Here we go with another week of Ethan’s unschooling. This week included Remembrance Day and going to an international space conference, so there was quite a wide variety of happenings.
November 11
Remembrance Day. Ethan noticed the words Lest We Forget around in different places and asked what those words meant. I explained their significance as they relate to Remembrance Day and the end of WW I. We also looked up what the phrase means and learned that it means, “it should not be forgotten,” as defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
Before starting our day’s activities, Ethan helped with watering the plants and cleaning our home.
We watched a documentary about China’s Forbidden City. The most impressive thing about the buildings in the Forbidden City is that they can withstand a 10.1 magnitude earthquake. This is very cool, says Ethan.
We learned that Beijing experiences many earthquakes and that Emperor Yongle designed the Forbidden City to withstand these earthquakes using something between the roof and the columns called a dougong.
The dougong uses a nailless construction technique to join together several pieces of wood in an interlocking pattern.
As we watched and learned about the Forbidden City, they mentioned Confucianism and how the emperor had to constantly prove that he was ruling because of a mandate from heaven. This reminded me that Ethan had learned about this just recently, so we looked it up in his history book to cross-reference what the documentary was talking about.
After the documentary, Ethan learned about alchemy on Mystery Science. this was interesting since they were trying to create gold out of somthing worthless.
He learned how salt and vinegar can remove a thin layer of copper from a penny.
And he also saw how an alchemist fooled a king into giving him lots of money and then disappearing after demonstrating changing a steel sword into a “copper” one.
But what the alchemist did was he placed copper pennies into a salt and vinegar solution, removed the pennies and then dipped the steel sword into the solution.
The copper in the solution was attracted to the steel and covered the sword in copper. The alchemist claimed that he could soon turn steel into gold and needed money to continue his experiments.
The king believed him but after not seeing the alchemist for a long while, he became suspicious.
then he used a coin to scrape the sword and realized that it was only a layer of copper, which is what the salt and vinegar do to the pennies, it removed a layer.
The king eventually uncovered the ruse, but the alchemist was long gone.
Pull up break. Ethan was trying to jump up and grab the pull up bar but needed a little help. We encouraged him to keep jumping because eventually, he’ll increase his vertical jump and be able to reach the bar.
And of course, he practiced violin.
We then headed out to meet with friends. Along the way, Ethan practiced his balancing and mentioned that this is what he does in gymnastics class.(hi, Ethan here. I DID NOT SAY THAT!!!!!)
It was a beautiful day out and Ethan had fun playing with Paulo.
We had hot chocolate afterwards and Ethan showed Paulo and his mom, Maria, the Star Chart app.
After we got home, Ethan watched more of Mystery Science and alchemy. In this part, he saw how acid was poured into a beaker of sugar.
There was a chemical reaction. There was steam and then the sugar starts coming straight up out of the beaker.
He then watched a lesson about the orbits of the planets.
There was an activity to create something called Universe in a Box.
The project was tied into a lesson about why the stars change with the seasons.
The Universe in a Box showed Ethan which constellations are visible at different times of the year.
Next, he learned about seed dispersal and the activity was making different types of gliders to show how seeds travel.
We then watched a show on Netflix called Brain Child, a science program for kids.
In this part, they demonstrated how people can be very mean when leaving comments online because they feel they are acting anonymously. This phenomenon is called the Online Disinhibition Effect.
These people gave scathing criticism about someone’s singing but then had to read their comments directly to the singer.
The people felt bad and learned how their online behaviour can have real consequences.
In the next episode of Brain Child, Ethan learned about how bacteria are the most dominant species in the world.
How heavy is all the bacteria in the world? All the bacteria is heavier than all the humans on earth.
Afterwards, he read Where the Red Fern Grows.
Reading with Dong Eun in our bed before calling it a night.
November 12
Today was a holiday here in BC because Remembrance Day was on a Sunday. So my parents came for brunch and Ethan was able to play the violin for them and show them how to make the magnetic lock he made the other day.
After my parents left, Ethan and I did some organizing and he helped with moving things down to our storage room.
Ethan asked me to glue together a magnet that had broken, but the crazy glue was all dried out. So Ethan took the glue container and put water in it.
He tried to make a whirlpool in the container by spinning it around.
This led to Ethan talking about centrifugal force when he rolled the container on the floor and the air bubble was forced to the opposite end of the container.
Ethan was learning about alchemy yesterday and wanted to try an experiment with salt and vinegar to see if he could remove the outer surface of a penny.
He put the pennies into the salt and vinegar solution.
And the pennies got all nice and shiny!
We then played Scrabble and Ethan used a Scrabble dictionary to find different words.
This led to him finding the hardest words to pronounce in English… Worchestire and otorhinolaryngologist were two of them. An otorhinolaryngologist is commonly known as an ENT, an ear, nose and throat doctor.
That night, we watched a show on Netflix that talked about thunderstorm asthma, a situation where people have an asthma attack during a thunderstorm.
