But now they’re home and it was a busy week adjusting to the time difference and getting back into Ethan’s activities. Here’s what happened… 

Sept. 30

Living in Canada means less opportunity to hear and speak Korean, but this past month has been a sort of refresher course for Ethan. Whereas he would often speak in English to Dong Eun, it was very obvious that he his time in Korea helped him get comfortable with speaking to her in Korean.

Here, he’s practicing some writing in Korean while enjoying a tasty snack.

Oct. 1

Last day in Korea before heading home to Canada was spent meeting up with some of the other moms from Ethan’s community school.

Ethan brought some cubes to play with while on the way to meet the moms.

Ethan practiced solving and making patterns on different cubes using an app. He rekindled his love of cubing while in Korea, especially since he got some new cubes from his auntie.

While having a Facetime call, Ethan demonstrated a chess app that randomly chooses pieces so players can practice in a more challenging way. Notice how many of each there are to start the match.

It’s not the cubing while eating that’s interesting, but it’s the place. South Korea is famous for fried chicken and this was our favourite place, a small restaurant run by an older lady who has been making amazing fried chicken for probably 20 years. Ethan was lucky enough to have some considering Dong Eun or her sister don’t eat meat!

Oct. 2

Time to come home! A month went by a lot quicker than expected and it was time to come home. One cool thing about flying back to Canada is that the left Tuesday afternoon Seoul time and arrived Tuesday morning Vancouver time.

One last photo with Auntie Da Young. She was there when Ethan was born and has been an amazing auntie ever since. Ethan and she have such a great relationship.

Home! With presents!

Ethan was quite happy to be home and play with his cube collection.

He even made a new video to showcase his updated cube collection.

Doing some video editing before posting to YouTube.

Here’s the finished video…

Made a happy face pattern with his new 6×6 cube.

He also did some multiplication to figure out… something! I’ll find out from Ethan and update the post.

UPDATE: Ethan told me that this is the number of hours and minutes (he knows the math is wrong on the minutes) that he has for his own time, to do what he wants. So it’s 24 hours times 6 days, then how many minutes. This came about because, during their time in Korea, Dong Eun set the majority of their schedule. So now that they’re home, Ethan wanted to set the schedule.

We celebrated Ethan and Dong Eun coming home with a nice meal and a yummy vegan chocolate cake for dessert. So happy to have them both home!

Oct. 3

Second day back home and off to his first day of Soaring Eagle Nature School. Ethan packed up his own things and was pretty excited about going and seeing some friends.

Ethan had been wearing shorts and a t-shirt for most of September while in S. Korea. Little colder here.

Circle time to end the day at nature school.

Back home, Ethan wanted some ramen noodles so he made them himself while reading.

Ethan also has a job to do this week, as our neighbour Jane has asked Ethan to check her mail and water her plants while she’s away.

And something we haven’t done in over a month… pool!

Ethan made a video about possible combinations with different cubes. He played around with speeding up the video because he wanted to show what he was doing a bit more quickly. He wanted to record a voiceover but in the end, decided it was better to just upload the sped up video.

One thing that Dong Eun discussed with me is having Ethan read classic novels and do some writing or research about those books. We’re just starting this so we have to see how it goes.

Oct. 4

Ethan made a video about how to make an origami golden snitch like the ones used in the Harry Potter books.

First day back at taekwondo class. Mostly new kids but one of his friends from his previous taekwondo class was in this class.

Back at home, Ethan was very interested in estimating the square root of different numbers.

He wrote out his estimations until he found a number that was close to the number he was trying to find the square root for.

He then challenged himself to find the square root so that there were as many zeros as possible after the decimal point. He did this for several other numbers.

Another video that Ethan made about solving a Rubik’s Cube…

Finally, to wrap up the night, we did some Mad Libs. This was more fun than I expected.

It’s a great game to practice and learn about different types of words.

Oct. 5

Ethan started learning how to use Videoscribe to make videos with. This was a story about a character wanting to find his mother.

Some time outside.

Ethan started working on Canadian Reader stories and articles from Classroom Ready Science News again. We’ll also be looking at other subscriptions in the SelfDesign library for additional learning resources.

One thing that was apparent from this first day of writing is his use of complete sentences! Yay!

We also decided it would be a good idea to spend more time with each story or article, rather than finish one set of exercises related to a specific story and then move on. We’d like Ethan to deepen his learning by exploring the topics in greater details.

He learned about geometry from his math book and a video online.

He hasn’t practiced violin in over a month but he seemed to pick it up quickly.

Ethan has also joined the West Vancouver Youth Band Society and will be in the Debut Strings orchestra. We wanted Ethan to join because his violin teacher is leading the orchestra and she encouraged us to have him join.

Oct. 6

Little did we know this day would turn out to be a shopping day! It started with having dim sum for the first time in over a month.

Then it was clothes shopping for Ethan to find some warm and waterproof things for nature school.

Reading break while mom shops.

It doesn’t look like it but this dinner was after almost 5 hours of shopping. Great job, Ethan!

