a wet morning, as it had rained at some point. It must have rained a lot because the pop up tent was quite wet on one side. We’ve been parking with the driver’s side next to the shopping cart return at Walmart, so that helps to keep the driver’s side drier. Just little tricks you learn as you go along.

Ethan woke up a little later than us, but was reading not long after getting up.

Food. Now that the fridge magically started working again, we made oatmeal with milk for breakfast. Walmart had a huge bag of bananas for $1 so we’ve been enjoying more bananas than usual. They’re great with oatmeal.

After breakfast, we hit the road for Toronto. Although it didn’t seem far, you never really know until you start driving. Our initial goal was to try and be in Toronto by dinner time, so wanted to get an early start.

Afternoon

It rained as we drove on the highway and it reaffirmed our choice to drive during the day. But we did get a bit tired and stopped at an OnRoute rest stop in Barrie for a quick snack of peanut butter and bananas sandwiches, carrot sticks and grapes before continuing on. We looked at what was sold at OnRoute and couldn’t justify spending the money on unhealthy food choices.

As we got into Toronto, Ethan commented that it felt like driving in Korea because of all the cars and multiple lanes on the highway. We felt the same way, so it was easy to drive in traffic, even with the Westfalia.

We arrived much earlier than expected, so we decided to visit the Ontario Science Centre. Parking is $10 for the day, but we felt that was a bit steep. So, I dropped off Dong Eun and Ethan at the science centre, then I drove up the street to Superstore to get some work done and let the tent dry out.

The science centre was busy, since it was the weekend, but Ethan loved it.

However, just like at Science North, we noticed that Ethan didn’t want to spend a lot of time at each exhibit. Instead, he just raced from one thing to another, wanting to push the buttons, slide the levers and interact with the exhibits.

That sounds like a good thing, but when observing him, it seems like he’s being overstimulated. He doesn’t focus on one activity for very long the way he normally would. Perhaps if he went to the science centre everyday, he would eventually find one of two things to explore more deeply.

But the other issue is that all the exhibits were designed to perform a set number of actions in a specific way. We encourage Ethan to explore and uncover something new, rather than give him things where the outcome is predetermined. For that reason, we feel that he would do better in a setting similar to the fossil casting we did at Drumheller.

Ethan learns best when he is focused on one activity, such as when he is practicing origami. He can spend hours working on folding new designs.

Evening

After the Ontario Science Centre, we went over to my sister Connie, and brother-in-law, Shane’s place, which was quite nearby. It was nice to finally see their place in person, rather than on Google Street View.

And very cool that they recently got a Tesla Model X! They mentioned going on road trips down to the US because they can sleep in it. That’ll be awesome.

Having a lot of people around and enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner is always nice. It was also nice to meet Shane’s mom, Sue. Shane’s coworker Jane was a hoot and her husband Matthias was an expert turkey carver.

Ethan was happy because he got to check out a sampling of Shane’s cube collection, including the awesome 11 by 11!

Connie prepared an amazing meal and we were stuffed full.

Dessert was pumpkin loaf, courtesy of Sue, and Neapolitan ice cream. Wow.

After dinner, we did our first load of laundry since we left home. Weirdly comfortable wearing totally clean clothes, as well as sleeping in a real bed.

Before bed, Ethan was teaching Sue how to make his origami Swan on a Lake. It was cool to see Ethan interacting with her and teaching her how to fold the swan. Sue’s swan looked pretty good, no? 🙂

Tomorrow, we explore Toronto and will likely head to Niagara Falls, too.

LC Response

Week 6:

Quote from an email I received this week.

“Better than great is reassuring. We feel like we’re winging it a bit too much. Is there something we can do to add more structure?

Dong Eun is doing multiplication tables with him using a Korean method, which is to sort of sing them. He finds it fun, which is great and important. Maybe your word problems idea would work.

Yes the multiplication tables need to be pretty much memorized and doing it to song is a great way to do it. Another thing to add is to show Ethan how multiplication problems are part of a fact family with division. This is what I mean, you can create your own houses or fact families to show how multiplication and division are related:

Also take note of what was easy and more difficult for Ethan in the FSA, it can provide hints as to areas that might need a bit more attention. Once you identify them, please share and I can suggest some more engaging or interactive ways to learn the skills than worksheets.

There was also another boy at the playground and Ethan wanted to show him a couple of his Rubik’s Cubes. I could tell that he wanted to talk to the other kid, but the kid was with his aunt and having a snack. So Ethan decided to use the Rubik’s Cube as a way of starting a conversation. It turned out that the other boy was also interested in Rubik’s Cubes, but didn’t know how to solve it. Ethan happily showed him. He is quite skilled at ways to approach and engage with other children while on the road.

