Unschooling Journal April 21-27, 2019

by | Apr 27, 2019 | Blog, Home Learning, Homeschooling, Unschooling, 언스쿨링 | 0 comments

What kind of stuff does an unschooler do during the week? We hope these photos will give you a sense of what Ethan does and to let you know that unschooling is completely individual to your child. The most important thing is to let go and let your child lead.

April 21

Ethan has been doing a LOT of origami lately. This is the start of a transforming origami that we first saw in the origami documentary.
It turns into a ball.
It compresses into this tube. This was what we saw in the documentary. This shape was used as a way to expand heart valves to help people with clogged arteries.
And it transforms into a donut!
Ethan spent a couple of hours outside playing with Kal and his little brother. They love riding their bikes and playing together.
Overhead was this massive flock of geese honking away as they flew by.
Kal’s dad took Ethan and Kal’s little brother out to a bike park. They had a blast.
Once Ethan got back home he was right back into learning and watched a video about whether light is a particle or a wave. YouTube has been a great resource for Ethan.
He actually did this the day before. He started learning about European history.
He answered some more math questions about surface area.
He watched some more science videos, like this one about high mass stars from CrashCourse.

April 22

Ethan got this chocolate Easter bunny from his friends Nico and Paulo and today we ate it!
Ethan spent pretty much the whole day working on origami and listening to the science podcasts.
This is a shipwreck.
Happy face.
This is a box with a yellow inside.
The same box becomes a yellow box with a red inside.
A pop up card.
It becomes a yellow octahedron.
Another pop-up card.
And it also becomes a red octahedron.
We watched The Incredible Journey. At the beginning, Ethan asked if the animals talked and when I told him they didn’t, he thought the movie wouldn’t be very good. Luckily, he ended up enjoying it.
We also watched this documentary about bioluminescence before reading more of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which seemed fitting.

April 23

New way to wear a t-shirt?
Ethan did his musical notation homework to prepare for tonight’s violin class.
After taekwondo and violin, Ethan came home and worked on more origami. This is a 3D heart-shape flower.
Ethan made this “I love you peekaboo snake pop-up card.” The “I” is next to the snake’s tail.
When you open it, there’s a heart for “love.”
When you fold the heart up, you see the snake’s head and “u.”

April 24

Off to nature school! He got himself ready early today, probably because he was excited to go and because it was a nice day out.
Ethan got a book from the library with different Star Wars inspired projects. He wanted to make this balloon hovercraft.
This is the hovercraft’s “engine.” The green bottle cap has a whole for air from the balloon to escape. The air will lift the CD and when you give it a little push, the hovercraft floats across the floor or table. It actually worked!
You’re supposed to design a Star Wars speeder for the hovercraft so Ethan made this. We joked that it looks like a cow with a beard.
Ethan made an element card for carbon and what carbon is used for.
Working on statistics from his math textbook.
He answered comprehension questions about statistics. Yes, he knows he spelled statistics wrong.
Ethan practiced some violin too.
Natasha suggested that perhaps Ethan could do a TEDEd type of video/presentation so we checked out the website. We found lots of great content, along with comprehension questions after the videos and links for further learning. We watched the video about why hospitals have particle accelerators.
We also checked out an article Natasha suggested about how Canada is getting closer to passing a law that would ban whales in captivity. There was another link to a video about how laws are created in Canada, which was also very interesting and informative.

After dinner, we went through the feedback given to Ethan by Natasha. Later that evening, we did a family stretching session led by Dong Eun. It was fun and much needed.

April 25

In the morning, Ethan went jogging before getting started with his work.

Ethan did some work on percentages today, which was challenging. Dong Eun worked together with him on it to help and to encourage.
The problems were around calculating taxes.
He also wrote about the feudal system, as he’s now learning some European history.
He also did some origami, like this design that transforms into different things. Here, it’s Kermit the Frog.
Now it’s a boat.
A “boat-tie.”
A painful pinchers bird beak. Open.
And closed.
A butterfly chomping swamp monster with its mouth closed.
Mouth open. Scary!! 🙂
A guinea pig.
A catapault guinea pig.

Ethan went out to play with his friends after they finished school and also had taekwondo class tonight.

We’d like him to get more exercise so we enrolled him in swimming lessons again and will also look into adding a different martial arts program. We noticed that he concentrates much better when he’s done more exercise.