This upcoming week we’ll try implementing some of the ideas mentioned, such as going deeper into aricles and stories. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

Ethan was away for the entire month of September. He was in S. Korea with Dong Eun to visit family and friends. I stayed home so it was a little challenging to keep up with the posting.

But now they’re home and it was a busy week adjusting to the time difference and getting back into Ethan’s activities. Here’s what happened…

It looks like a lot happened on his first week back! I am impressed with his rubic’s cube solving and videos wow!

Sept. 30

Living in Canada means less opportunity to hear and speak Korean, but this past month has been a sort of refresher course for Ethan. Whereas he would often speak in English to Dong Eun, it was very obvious that he his time in Korea helped him get comfortable with speaking to her in Korean.

Here, he’s practicing some writing in Korean while enjoying a tasty snack.

Nothing like being immersed in the language and culture again.

Oct. 1

Last day in Korea before heading home to Canada was spent meeting up with some of the other moms from Ethan’s community school.

Ethan brought some cubes to play with while on the way to meet the moms.

Ethan practiced solving and making patterns on different cubes using an app. He rekindled his love of cubing while in Korea, especially since he got some new cubes from his auntie. Lucky Ethan! I can’t believe how many cubes there are. He has quite the collection and knows how to solve them to boot!

I found a neat article on the benefits of solving cubes, I wonder what Ethan would say if he reflected on his own process? Maybe this is a possible writing assignment for him…and an interesting way for him to reflect on his own learning process.

What are the benefits to solving Rubik’s Cubes?

It depends on whether you solve it yourself, or just learn to solve it by using additional information (like books or videos).

Anyone who solves it by themselves (without outside information), has created their own little science-of-the-cube. I solved it back in 1980-1981 when the cube first hit the US, in about 10 hours, in two un-interupted sessions. It takes a mixture of skill and determination for anyone to solve the cube on their own. And the nice thing about the cube is, it’s a puzzle with no hidden information.  Everything is right there in the open and it’s all about observation, experiments, noticing patterns, etc… Although it takes determination, there is absolutely no luck involved in solving the cube. It’s virtually impossible to solve the cube “by luck” as opposed to understanding. So one obvious benefit of solving the cube on your own is that if you have any doubts you’d be a good engineer, computer programmer or science guy in general; solving the cube should alleviate those doubts.

Another benefit is that once you’re done solving the cube, if you had fun doing it, then the fun is just beginning in that there are many, many, many, way too many…variations of the cube as well as interesting things to find out about the cube as well. I’ve discovered a couple of things about the cube that I know the odds of anyone else knowing them are exceptionally low.  One such discovery (just to prove a point) is – R2 L2 U2 D2 F2 B2 R B L F R.

That gets you to something I called at the time “the most random state of the cube” because on each of the 6 sides, 3 of the colors occur twice and 3 occur once. I can’t tell you how I discovered/noticed that. However, I then asked the question…can my most-random-state criteria be met as well as having each side show mirror-symmetry. Turns out, it can. And that state I called “the most random non-random state of the cube”.

Back to the original question.

Pleasure, fun, enjoyment for starters.

Conversation starter (anywhere, anytime)…bring out a cube and show people that you can solve in 30 seconds or so (even though that’s a lousy time by today’s standards) and I guarantee you’ll start-up a conversation (even in Job interviews it works).

Pride of accomplishment.

Optimism – most day-to-day personal problems are easier to solve than solving a Rubik’s cube (especially if you remember that day-to-day problems are not necessarily “puzzles to solve”).

The cube is the opposite of an open-ended puzzle (like a treasure hunt or adventure game). Everything there is fair and out in the open. You don’t have to understand a designer’s intent to solve the cube, there are no tricks, the cube is just the cube. If you solve it on your own, it’s because you learned about it, and understood it (on some level). If you have fun while you’re reaching partial solutions (all one side, just the corners, just the edges, first two layers…etc…) then keep going and keep working at it. The sense of accomplishment alone is worth it.

After that, if you want to get faster or find your own patterns or discover different ways to solve it, then it can keep being fun for years and years.

Lastly, if you’re learning to solve it by reading about it, or watching videos about it then that’s ok too. Even that is a skill that at least half the population doesn’t have the patience for. And if you find that fun, go for it.

It’s been 34 years since I solved the cube….and even in this past two years I picked up variations that interested me. Most noticeably, the Bandaged Cube which I solved on my own; the Latch cube which I did not solve without help and the Constrained (90) cube which I enjoy solving for speed.

If you’re enjoying trying to solve it on your own (and you keep progressing and learning new things), then keep at it. If you’re not having fun and you just want to solve it, then go find a video on it (or one of the books).

Lastly, if you solve the Rubik’s cube then you’re at least fairly smart. However, there are plenty of really smart people that can’t solve the cube on their own (or even with help). It’s just one type of smartness. (and it also requires secondary skills such as patience and perseverance).

While having a Facetime call, Ethan demonstrated a chess app that randomly chooses pieces so players can practice in a more challenging way. Notice how many of each there are to start the match.

