Unschooling Journal September 8-14, 2019

by | Sep 15, 2019 | Blog, Home Learning, Homeschooling, Unschooling, 언스쿨링 | 0 comments

Here we go with this week’s unschooling. Ethan had a full schedule as all his activities started this week.

September 8

We had a family event today. One of my cousins was having a red egg and ginger party to celebrate the birth of her daughter. So we had Ethan make a card for her. He wanted to make a kirigami design.
He started making the kirigami but something wasn’t quite right and since we had to leave soon…
He switched gears and created an oldie buy goodie, the pop-up card.
Here’s Ethan with his cousin Ezra. Ethan’s the oldest of the cousins in the younger generation of our family. Ezra was the first child to come after Ethan.
That night, Ethan finished working on his SelfDesign Learning Plan for 2019-20.

September 9

Ethan and Dong Eun went jogging with the GoPro. He likes making himself look like a giant.
Or really small.
Selfie while jogging.
He did some Spanish practice today. He used Duolingo and then wrote down the words he learned. This is also his journal for him to keep track of his day.
He learned about limit properties on Khan Academy.
Cursive practice.
More math.
Violin practice before the first violin class on the fall. He was quite excited about starting class again.
He did his music notation practice, too.
He started working on his history timeline again tonight.
He added things that happened between 800 CE and 1000 CE.
He tried typing with a new online typing program we found called All The Right Type. This was introduced to me by the owner of the company. He then practiced using Typing.com to show me the difference between the two programs.
Ethan also did some coding in Python.
He was adding to the adventure game he started working on yesterday.
He was excited to learn that if he uses a hashtag, the code becomes a comment.
He worked on limits of combined functions for his math practice and he also did some cursive practice.
For science, he learned about entropy and he wrote a sort of letter essary about Esio Trot. He used the sentence openers found in The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell.
For physics, he learned about frames of reference. He then practiced approximating limits from tables for some more math work.

September 10

Some physics. Learned about frame of reference from Khan Academy.
He read an article in Canadian Reader about cellphones being banned in schools and then he answered comprehension questions.
Cursive practice.
Writing about Esio Trot.
Zoom call with Natasha, Ethan’s SelfDesign LC. We had lots of questions regarding content for Ethan’s learning. We learned that Ethan’s doing great and to just let him lead. Easier said than done but we’ll keep trying. That’s the thing about unschooling that’s most difficult, the letting go and trusting the child.
Spanish practice using Duolingo.
He continued his learning of frames of reference and he wrote more about Esio Trot.

September 11

Report from Soaring Eagle Nature School about Ethan’s group:

Mink’s group busted out of basecamp like a pack of wolves and gathered atop a peak on the east side of the lake to practice some forest skills. The first challenge was to test their tracking skills through the “art of questioning”. A seemingly simple object was passed around many times, and the goal was to always ask new questions about it. Mink feels they could use some work in this area. That said, she was quickly impressed by their mastery of the “fox walk”. A good grasp of the foundational skill allowed the group to dive deeper into the skill through various exercises and sneaking games. If you want to see the types of games Mink’s group plays, you’ll have to sneak up on them! They talked about “baseline” and as they did so, watched the bird activity and animal life slowly return to the area. The return of forest baseline brought with it a mysterious woodpecker, and the group spotted a Stellar’s Jay making a strange alarm as a Douglas Squirrel approached. A the end of the day, the students had to earn their nature names through a group challenge which put their team-building skills to the test.

Ethan went to nature school for the first time this school year. He was a bit concerned that he might not know anyone this year but quickly made some new friends. He also went to taekwondo class and afterwards, he wanted pasta for dinner. We went out and had a great meal.

September 12 – Morning Jog

Out for a morning jog and taking selfies with the GoPro.

September 12 – At Home

SelfDesign has a weekly online workshop and Ethan joined it today. We weren’t sure what to expect but Ethan had a great time interacting with other SelfDesigners. There was a small group activity and lots of sharing things about one another. I think Ethan’s going to continue attending the workshop.
He created a flowchart to demonstrate how to calculate the limit function of x.
These photos are slightly out of order but in the evening he used instructions from How Things Work to create a binary calculator. He expanded on the design in the book because he wanted an easier way to hold the yellow flaps on the bottom and an easier way to slide the numbers up and down. He explained how to use the calculator with various examples. I asked a lot of questions and he was able to answer my questions with a demonstration.
Here is what he learned about limits and continuity from Khan Academy.
He learned to calculate average velocity or speed.
It might be hard to see, but he wrote down that he learned about calculating the limit of f(x) for math practice. He then did made some notes about calculating average speed.
He read an article about Kawhi Leonard and did some practice learning about common nouns and proper nouns.
Today’s cursive practice was the letter ‘f’.
He started putting the periodic table of the elements in his room in different places and in different formats.