We learned it’s because the wind breaks up and disperses pollen, which triggers an asthma attack. This happened in Melbourne, Australia several years ago.
Ethan found more words that people mispronounce. This time, it was company names like Nutella, IKEA, Adidas and Volkswagen.
Ethan was watching a lesson on chemistry and explosions on Mystery Science and wanted to do an experiment with baking soda and vinegar.
Looks pretty excited to do this!
Vinegar was placed inside a ziploc bag, then a paper cup with baking soda was put in.
The paper cup is flipped to start the reaction.
Gas filled the bag.
They said that sometimes the bag can explode so we tried the experiment again.
No explosion but the bag was completely filled with gas this time.
Next, Ethan read Weird But True Canada and talked about Spotted Lake here in BC.
So we looked up where Spotted Lake is and how we would go there if we drove.
We also saw a satellite image of the lake.
The book talked about Santa’s address and how the postal code is H0H 0H0. This led to asking where the North Pole is, exactly and which country it’s actually in.
And on this page of the book is the world’s biggest Canada goose, which we saw last year on our cross-Canada road trip.
What we learned is that the actual North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and that no country owns it.sad!
Ethan then went back to finding out what the longest words in English were and found these:
- antidisestablishmentarianism
- floccinaucinihilipilification
- pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)
November 13
ethan is writing from here.
Because it was my mom’s birthday, I started the day by doing the dishes.
then I showed her the card I made for her. I wrote in Korean!!
I also added little hearts to fall out when you shake the card.
then I did mystery science if you should water a cactus.
then I learned about transformations.
I was stuck on a problem.noooooo!!!. so I looked at a video and realized it was simple.ha ha ha oops
then I got to do prodigy.yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I got to because I wanted to do it early to practice like a game.
then I learned about Taoism.
then watched a video about it on crash course.
then about Ying and Yang.
after that, I read about world war one on Canadian reader, and did the questions about it. boring!!!!!!!
typing time!yay!
going outside.
then I learned about the comma.
taekwondo practice!
I then made a supernova with a bunch of Jupiters.
November 14
going to nature school.
hmm… what are we trying to do?
violin practice!
doing some exambank.
math; mean, median, and mode.
science news!!!!!! not very fun~ethan
more math.
going skating!!!
weird but true time! this one’s interesting…
November 15
starting the day with the violin! I thought I needed a stand sooooo…
November 16
November 17
|
Greetings this very snowy morning here in the Okanagan!
|
Thanks for sharing some written observations and then pictures/artifacts of the rest of the week. I can see that Ethan certainly had another very full week of learning. So, here are three things that jump out at me this week:
First, you give a good example of how learning happens every second of every minute of every hour of every day. We are surrounded by opportunities to learn and part of this means that we can take opportunity in the way of Self Designing to notice and then reflect. Sometimes we share those reflections with writing and sometimes the process will happen instead with no need for words. By looking at the pictures I was able to see how engaged Ethan was and the wide variety of resources that he’s using. The video was also a fabulous way for Ethan to give voice to learning that he sees around him. He certainly seems to have strong oral skills and a strong inquisitive mind.
Second, I value how Ethan is coming back to interests or things that he’s exploring. You give good examples of this with his study about the World War and worksheets, looking at the longest and hardest words to pronounce, and the Science learning about Alchemy and making the pennies shiny. Ethan was able to not only read about the Science and then also do his own hands-on experiments.
Now, with his interest in Science, has he considered perhaps being part of a local Science Fair? I could certainly see him being engaged in such a project! I know that the lower mainland certainly has not only fairs for kids and also Science Clubs.
Third, I’m noticing that Ethan seems to be very good at researching things and finding out information and then engaging in the creation of things. Now, I know that he is continuing to engage with his writing, especially with filling out worksheets and working on sentence structure.
So, I’m wondering if for one of the upcoming reports he might like to answer some questions about his learning? He could either write the sentences out himself or he could dictate and then see the finished product. The questions and answers would then go in and this would be the weekly report. This is a simple way to focus on some writing with purpose and also share it as an artifact. Anyway, here is a template if you’re interested:
Tell me about what your favorite color is and why you like the color?
What is the funniest thing that you ever have done? Tell me about the experience.
If you could go anywhere for a day where would you go and why?
What makes you feel sad?
What is your favorite activity to do and why?
What is the most challenging thing that you’ve learned and why?
There are many different kinds of entertainment, such as music, games, books, or movies. Explain your favorite type of entertainment and why you like it.
What is something you want to learn to do? Explain what you would like to learn and why?
Think of someone who is brave. Write to describe this person and explain how he or she shows
bravery.
Think of your favorite place to eat. The location could be at home, school, a park, a restaurant, or another place. Write to explain why this is your favorite place to eat.
Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for sharing. It’s been nice to connect. Ethan is certainly on a roll with his learning. So, a reminder that for week 13 Natasha will be doing a direct connection to look at the growth and learning accomplishments that Ethan has had so far. So, no written report needed. Well, enjoy the weekend! Yours in Self Designing, Abbie 
Recent Comments