It’s not the cubing while eating that’s interesting, but it’s the place. South Korea is famous for fried chicken and this was our favourite place, a small restaurant run by an older lady who has been making amazing fried chicken for probably 20 years. Ethan was lucky enough to have some considering Dong Eun or her sister don’t eat meat!

Oct. 2

Time to come home! A month went by a lot quicker than expected and it was time to come home. One cool thing about flying back to Canada is that the left Tuesday afternoon Seoul time and arrived Tuesday morning Vancouver time. I loved that when I flew home from Japan. I ended up having the longest Valentine’s Day ever!  I wonder how i iwll feel when I fly back from Kathmandu at the end of November. I would like to visit with Ethan again while I am in Vancouver. I will be in touch as I know more about my dates.

One last photo with Auntie Da Young. She was there when Ethan was born and has been an amazing auntie ever since. Ethan and she have such a great relationship.

Doing some video editing before posting to YouTube. What is his favorite program to edit with?

He also did some multiplication to figure out… something! I’ll find out from Ethan and update the post.

UPDATE: Ethan told me that this is the number of hours and minutes (he knows the math is wrong on the minutes) that he has for his own time, to do what he wants. So it’s 24 hours times 6 days, then how many minutes. This came about because, during their time in Korea, Dong Eun set the majority of their schedule. So now that they’re home, Ethan wanted to set the schedule.

I would be interested to see the schedule he has created for himself. Does he consider all of his homeschooling time to be his personal own time as well? If so that is pretty neat!

We celebrated Ethan and Dong Eun coming home with a nice meal and a yummy vegan chocolate cake for dessert. So happy to have them both home!

I love vegan chocolate cake! There are some pretty delicious quinoa chocolate cake recipes out there: https://www.nestandglow.com/healthy-recipes/quinoa-avocado-chocolate-fudge-cake

http://makingthymeforhealth.com/best-ever-chocolate-quinoa-cake-gluten-free/

Maybe he will be inspired to try making one…

Oct. 3

Second day back home and off to his first day of Soaring Eagle Nature School. Ethan packed up his own things and was pretty excited about going and seeing some friends.

Brooke Medicine Eagle quotes  

Ethan also has a job to do this week, as our neighbour Jane has asked Ethan to check her mail and water her plants while she’s away. This is an excellent opportunity to take on more responsibility, help others and even make some extra spending money or at least some trades of favors.

Ethan made a video about possible combinations with different cubes. He played around with speeding up the video because he wanted to show what he was doing a bit more quickly. He wanted to record a voiceover but in the end, decided it was better to just upload the sped up video.

One thing that Dong Eun discussed with me is having Ethan read classic novels and do some writing or research about those books. We’re just starting this so we have to see how it goes.

Do you have a novel or two in mind with which you want to start?

I know you asked me about teaching poetry to Ethan. Are you interested in having him write different kids of poetry or doing a study of poems. I looked at a few resources, but I am not quite sure how you would like me to narrow the focus?

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/bringing-poetry-to-the-classroom-grades-6-8.html

A poetry unit plan, there are alot of ideas and direct links here, check out the unit map towards the end for day by day lessons and activities:

http://break2012.weebly.com/poetry-unit-plan.html

First day back at taekwondo class. Mostly new kids but one of his friends from his previous taekwondo class was in this class.

He then challenged himself to find the square root so that there were as many zeros as possible after the decimal point. He did this for several other numbers.

Finally, to wrap up the night, we did some Mad Libs. This was more fun than I expected.

It’s a great game to practice and learn about different types of words. One of the best for learning different parts of speech and so funny!

Ethan started learning how to use Videoscribe to make videos with. This was a story about a character wanting to find his mother

Ethan started working on Canadian Reader stories and articles from Classroom Ready Science News again. We’ll also be looking at other subscriptions in the SelfDesign library for additional learning resources. Great let me know what else he finds interesting. I had a student that would read articles from the Guardian and BBC which she found interesting especially in the Science section. Just another option…

One thing that was apparent from this first day of writing is his use of complete sentences! Yay!

We also decided it would be a good idea to spend more time with each story or article, rather than finish one set of exercises related to a specific story and then move on. We’d like Ethan to deepen his learning by exploring the topics in greater details. Definitely, maybe reading a few articles and sources on the same topic…

He hasn’t practiced violin in over a month but he seemed to pick it up quickly.

Ethan has also joined the West Vancouver Youth Band Society and will be in the Debut Strings orchestra. We wanted Ethan to join because his violin teacher is leading the orchestra and she encouraged us to have him join. Wonderful news!!

This upcoming week we’ll try implementing some of the ideas mentioned, such as going deeper into articles and stories. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

The post Unschooling Journal Sept. 30 – October 6, 2018 – Back Home After a Month Away appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

They left on September 3, Ethan’s birthday, but Ethan wasn’t overly thrilled about that because he didn’t want to miss out on having a birthday party. So we ended up having a party for him over the weekend so that he could enjoy time with his friends.

Aside from the birthday party, Ethan also finished summer by attending a mountain bike camp.

We were surprised by how much he loved mountain biking but were happy that he has found another sport that he’s interested in.