April 26

We started the day by going jogging along the beach since it was such a nice day out. We all need more exercise so this was a good way to get some.
After our jog, we went for breakfast. Along the way, Ethan spotted a pair of ducks. Can you see them?
We could get used to doing this as a morning treat!
Once he got home, Ethan started working on his things. He started with some history and learned more about the feudal system.
He listened to the Wow in the World podcast while folding some origami.
He learned about the Great Lakes. We saw Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario on our cross-country road trip so this brought back some memories.
Ethan learned about pronouns today.
He also made an element card for oxygen and what it is used for.
He watched a video about why oil and water don’t mix.
He did some more work on percentages today, which was again a challenge.
Always time for origami these days. All he wants to do in his spare time is origami!
After dinner, we took another walk along the beach and checked out the West Vancouver Police Department Carnival. Ethan and his buddy Eldon were planning on coming here so we scoped it out beforehand to figure out what ticket package would be a better deal. Ethan got to use some math to calculate that.
Checking if he’s tall enough to go on the rides. Looks OK! 🙂
After dinner, Ethan watched a bunch of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes that we borrowed from the library.

April 27

Saturday, which means Ethan had symphony class in the morning followed by his skating lesson. But it’s the time in between symphony and skating that Ethan seems to enjoy the most.

The fountain outside the community centre is now on because of the warmer weather. So Ethan and one of his symphony bandmates spent some time diverting water from the fountain. They had someone watching on in amusement 🙂
They tried, successfully, to guide the water to the grass.
Skating lessons.
After skating, we came right home to have lunch before going to the carnival. We were waiting for Ethan’s friend Eldon so while waiting, Ethan did some more origami.
This is the origami Ethan has made over the past few weeks.
This diamond shape can be spun when you blow on it.
He learned to make this cube dude wearing glasses from a single sheet of paper. Ethan learns a lot of origami designs from a YouTuber named Jeremy Shafer.
This is the ocean.
That’s a shark’s fin. It actually moved across the surface of the water.
And this is a dolphin jumping.
We parked Juju Jr. nearby the carnival so that the kids could rest and eat since we knew they’d be here for most of the day.
Eldon has been one of Ethan’s best friends since we moved back to Canada.
After spending over 5 hours at the carnival, Eldon came over and the two boys played some Prodigy and made some origami.

We got the summary for nature school for the previous week:

Scott’s Group:

We began by going to an area we hadn’t spent much time in before…

I gave the group a fun challenge called “Fire in the Sky” where they have to work as a team to sneak a stick away from me without my noticing. In the midst of this challenge, they spotted 3 deer in a clearing! We sat and watched them through my monocular in awe for 20 minutes. We concluded from their ears that they must somehow be related to rabbits. 😉

Finally, we began carving Spoons! I brought my curved knife set out and gave some instructions about how to work with the wood. However, the wood seemed to be too hard for some, so I will bring some softer wood next time 🙂

Please remember to pack your knives for next week!

Looking forward to continuing this project over the coming weeks 🙂

And that was Ethan’s week of unschooling.

We like the flexibility of letting Ethan flow from one thing to another, sometimes spending lots of time on one thing, such as origami.

I once again asked Ethan if he would like to go back to school but he said no because it was boring. He enjoys the freedom to learn and explore topics so it’s up to us to help guide him deeper, especially as he gets into the higher grades.

We’re looking forward to the year end evaluation from Ethan’s SelfDesign LC to see how we can guide Ethan as he continues unschooling.

LC Response

This is my last LC response for the 2018/19 year. I apologize for being late here, I think your reflection slipped through my cracks, oops.

Well it has been beyond a pleasure and I have learned a tremendous amount from Ethan this year. Thank you for the fantastic observations and all the photos and movies too. I will miss all of his updates in the summer, but I am so excited to work with Ethan for grade 6!

I see a lot happening for Ethan in so many different learning areas. He seems to have a clear handle on dreaming, imagining,planning, practicing and making so much happen every week.

Always time for origami these days. All he wants to do in his spare time is origami!

Ethan has been doing a LOT of origami lately. This is the start of a transforming origami that we first saw in the origami documentary.It compresses into this tube. This was what we saw in the documentary. This shape was used as a way to expand heart valves to help people with clogged arteries.

The origami that Ethan has been doing the last few weeks is nothing short of remarkable! I am mesmerized by the origami which transforms into multiple 3D shapes, incredible. I think these would make a really fun movie. I am sure Ethan could come up with a neat idea to showcase his best and most advanced origami work.  

One reason Ethan maybe so drawn to origami right now is that he experiences a state of flow while folding and creating. Do you think this is the case, read more below:

In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

“You are in an ecstatic state to such a point that you feel as though you almost don’t exist. I have experienced this time and again. My hand seems devoid of myself, and I have nothing to do with what is happening. I just sit there watching it in a state of awe and wonderment. And [the music] just flows out of itself.”