He spent the evening listening to The Alchemist audiobook with Dong Eun before going to bed.

September 13

We went for a jog in the morning.
Ethan was interested in the seagull nearby that was cawing. Lots of seagulls around lately.
Back home, Ethan was curious about my Trello boards. He decided to set one up for himself to track his daily tasks.
Learning about one-dimensional motion from Khan Academy.
This is a behaviour monitoring chart for Ethan and Dong Eun. If Ethan displays good behaviour, he gets 2%; bad behaviour sees him lose 1%. For Dong Eun, if she doesn’t get mad about something and reacts calmly, she gets 2%. If she does get upset, then it’s minus 1%. Ethan was given a base score of 30%. If he reaches 50%, he gets a prize. As you can see, he made it.
Working with an average velocity graph.
He learned about the OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu.
He then wrote a summary of the mission and added some drawings, too.
Learning about limits and continuity from Khan Academy.
His completed summary of the OSIRIS-REx mission.
He also worked on his history timeline, adding events such as the end of the Mayan civilization and the beginning of Swedish vikings.
Cursive practice.
Spanish practice.
Proud to get his prize for hitting 50% on the behaviour chart.
Reading the crystal lab instructions.
And now we wait for the crystal to form.

September 14

In between symphony practice and swimming lessons, we went to the library to chill.
After we got home, he did some coding in Scratch.
We then went to Indigo and had some late lunch.
We bought some sparkling water to drink and got some ketchup packs at lunch. Ethan was very excited about that and wanted to try an experiment with buoyancy once we got home.
After putting the ketchup pack in the bottle, he filled th bottle with water.
He tried three different ketchup packs to find one that had just the right amount of air in it. If you squeeze the bottle, the ketchup pack should move down on its own.
Success! This was really quite fun.

That was a very busy week of unschooling for Ethan but he seemed to really enjoy it. He ended most nights listening to The Alchemist with Dong Eun so he also quite enjoyed that. Although it can sometimes be challenging for Ethan to find his study materials, what he finds he enjoys for the most part.

So let’s see what he does next week.

Zoom Conversation

Week 3 Direct Contact

I had a long Zoom conversation with Ethan and his parents. I am going to share some of the highlights: 

Ethan completed his own slides and reported that LP Slides’ Format worked for him. 

We chatted a bit about his desire to study for the SAT.He explained that it is one of the requirements to get into NASA. He would like to get into MIT first, he know he needs a bachelors and then a Masters and PhD. 

I reminded him that the SAT is a Grade 11 test. So take your time. It is wonderful to look ahead and have goals and make a plan. 

He spoke about his week: This week I got slowly back into school: math, science, history, Language Arts.
When I asked Ethan about his plans for World History. He told me he is going for big picture, big timeline, 8000BC to present day, writing it all down. He is starting at the invention of agriculture, hard to get info on the very early areas. Now more and more things are happening. 700bc, 500 year jumps, 100 jumps, seeing that pattern of more and more information and events as you get closer to present day. 

I suggested doing a Timeline of your own life and also projecting into the future…

Or timelines of your parents…It could be a chance to begin to read biographies of people of interest to Ethan too. 

In Science: learning physics now, mostly using Khan Academy. It offers a well sequenced program. 

In chemistry he is learning how to balance chemical equations using moles. He said its fun! I can’t beleive this as I did this level of chemistry in grade 11 and 12, but he has the mathematical knowledge and such a firm understanding of the elements it is a natural progression. I am excited to see where this goes this year. Refer to electron configurations, need the table. I mentioned Advanced Placement exams as a possible way to gain college credits in High school. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/support/graduation/getting-credit-to-graduate/advanced-placement

Language Arts: I am using the Canadian Reader, printing out questions, reading the article writing the answers down. Pick a subject explore it from many angles. 

Violin is fun, just started classes by himself again. I like writing my own pieces, easier to use music that is already produced by someone. I like the sound of the piece I learn that one. 

I have my own kayak. It is out on the balcony. I kayak with friends. 

How is homeschooling life? 