The timing for the camp was perfect because Ethan got his mountain bike this summer and was eager to learn how to ride the bike on the trails.

He actually attended two camps in August. The second camp was during the final week of August and was great because only 5 children registered and there were 3 instructors. Ethan was able to get more direct training and was able to increase his skills in a short time.

One thing that was interesting was that the instructor commented on how Ethan had a great attitude during the camp, along with the other two kids, and that the instructor said it was the best camp he had taught all summer.

Anyway, now that Ethan and his mom are in Korea, the bike is sitting idle waiting for Ethan to return. Hopefully, he’ll have a chance to fly down the trails again this year before the weather gets too cold and wet.

Ethan had a great summer and to wrap it up, he and his mom left for Korea for an entire month.

They left of September 3, Ethan’s birthday, but Ethan wasn’t overly thrilled about that because he didn’t want to miss out on having a birthday party. So we ended up having a party for him over the weekend so that he could enjoy time with his friends.

Aside from the birthday party, Ethan also finished summer by attending mountain bike camp.

Happy Fall Equinox,

I wonder how Ethan’s trip to Korea is going so far. I am sure you will let me know in theWeek 4 reflection. It seems like Ethan had such a positive experience in the mountain bike camp. I hope he has a lot of wonderful riding days when he returns.

Thank you for your contributions to the LP slides and all the information you have passed on to me.

This will be a much shorter response to the weekly Observation for Learning because I am finalizing the Learning Plan and wil post a PDF version in the Learning Plan section (where you found the slides) by the evening of Sunday September 23rd.

The final step is for you to click on the LP agreement form link and sign and date that you have seen and accept the Learning Plan. Please do this by Monday September 24th. I will send a separate email as a reminder as well.

The post Unschooling Journal Sept. 9-15, 2018 – Week 2 in South Korea appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Working early

We’ve been getting Ethan into the habit of doing some work every day, even on the weekends. And it seems to be working out because the first thing he did after getting up was doing some math problems. He’s been having fun practicing math lately, so that probably explains his enthusiasm.

Flags and the phonetic alphabet

We recently borrowed a book from the library about flags and the phonetic alphabet. Ethan liked learning about how different flags can be used by ships to communicate with and why we use the phonetic alphabet. We practiced saying our names using the phonetic alphabet, which was a lot of fun. Plus, the morse code for each letter was also fun to try out.

Studying chess moves

Another book that Ethan likes is this chess book for kids. He loves the strategies they teach and the characters in the book are interesting. I wouldn’t recommend this book because the human character threatens his alligator friend with flushing him down the toilet if the alligator isn’t telling the truth. There isn’t just one mention of it, but twice the boy threatens the animal with physical violence. Not sure why the authors decided this was okay, but I pointed it out to Ethan so that he would be aware of it and not just accept the attitude demonstrated by the boy in the book.

Manners

We’ve been working on improving Ethan’s manners and he’s been doing a great job learning each day. This book about manners is full of funny situations that makes learning how to behave in certain situations more enjoyable.

Time for chess

Ethan and I played a couple matches this morning and I loved it, as it’s a great way for us to do something together and connect.

A ponytail or a haircut?

Ethan hasn’t had a haircut since before we left for our road trip and he cut his own bangs that time. His hair has really grown out but we want him to decide when he wants to cut it. Today, he wanted to see what his hair would look like if he had it in a ponytail.

Library time

We finally hit the library after lunch and ended up staying for a couple hours. We had a bunch of books on hold to pick up and Ethan wanted more chess books.

We also borrowed a couple more of the Canadian Flyer books, since Ethan quite likes them and they’re a good way for us to find additional books about Canadian history that Ethan might find interesting.

Ethan was learning about early pioneers so we found a book that told the story of a fictional family that settled in Canada in the 1800s. We’re finding it easier to choose books after seeing how the Charlotte Mason homeschooling method suggest using “living” books; in other words, books with stories about people, instead of facts.

And we grabbed a fun-looking math book because we knew that Ethan likes finding hacks and other tricks to help him improve his math skills.

Ethan and I spent the evening reading the Canadian Flyer books and afterwards, we prepared some grammar worksheets for Ethan to work on the next day.

We know that Ethan needs to brush up on his knowledge of grammar, so we’re thinking of focusing on one grammar point for a week at a time. Hopefully, this will help him become proficient in recognizing something, such as prepositions, without having to think much about it.

Let’s see how he does.

Like I said off the top, the library is a fantastic place and we’ve barely scratched the surface of how we can use this amazing resource. What about you? How is the local library where you are and do you visit very often?

The post Home Learning Journal January 7, 2018 – Love the Library appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Goodbye Flying J

We’ve been fortunate that the US has such great truck stops like Flying J and Loves because we’ve never had to worry about where to sleep while on the road. For anyone on a US road trip, don’t hesitate to pull into a truck stop to crash for the night.

It was a beautiful day out and after a quick breakfast, it would be time to get to Oregon.