The quote above is from a leading composer describing the state of flow. The flow state has been described by the world’s greatest thinkers as the most productive and creative state of mind in which to work. In addition, positive psychologists–most notably Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D.–argue that achieving the flow state on a regular basis is a key component of happiness. That is, by learning how to enter the state of flow you can increase your productivity, be more creative, and be happier, all at the same time.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/flow-state-what-it-is-and_b_9607084?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD2h79NJW8zukRUIMedh7rB00MRe_5UsuU1tTmVrzKhqDRt_Bm4-jBOjuEN_YWOVx7TUTuPeWCLTCY5t3_QIDaEzCtM9BeE66kvdc2waKgvmvJZyK-rqqI3rmmqzkRs7EX3RLCJn5uqhG8UDovzcn6VxbdXsWJJ2jZwRGteEFWKV

Once Ethan got back home he was right back into learning and watched a video about whether light is a particle or a wave. YouTube has been a great resource for Ethan.

Here are some questions for Ethan:

-How is light and electricity related?

-Refraction is the bending of light, but how can this be if light travels in straight lines?

There are a ton more interesting questions on this website: http://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/tag/light/

And this one, questions and explanations: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2524-light-and-sight-question-bank

More info on electricity in the LE Library https://selfdesign.learning.powerschool.com/selfdesignlearning/library/cms_page/view/34698901

Youtube is an amazing resource for us all. I am so proud of him for being a contributor and having his own Youtube channel.

He watched some more science videos, like this one about high mass stars from CrashCourse.

Ethan spent pretty much the whole day working on origami and listening to the science podcasts.

This is great, podcasts are perfect for doing hand-on projects and crafts like origami. I wonder if the relaxation and flow he feels when doing origami may actually open up pathways in his mind for deeper understanding of lots of topics…

We also watched this documentary about bioluminescence before reading more of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which seemed fitting.

Has Ethan ever seen bioluminescence? I think I remember that he did somewhere, maybe on the East coast?

I saw some of the best in the Broken Island group on the west coast of Vancouver island. The images below are from the Internet. I wish I had a camera that could capture what I saw.

We watched The Incredible Journey. At the beginning, Ethan asked if the animals talked and when I told him they didn’t, he thought the movie wouldn’t be very good. Luckily, he ended up enjoying it. Has he read the book? What did he enjoy about the film.

This is the hovercraft’s “engine.” The green bottle cap has a hole for air from the balloon to escape. The air will lift the CD and when you give it a little push, the hovercraft floats across the floor or table. It actually worked!

Luckily you had a CD lying around to use too! Very cool experiment!

He also wrote about the feudal system, as he’s now learning some European history.

We’d like him to get more exercise so we enrolled him in swimming lessons again and will also look into adding a different martial arts program. We noticed that he concentrates much better when he’s done more exercise.

I think we all concentrate better when we exercise, good to know he has some new activities on the horizon:

Exercise helps trigger endorphins, which improve the prioritizing functions of the brain. After exercise, your ability to sort out priorities improves, allowing you to block out distractions and better concentrate on the task at hand. Your brain remembers more when your body is active.

Regular, sweaty exercise helps us think better by stimulating new brain cell growth, increasing connections between cells, and improving attention. … An hour of vigorous exercise per day will allow your children to focus better in school and while studying. Exercise allows them to retain more information.

He learned about the Great Lakes. We saw Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario on our cross-country road trip so this brought back some memories.

Yes, he is so lucky to have seen so much of North America and be able to make these real life connections, it makes the learning of geography so much more meaningful.

We like the flexibility of letting Ethan flow from one thing to another, sometimes spending lots of time on one thing, such as origami. Here is that word flow again….you are so wise to allow him the time and space he needs to fully explore any given thing.

I once again asked Ethan if he would like to go back to school but he said no because it was boring. He enjoys the freedom to learn and explore topics so it’s up to us to help guide him deeper, especially as he gets into the higher grades.

Yes I agree with Ethan. I do think he would be terribly bored academically and he would be held back for delving as deeply as he does into his interests. He seems to manage his time excellently. I think the time management one experiences in school would be a great hindrance to his genius.

We’re looking forward to the year end evaluation from Ethan’s SelfDesign LC to see how we can guide Ethan as he continues unschooling.

I will be working on it this month. It will be posted by June 9th in the Seasonal Communications tab, Year End Summary in the left hand side of the SD powerschool site. I will send an email when it is ready for you all to view.

Have you seen this infographic, food for thought, I know Ethan is not working yet, but I think he is tapping into Ikigai daily:

Writing about the flow state and light waves, made me think of different neurological waves and the states of consciousness.

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