April 16th - April 29th, 2012

Watched

The Troop - Netflix
Sgt. Frog - Netflix
Let's Play Minecraft videos by YogCast - YouTube
Spotlight Vlogcast by Indie Statik - YouTube
Jimmy Two-Shoes - YouTube
Soul Eater (an anime) - Netflix

Played
Minecraft - Computer
Plants vs. Zombies - Computer
Peggle - Computer
Bejeweled 2 - Computer
Little Big Planet 2 - PS3
Various physics based games on physicsgames.com - Online
Equate - Board Game
Lego: Ninjago - Board Game
Lego: Creationary - Board Game
ModNation Racing - PS3
Castle Keep - Tile-based Board Game

E playing Lego: Creationary

Read/Researched
What does 'linguistics' mean?
Ranger Rick Magazine
Lego Club Magazine
Hanna Andersson Catalogue
What do 'elijah', 'uriel' and 'parham' mean?

Discussed
Why do they call studying languages linguistics?

Wrote
Words to a song about a gamer nerd
Labelled bags for our bulk food purchases at the food co-op
Wrote & illustrated instructions to Spin-Jisto, a made up game.

Illustrated instructions to Spin-Jisto, created by E

Listened
Music by our friend Joy's band, Joy Toujours & The Toys Du Jours
Cat Power - album: You Are Free

Created/Built
Level design in LBP2
World map creation in Minecraft
Various Lego creations
Mod design and creation for ModNation Racing
Made up a Lego game called 'Spin-Jisto'.

Went/Community
Kristilee's house
Mad Mex
Java House
Trader Joe's
East End Food Co-op
Starbucks

Health/PE/Safety
Outside play all day w/ Cian
Helped make Red Bean Chili
Helped make grocery list and shop for food

Other
Scooped and measured bulk herbs and spices at the food co-op

2018-2022 High School Transcript + Course Descriptions

While Elijah has not decided whether or not he wants to go to college, it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and make one for them as it can still be useful for employment. I know from the experience that many colleges and even some employers like to have course descriptions for the credits given to unschooled/homeschooled students and a portfolio to get a better idea of what they have learned and the kind of adventures they have lived. Here is Elijah's high school transcript. When it came time to write course names it was not too difficult since Elijah mainly had wanted to engage with some more traditional subjects, but it is not too difficult to take a survey of what a homeschooler has been doing and translate it into a more traditional subject/course for the purpose of creating a transcript. When I began thinking about course descriptions, I talked to several people who had already graduated unschoolers are the best advice I kept hearing was to not reinvent the wheel. The numb...

Portfolio Summary 2017-2018

This year Elijah's main focus again was on Linguistics. He spent the vast majority of the year immersed in the world of languages, writing systems, and phonetics. Language Arts: Elijah reads online articles on a regular basis for information and pleasure. He enjoys writing emails, grocery lists, and determining phonologies and pronominal morphologies using Lexilogos.com. He is adept at finding information via online wikis, Internet and Google searches, encyclopedias, and the library catalogue. This year Elijah continue to focus on linguistics, constructed languages, writing systems, and foreign languages. He was mentored by both armchair and professional linguists via online conversations on the web forum Reddit. E reading to his sibling. E reading to his sibling. E reviewing commas and "its" vs "it's" Mathematics: Elijah continued to practice and gain skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, ...

Not Back To School (September 1st - September 8th, 2013)

So, it might seem as though we have dropped off the face of the Earth or that we "took a Summer Break", but neither is the case. Before I go any farther, I never intended for this blog to be editorial or contemplative, just archival, but I feel like I want, nay, need to say some things. One of my friends, a mother of a toddler, who is considering home/unschooling her child and who was homeschooled herself, asked me the other day, "So, do you, like, give E a break during the Summer or is it just all the time?" I believe I've quoted her fairly well (or at least the general idea of what she said). I know (and some of you know) that people who ask questions like this have not really grasped the concept of unschooling, but that's okay: I love my friend. I just said, "No, we just do our thing, living life, all of the time." What I *do* mind isn't innocent questions from friends, but keeping track of what we do. It's no secret that I abhor a...

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