Finally made it to IN-N-OUT 

We’ve been meaning to try IN-N-OUT for a while and finally got the chance. WOW! Not only were the burgers amazing, but we loved how they have fresh lemon wedges to make some much-needed lemon water and chilis to have with the burgers. The fries at this particular location were also fantastic.

But since Dong Eun doesn’t eat beef, we went across the street for Chinese at Panda Express. I was slightly unsure it would be any good, but was surprised by the quality and cleanliness of this Chinese food franchise.

Keep moving

With our bellies full, we hit the road again and didn’t stop until we needed gas. We’ve been gassing up once we have about a quarter tank remaining, just to be sure we don’t run out. We kept going until that evening, as I wanted us to cross over into Oregon by nightfall.

Oregon, oh yes!

We got to Oregon and felt even closer to home. One great thing was how the landscape became more lush and green as we drove further north, another reminder of home.

That night, we slept early and pushed on to Portland, where we planned to do some final grocery shopping and be home by late evening.

Once we got to Portland, we went to Trader Joe’s for likely the final time. We’re going to miss Trader Joe’s, that’s for sure.

The home stretch

Dong Eun prepared one final delicious meal for us and again, we were so grateful for how much care and attention she’s put into ensuring we’ve eaten well on this trip.

US Postal Service is not for Canadians

We planned to send some packages from Oregon to friends and family overseas, but found out that you have to have a US address. We didn’t find out until after we had wrapped everything and stood in line. The good thing is that we learned something new and found that just about everyone in Oregon is super-friendly.

HOME!!!

We left Portland and booted it home. Well, we booted it as much as Juju Jr. would let us go and got to the Pacific Truck Crossing just after midnight. If it wasn’t so darn foggy, we would have probably arrived home earlier, but it sure felt great to walk into our place after being on the road for two and half months.

And now that we’re back, it’s going to take some time to readjust, but I’m sure we’ll still have lots going on as the learning never stops.

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.

The post Road Trip Journal December 5 & 6, 2017 – The Mad Dash Home appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Ultimately, we chose Disney California Adventure Park (DCAP) because we knew that Ethan isn’t into Disney characters or any of the traditional Disney things. DCAP has more rides, which is what Ethan likes more so it was a pretty easy choice.

The more difficult decision was whether to stay 1, 2 or 3 days. We settled on one day because we felt that the money could be used for better things and because we could get home sooner. That turned out to be the right choice because after a day, we couldn’t imagine coming back for another day or two.

Ethan had a blast, of course, but even he was ok with just one day. The call of home was just too strong.

Early Birds

We slept at a rest area along the I-5 that was about an hour from Disneyland. This was perfect and allowed us to get there nice and early. We had some leftover spaghetti and meatballs to fuel up before hitting the park just after opening time.

Early meant short waits

Another benefit of going to DCAP early and on a weekday was the short wait times for popular rides. We got California Screamin’ without any wait at all, in fact. We did pick up a Fastpass for the Cars ride, though.

Overpriced for what you get

One thing we noticed was that you’re not getting much value compared to how much it costs to get in. We paid $324 for the three of us and couldn’t help but notice that Lotte World or Everland in Korea provided pretty much the same rides and scale of park for less than half the price.

Yes, it’s Disney so they can charge more based on the brand. That would have been fine if other areas of the park matched the price paid. For example, the bathrooms were not particularly clean, not all cast members were friendly or in “character” and from a social responsibility standpoint, I couldn’t believe that they still use paper towels and not hand dryers (which creates a huge amount of waste). Plus, the water fountains were dirty and the water itself was warm. Gross.

Then there’s the cost of food… Over $8 for a corn dog!? Glad we brought our own lunch.

And finally, the lack of plugs or charging stations for cell phones is unacceptable, in my opinion, because people are there all day and you’d think it would be encouraged to use our phones to snap pics and share them. It only makes sense to include outlets or charging stations throughout the park, but they had neither at DCAP. And don’t even get me started on the so-called wifi they had.

But still pretty fun

We still had a good time, especially Ethan, and that’s what really mattered.

So we did Disney. And now it was time to get home.

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.

The post Road Trip Journal December 4, 2017 – Disney, but which one? appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

But first, we needed to get out of the Grand Canyon!

Phoenix 

We went by the Red Rock Canyon area of Arizona and also Sedona. We decided not to stop at either place so we did a drive by and kept going until we got to Phoenix by the late afternoon.

We had a fantastic dinner and stayed the night. It was great catching up and our plan was to leave in the morning.

However, we chose to stay until after dinner again so that Ethan could spend time with the other kids and for us to also spend time with the parents, as it had been some time since we last saw each other.

Next… San Diego!

We spent Saturday night at a rest area so we could be in San Diego around noon. We were really enjoying the warm weather after experiencing the cold for the last month or so.

San Diego didn’t disappoint and seeing the Pacific Ocean made us yearn for home. We knew we were now closer than we’ve been since we left and were quite excited.

But first, some time with another family who’s kids also went to the same preschool/kindergarten as the family in Phoenix.

San Diego was a blast, even if it was only for the day. By now, we were really itching to get home so we decided to leave and head north to Anaheim, as we had promised to take Ethan to Disneyland.