..Ethan wasn’t so interested in the messages, as animal welfare is something we have discussed many times with him. He was more interested in why the writer used hashtags at the end of each message. After explaining the reason to him, he understood that it was the same as using tags when publishing his videos.

It was not that long ago that I needed an explanation of what hashtags were myself. I saw a Saturnday Night Live skit with hashtag as a theme and I did not understand why or what made it so funny…the information age moves so quickly. #alwayslearning, #keepingupwiththetimes

My friend who is a very talented developer who works internationally just shared this video and article on quantum computing. I have to admit I need a bit of a tutor to walk me through what this all means and how it might be applied. I have a basic understanding of entanglement and quantum physics, but as it relates to quantum computing I get a bit lost. Perhaps Ethan will be understanding and using this technology sooner than myself. I am open to that as a possibility for sure.

https://futurism.com/quantum-computing-change-sooner-than-expect/

Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology

There was also a place for tai chi, so Ethan got to check out the Yin and Yang symbol. He thought it looked like a face.

While Dong Eun prepared dinner, I played outside with Ethan. He wanted to make a stone fort and even said it was the engineering part of STEM; or as he called it, STEAM, because he was also doing art by designing the structure. I love that putting the art in engineering, brilliant!

After dinner, he had another smore and he wrote in his journal and drew some pictures inspired by the Ontario tourism guidebook. The journal is a wonderful tool and I encourage you to come up with follow up activities, research or projects after he visits museums or places which really interest him. Take advantage of any activities or resources that the museums offer as well. He could make a scrapbook of his travels, create questionnaires or guidelines for other kids who are on the road like him, write down questions he is still wondering about, make a collage, create a word sort or poetry (like his ode to tress)…anything really.

One thing that’s happened over the course of the trip is how much Ethan has been helping out with different tasks and chores. We are quite impressed by how many things he is helping with and how he has grown. Yes!! Wonderful for you to observe. Chores and responsibility contribute to growth in many ways exspecially in terms of self-esteem. I often send this useful list of chores and task for various ages, I think it can offer some ideas:

Anyway, he likes Sudoku and decided to make his own Sudoku puzzle for Dong Eun to solve. He then made a paper tie for him and I. He is really applying his Soduku skills by making his own!

He then did some reading on his Kindle.

We also enjoyed some fresh popcorn and Ethan got in some more reading time on the Kindle. The Kindle is always in his hands, if he’s not listening to a podcast. It’s really been great to have it, as he’s able to read old favourites and download new books, too.

Can you tell me a bit about what he is reading? How do you check for comprehension after he reads? Does he retell, compare with other stories? Find ways in which he relates to the story?

We went to check it out and sure enough, there were quite a lot of salmon in the water. These were much smaller than the salmon we see back home making their way up the Capilano River. Not sure what species of salmon they were but it was cool for all of us to get an up close glimpse of them. So here is an example of a topic, Salmon, in which you could take the experience of seeing them and then find out more about them, draw them, make salmon origami….

Amazing Facts about Salmon

We weren’t sure what to expect but were very happy to have gone to see the insects. Entomica is a great place for insect lovers and especially, kids because you get to hold the insects and really see them up close.

Ethan had an awesome time learning about the different insects, where they’re from, what they eat, etc. The tour guide, Max, was super in explaining things and asking Ethan questions, such as what nocturnal means. Ethan knew, probably from watching Planet Earth or listening to the science podcasts.

What a super fun and engaging museum, look a those bugs! I would be interested to hear more from Ethan about this experience and how his relationship to insects grew or changed from this?

Madde an optical illusion book

We enjoyed our dessert and went back into the library to do some more work and reading. This particular library closed at 9pm so it was perfect for us. Ethan made a new optical illusions book and published it to the blog. Check it out here.

This published book is wonderful! Nice work Ethan

Swimming…Interestingly, if you’re between 7 to 11 years old, they’ll make you take a swimming test before letting you go in the deep end. Part of the test is treading water without moving around for one minute. Ethan wasn’t going to go in the deep end, but he wanted to try treading water, anyway. He got to about 15 seconds, so he’ll need some more practice.

here were many hands on exhibits, which made it a lot of fun for Ethan. We also wanted him to write down anything he found interesting, but wasn’t easy to stop when you’re so excited to see things. Yes he might need to take a bit of time after the museum to take notes. Or dictate notes to you which he can later write down.

However, he did write that the touched the tarantula.

It can be a bit of a challenge to deepen into an activity or topic as everyday is so stimulating and different for him right now on the road. Taking those quiet times to reflect and settle are helpful to integrating. It seems like he really enjoys building and creating things with his hands, find those hands-on opportunities as you can.

Observation for learning October 1-7, 2017

Here are the daily observations for this past week:

The post Home Learning Journal October 7, 2017 – Ontario Science Centre & Turkey appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.