Parents:  Introducing more and more books to him, available to him. Classic novels, seem interesting. Books at the library based on interests.  A little more directed now, have an objective for us as well. Helpful for us, critical reading and critical thinking, “The Reading Zone” created by a teacher. What they do get kids to read for enjoyment. Kids will read a book, elementary to high school loves to read. Through the reading, when they understood, intuitively understood, plots, themes, character development. Knows he already loves to read, rather than reading fiction that way, take away the engagement, just be immersed in the story. Let him enjoy, have it available. Come more naturally, letter essays, write a letter to a friend about this book. Has a few questions, openers. 

How does it feel to do your own reporting? I expect I will be seeing a lot more of it this year.

Ethan has been enjoying it. 

 Last week we had a talk about going back to brick and mortar school. Him not wanting to plan, having research into what he should learn. Has a plan. You can go to BC Ministry website for grade 6 curriculum and he can find at least an outline of topics and subjects. Feel free to explore higher grades in math and science, of course. 

The curriculum is laid out by subject and grade. Click on the one you want and scroll down to see the competencies as well as the con tent covered. This could be a very helpful resource for Ethan in his planning. :https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

They also talk about the Core Competencies in the new BC Curriculum: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

He was getting tired of finding the resources, what he wants to learn next. He takes time to find what’s to learn. He is having a hard time, part of the process. 

History and language arts does not want to find it. Challenge for us to work with. Ethan really wants to continue to lead his own learning. Yes, et me lead. 

So some of my suggestions: Have a schedule, maybe create an outline of where we are going, use the BC ministry curriculum as a guide. 

Maybe have an assignment or a project each week or month?

He does have a daily schedule, looking at the bigger picture, maybe bigger project. 

Ethan will be starting Nature school tomorrow, swimming lessons, taekwondo. Took sessions of swimming over the summer. Helped him progress and improve, level 9!  enjoying the swimming. 

Using the Elements of Mathematics Foundations. Really interesting, keep a log of conversations with tutors and teachers. Ethan will ask them questions, how well and clearly he explained mathematical equations. Knows how to write and ask the questions. Quite proud of him. Different way of looking at math. 

Check out Outschool courses maybe he could take some and let him have a break from planning. Looking at using math using logic to determine how to solve this. 

Check out Outschool, perhaps there are some courses he is interested in and can collaborate and discuss with other online learners.  https://outschool.com/#abk0elpic2

Don’t worry so much about content. There is endless information and material to explore, perhaps begin to consider the competencies which Ethan is developing. 

There is a whole section of information about the Self Design

 Competencies in the e-Portfolio. We will revisit all of this at the Fall Reflection time, but it might be helpful to explore, considering our recent conversation:

Ethan told me how he got all of his tasks done and he had the afternoon free. Once he had this space, he just kept creating! This is passion based learning at its finest. I encourage ethan to take these quiet times when he has time and space and just see what arises naturally. Follow those impulses.  

Here is a note that the family sent for week 2 which explains some of the challenges Ethan is having in terms of finding the content and doing his own lesson planning. We discussed these concerns at leangth and I think they left the conversation feeling relieved and more clear. 

Natasha, 

I know this is not necessary because we did the Learning Plan but I thought it’d be good to share with you anyway…

First week of September and we’re up and running with unschooling for Grade 6. This was an interesting week because there were murmurs of wanting to go back to brick and mortar school!

We’ve always said to Ethan that if he ever wanted to go back to regular school, he could. That was a topic of discussion this week while we were talking about behaviour and attitude.

Ethan has been working on using words to express himself when he doesn’t like or want to do something. He’s also working on explaining himself better to help others understand a situation more clearly.

For example, when I come home and ask him about something he did earlier, he’ll sometimes answer without providing much detail or context so I’m not really sure what he did.

During a talk this past week about his reaction to things, listening when someone is speaking to him and using his words to better express his feelings, he revealed that he wouldn’t mind going back to regular school.

When we asked him why, he said that he finds searching for material to learn from really hard to do. He said that in school, the teacher plans everything and that he would only need to do the work.

However, for this year Ethan is going to focus on SAT prep and using Khan Academy’s SAT prep materials. That means he has a “curriculum” laid out and he only needs to do the work. We’ll see how it goes but we’ll need to talk more about how he’s feeling.

One thing he mentioned was that if he went back to school and didn’t like it after a few months, he would want to switch back to unschooling. We said that he would have to commit to school and couldn’t just change whenever he felt like it. Of course, if he was absolutely miserable, we’d let him come back but we also feel that he’s only talking about school because he was worried about having to find his own learning materials each day.

Overall, he loves learning from home and being able to explore his interests so we’re curious to see if he would really want to go back to school. We’ll support him if that’s what he wants but we’ll see.

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