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.

The post Road Trip Journal December 1, 2 & 3 – Old Schoolmates from Korea in Phoenix & San Diego appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

The Grand Canyon

We were so close to the Grand Canyon after driving over 20 hours from Washington, DC. It was a long haul to get to Arizona and we were finally less than an hour away. And then, there it was… the sign at the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. Lucky there wasn’t anyone behind us because we had to stop and get a photo.

Day 1 at the Grand Canyon

I think anything related to the Grand Canyon is best expressed in photos. On Day 1, we mostly explored the area near the visitor’s centre. 

We got some info about what to do and grabbed something to eat from the van before heading out to explore.

The Park Rangers give free talks and we caught one about how the Grand Canyon was formed. It wasn’t the Colorado River as I had believed… or aliens. There were actually many rivers and streams that carved the canyon.

These little birds came to drink the spring water. So cool!

But mostly, we thought the Grand Canyon was awesome.

And the sunset was spectacular, even though it was a somewhat cloudy sky.

And another amazing meal by Dong Eun to cap off the night.

Grand Canyon Day 2

We camped nearby so we could catch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It was a lot colder than we thought but very cool to get an early start on the day.

A quick jog back to the van helped warm up Ethan.

We parked in a nearby picnic area and Dong Eun cooked breakfast outside. Ethan was craving hamburgers so it was cheeseburgers for breakfast.

We needed to shower and get some fresh water for Juju Jr., so we went to the camper services. There was an unexpected visit by the locals who also liked to get water from camper services.

When we pulled up, they wouldn’t leave. They only wanted a drink so there was really no danger, but we still kept our distance.

Hiking the Grand Canyon

Seeing the Grand Canyon from the rim is great, but hiking down is even better because you see so much more and can experience the Canyon up close.

We hiked for about an hour down and it took about two hours to come back up. Along the way, Ethan started writing messages on the rocks.

And we made sure to just enjoy the view.

Once we got back up to the rim, we tried to catch a Ranger Chat about the elk. All we got was to hold elk horns, which was quite cool.

Day 3 – The 1st of December!

We couldn’t believe it was now December. We’d been on the road since September 19, so it was quite surprising to see another month upon us. This would be our last day/morning at the Grand Canyon before heading to Phoenix.

It was another memorable morning, as we camped at the Desert View parking lot and had some company from some more locals.

Breakfast and then a bit more exploring.

And that was the Grand Canyon! Next up was Phoenix to visit old friends from Korea

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.

The post Road Trip Journal November 29, 30 & December 1 – The Grand Canyon! appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

November 23: Thanksgiving at the Museum

We had an open invitation from Charles and Dena to have Thanksgiving dinner with them and decided to take them up on their offer. And why not? It was better to spend the day with friends, instead of driving for several hours on our own. But first, we went back to the Museum of Natural History, since the first trip was cut short on Monday.

This is an amazing place and we could have easily spent an entire week in here. But we only had the one day and made the most of it. An important part was realizing why we should take moose warnings on the highway seriously. These suckers are huge!!

The other parts were cool, too.

Ethan’s favourite part was Q?rius, a section made for kids to explore and discover all kinds of cool things. As a home learner, this part of the museum, and really, the entire museum, were awesome. I can easily see us spending nearly every day here and I’m sure there are homeschoolers that do just that.

Dinner

Dinner was an early 4:30pm start, which worked out great and is something we’d like to try if we ever have a big dinner event like this at our place. We were so thankful to have been invited and were so happy to meet Charles and Dena’s relatives and close friends. What a great group of people… and a fantastic dinner cooked up by Charles.

Also cool was that all the name cards were written by Charles and Dena’s daughter, Avalon.

The Show

The highlight of the night, however, was the show the kids organized and performed. There was also a haunted house and payment for all the entertainment was $1 or some Monopoly money. It was pretty amazing that the three kids planned and got everything ready in a couple hours.

After food and a show, it was time for us to move on and say goodbye. It was an amazing and unforgettable time for all of us. And it was even better because Dong Eun and Dena really hit it off, and so did Ethan and Avalon. It was magical.

November 24: National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

On the way out of Washington DC, we stopped at the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which was an amazing place. And it was also free just like so many of the other museums in the DC area. Parking was $15 but was well worth it.

One cool thing is the scavenger hunt they had for kids. A souvenir and other gifts were the reward and Ethan happily accepted the challenge of finding planes with animal names.

So many cool planes, like the SR-71 Blackbird.

We took the free tour and got a great education about the various planes, but were very excited to see the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Canada Arm!

Lucky we brought our own lunch because all they had was McDonald’s (sorry Uncle Willy).

Ethan was excited about one plane, in particular: The Concorde! He’s been talking about the Concorde for a while because it traveled at twice the speed of sound. So cool to see it in person.

Afterwards, Ethan wanted to try out a ponytail before heading back to claim his scavenger hunt prizes. Overall, a very cool day here.

Korean Food!

Charles mentioned that there were Korean restaurants and shops nearby, so we found the H-Mart and got our fill of Korean food. Much needed!

November 25: Nashville to Albuquerque to Arizona… and Route 66, too

We now had to get to Arizona and the Grand Canyon as quickly as possible because we really want to get home by early December. That meant staying on the highway and sleeping at the rest areas and not straying too far off to do any sightseeing. That meant blowing through Memphis and not stopping by Graceland, but oh well. The rest areas in Tennessee were quite nice, complete with picnic tables and grassy areas to walk around in.

Ethan found time amongst all the driving to work on origami and keep himself busy.

On the way, you’d think that going to Nashville would mean checking out some country music, but for us, it meant stopping at a Vietnamese Pho place for dinner and driving further.

The rest areas had cool names, too.

Oh! No propane stove!

I almost forgot to mention that we haven’t had our stove since Thanksgiving. That night, we smelled propane and later, we noticed that all the propane had leaked out. We’re not sure what happened, but that’s why we’re having sandwiches and cereal. We also have to find other food options that require no cooking until we figure out what’s going on, or until we buy a portable butane stove.

So that’s why we had Costco food and picked up a roast chicken to have with the Thanksgiving leftovers we got from Charles and Dena.

And of course, Ethan had time to make a rocket.

Places we went through

We bombed it through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. We decided to drive 65mph to make up some time and it worked, as we got to New Mexico by Sunday after leaving Washington DC and Virginia on Friday afternoon. The time on the phone was after 5 hours of driving and putting in the Grand Canyon Visitors Center as the destination. And we were on Route 66 from Oklahoma City onwards. Route 66 is basically I-40, but veers off at certain points.

Near Albuquerque

We started making cold brew coffee and tea because we can’t boil water. Ethan made a special funnel to help get the coffee into the plastic bottle we’re using for the coffee.

Very cool scenery along the way, as well as tumbleweeds that kids can catch.

At the rest stop in Texas, we met two different Canadian travellers: One was from Winnipeg on his way to California; another was a retired couple heading to their winter home in Phoenix. Quite cool to meet them here.

We made a couple stops to check out the views and Ethan got to make a new video about the origami projects he was working on.

New Mexico, at last!

Juju Jr. is Tired

Once we got the New Mexico, I started noticing that Juju Jr. was driving a bit sluggishly and seemed to be losing power, especially up the hills. I didn’t think it was too serious, but then we started hearing a rattling/clacking sound from the engine bay and we really started to lose power. It got so bad that we could barely do 60kph and the engine was hesitating a lot.

Along the way, we noticed that Juju Jr. was low on engine oil. This was odd because we had the front crank seal replaced in Winnipeg and at the oil change in Charlottetown, NB, there was no oil leaking. So we’ve been adding a quart of oil to top up when we see the oil getting too low.

Anyway, we basically limped into a 24 hour truck stop and decided to spend the night there and see what the issue was in the morning. Juju Jr. started up fine so it wasn’t the coil we just got replaced. I was thinking it was the spark plug wires also being corroded but had to wait until morning to check.

What to do in New Mexico?

If you’re Ethan, you make a new comic book series based on your life, that’s what!

And you create a new way to hold your allowance.

OUCH!

We managed to get Juju Jr. going on the highway and he was running well enough that we made it to the only auto supply store with the spark plug wires in stock. We got to Pep Boys and were getting out of the van when Ethan accidentally got his right middle finger slammed in the front door. I’m sure it hurt, but he was a tough little trooper and got himself patched up. It definitely hurt and he was out of commission for some time. He’s ok now, luckily.

Pep Boys is Good

I called Felipe at Alexandria VW to see if he had any idea about what was going on with Juju Jr. He said that it could be corroded spark plug wires, so with that confirmation of what I was thinking, I checked the wires and sure enough, they were all corroded.

I don’t know why they would be corroded after only 6 months, but maybe it was from driving through the Maritimes and getting battered with rain and sea water spray in St. John’s, NL.

Lucky I brought tools. Next time, I’ll bring a torque wrench and a few other things, just in case.

With the spark plug wires in place, I fired up Juju Jr. and thankfully, he ran smoothly and had regained all the power he lost…Plus, no more clacking noise. Yay!

Lunch at Trader Joe’s

We got some food before the next leg of our trip, which was to get to Arizona. Yes, we do love Trader Joe’s, by the way.

Cool scenery and Arizona!

It was like watching all those cowboy movies and shows about the desert. So cool to see in person. And very cool that Juju Jr. drove smoothly and without any noise. Totally awesome job, Juju Jr.

And finally, we got to Arizona! We’re so close to the Grand Canyon now!

Propane?

We wanted to try out the stove one last time before buying a camping stove. We pulled into a Flying J and quickly found out the leak is real. Willie, the attendant, didn’t charge us for the gallon of propane once he saw that there was a leak. Very cool of him.

But we had to wait for the propane to leak out, so we hung out in the Flying J’s lounge area. These truck stops are amazing places.

Dinner!

With the one gallon of propane slowly leaking out, Dong Eun realized that she could cook and make use of the gas we had, instead of just waiting for it to all leak out. So she made an awesome brown rice with seafood and kale dinner for us.

Tomorrow, we will try to get to the Grand Canyon and spend a day or two there. It’s supposed to be about -5C at night but we can’t wait to see the sunrise and sunset.

The post Road Trip Journal November 23-28, 2017: US Thanksgiving and Thankful for Pep Boys appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Morning

The day started with a buffet breakfast here at the Marriott Residence Inn Capital View.

After breakfast, we heard from Felipe at Alexandria VW… He told me that Juju Jr. started up fine and was ready to continue the road trip. This was exciting news, even though we’ve been enjoying the hotel, because it’s time to keep going.

Thanksgiving Dinner?

We had a decision to make: Pick up Juju Jr. and leave or accept Charles’ Thanksgiving dinner invitation. We decided to accept the invitation and experience our first US Thanksgiving with good friends, rather than drive with all the people on the freeway heading somewhere for the holiday. We’re all excited to see Charles and his family again and enjoy a nice dinner.

Chilling out

Ethan spent the rest of the day working on his new websites. He’s been using Wix to build the sites and has been learning a lot about design, layout and publishing a website.

Dong Eun spent the day resting and catching up on movies she hasn’t had a chance to see. And I worked on this blog, work projects and caught some movies, too. All in all, it was a great day to relax for all of us.

Before we had the coil issue with Juju Jr., Ethan had made a DIY hand warmer out of a plastic cup. He cut slits in the cup for vents. You hold the cup over your mouth and gently blow while your hands cover the vents. It’s also a frisbee if you compress it, like in the first photo below.

Tomorrow, we check out and will try to visit the Museum of Natural History again before going to Charles and Dena’s for Thanksgiving. Can’t wait!

The post Road Trip Journal November 22, 2017 – Chilling Out in DC appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Morning

We all loved staying at the hotel. It was probably the right time to take a break from the road after 9 weeks. Ethan and I liked the free wifi and Ethan was up early working on creating a Wix website to teach people tips on how to use a computer.(theres a link in the ‘about’ section)

Buffet Breakfast

The hotel had a make-your-own-waffle station so this was a fun way for Ethan to get his breakfast. The rest of the food was quite good, with the usual assortment of eggs, sausages, fresh fruit, cereal, and bread. Overall, we were very satisfied with the food.

Marriott needs to address this

What we were not impressed by at all was the use of paper plates, bowls and cups and plastic utensils. There were non-paper and non-plastic options, but there weren’t as many. For example, I had to use a paper cup for my coffee and the cereal bowls were all gone. There were no glasses for juice, only paper cups. The Marriott needs to seriously reconsider how much trash they are creating on a daily basis. At least there were separate bins for compost/organics and plastics.

Hotel Fun

Ethan found the foosball table and enjoyed a game with another kid staying at the hotel.

The rest of the day was spent working on his website, me catching up on blog posts and work, and waiting for Alexandria VW to let us know what’s happening with Juju. Jr. I was getting a bit worried when we didn’t hear from Felipe until nearly 2 pm.

Juju Jr.’s diagnosis

I decided to go to Alexandria VW because I had to get some food and clothing from Juju Jr. We already decided to stay an extra night at the hotel because we weren’t sure what was happening with Juju Jr. Alexandria VW has a free shuttle service, which was very cool.

When I arrived at Alexandria VW,Felipe had some good news… They got Juju Jr. started again and it was just the coil. The coil transmits power from the battery to the spark plugs, as far as I understand, and if faulty, can cause hesitation during driving (which happened) and even stalling for no reason (which happened).

Juju Jr. is a 1994 Westfalia camper van, so it wasn’t too surprising that parts start to go. But I’m pretty sure the coil was replaced about 3 or 4 months ago back home, but perhaps it was a lower quality coil that was put in. Or the fact that we’ve driven over 8,000kms since leaving Vancouver could explain the coil failure. Anyway,Felipe ensured me that the new coil would be up to VW quality standards, so I’m confident this will last longer.

Felipe told me he could get a new coil by either today or tomorrow morning, and fortunately, he had it in on the same day. I was really impressed by not onlyFelipe, but every person I dealt with at Alexandria VW… Ashley, Makayla, Megan, the sales staff who were there the first night… sorry if I forgot anyone, but you all rocked.

Felipe suggested keeping Juju Jr. overnight to ensure the coil was working properly and that we wouldn’t have any other issues. I appreciated his thoughtfulness and thoroughness, and since we already booked another night at the hotel, it was fine to leave Juju Jr. at Alexandria VW.

I also liked that the initial diagnosis would be included in the price of the coil replacement. So we wouldn’t have to pay extra for the work that needed to be done. Awesome!

Evening

The rest of the day was spent chilling out at the hotel and getting laundry done. The hotel has a guest laundry room where it costs $3 for washing and has free drying. Very cool and perfect timing for us.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how Juju Jr. is doing and figure out our next step. It’s getting close to US Thanksgiving, and Charles had invited us to spend it with his family, so… we’ll see what happens.

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.

The post Road Trip Journal November 21, 2017 – Hotel Day & Juju Jr.’s Diagnosis appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.