The January 2011 WB Panama Canal Repo Education Resource Thread

[wideeyedwonder]

Hi everyone, seeing as quite a few of us that are booked on (or are considering booking on) the January 2011 Westbound Panama Canal Repo Cruise are interested in educating our kids while on the cruise, we thought that it would be a good idea to start a thread devoted entirely to educational resources while on the cruise.

On the 2011 WB PC Repo, many of us have the dilemma of having to pull our kids out of "formal" school for 1-2 weeks in order to do this cruise. This thread is envisioned to make that problem easier to manage, as well as to provide exciting ideas to AUGMENT the schools' "formal" education. Additionally we want to make the on board "formal" education process easy and fun for home schoolers. Lastly we want to make sure we don't miss the unique teaching aspects of a trip of this magnitude presents...after all, we will be visiting several countries, and passing through the Panama Canal!


Possible topics:

1. I have school age kids...should I even consider pulling them out of school for this cruise?

2. What do I need to do in order to pull my kids out of school for 1-2 weeks for this cruise?

3. What can I do to ensure that my kids keep up their grades (formal school) and keep up with their coursework (formal school and home school) while on the cruise?

4. What can I do about extracurricular activities that my child/children may miss while on the cruise?

5. What store-bought and on-line resources are there available if I want to augment my kids' education specifically for the cruise (learning Spanish, the engineering of the canal, international commerce aspects of the canal, the history of the canal and the area, culture and history of the other countries we will be visiting, etc.)?

6. What on-ship resources can we use to make on board education easier and more fun for both the kids and the parents? Can we book a resturant or lounge for sea-day "study hall", so that all of the participating kids can do their "formal" schoolwork at the same time (and not feel left out of other activities)? Can some of the parents (or even ship board CMs) help augment the experience by giving short presentations on interesting subjects?

7. Anything and everything else having to do with education while on the January 2011 WB Panama Canal repo cruise.

And, if you feel comfortable with it, please list the FIRST names, and the age and grade level (at time of sailing) of your kids. Again, if you don't feel comfortable with doing this, it is not a requirement...it just makes it easier for other parents with kids in the same grade level to provide resources for you.

We have over a year to go, and I'm hoping that we can collectively come up with some great ideas on how to make the "formal" education process on ship fun, painless, and exciting...and the integration back into the classroom or home school group fun, painless, and exciting as well!

[lbgraves]

Since this is a cruise specific topic the thread is being moved to the cruise meets thread. You can submit it to the main thread to post all meet links as an educational planning thread and/or have it posted in the first post of your meets thread to make it easy for everyone to find.

[wideeyedwonder]

As an added resource, here is a related thread, asking "should I even consider taking my kids out of school to take this cruise?"

3mmm - PC, kids and school
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2298054

"I never thought I would take the kids out of school for that long so I didn't pursue any of the Panama Canal cruises. My husband has always felt differently and put in an IC request years ago. Guess what? It came through and we are booked. I am thrilled and yet tormented. I want to hear what everyone has to say..."

[LindaBabe]

Teacher and Tutor resources may announce themselves here, too.

I can tutor math and science, if needed.

[tlungstrum]

My kids will not be in school yet when we cruise, so we don't face some of the difficult decisions some of you do, but I would like to make this an educational trip for them. My DS is 2 now and is very bright. He knows his ABC's, can count to 30, count backwards from 10, knows colors & shapes, puts together puzzles up to 20 or so pieces, speaks in complete sentences,etc so I know he can use this as a learning experience. Also, I just feel that my little ones (DS will be 3 1/2 and DD will be just 2) will be more likely to remember this amazing trip if they learn something on it.

So, all that said, my question is does anyone have ideas on what to teach a 2 & 3 year old about the countries we'll be visiting, the canal, etc? Any resources or things you may have done with kids in the past?

I appreciate any ideas and look forward to cruising with you all!

[wideeyedwonder]

Just a bump to the thread, I'm still very excited about the learning oportunities of this cruise, but we have over a year to plan, so the posts may be few and far between until we get closer to the sailing date. I'd encourage anyone with interest in this thread to go ahead and subscribe to it, and keep checking back regularly. After October, my time frees up a bit, and I will be able to brainstorm some ideas. Thanks!

[Tigfanjeff]

I've added a link on the cruise page so you should be good for finding this later It's in the links section.

[tinksmom]

Hi everyone,
Carly will be 17 and a home-schooled junior when we cruise. I know we will much more successful getting her school work done if she's in a group setting in the cruise. I'll be happy to proctor a school session or two on sea days.

I'm brainstorming some ideas for the little ones and will post back in a few days.

[LindaBabe]

oops. premature post

[IrishCowboy]

.

[KayR]

My bro was telling me about this National Geographic show/report about the Panama Canal. There is a little snippet of the show at

http://channel.nationalgeographic.co.../2869/Overview

Might see if I can rent the DVD before the cruise.

-Kay

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

Hi everyone!

My DD Tori is homeschooled and will be in 8th grade when we go... her school allows us to count the cruise as school days as long as she does something educational in the ports and journals...so we do not bring school work with us per se. I would love for her to get together with the other kids though regardless of age.. even if she just reads while they do school work. Before the 2008 PC cruise...she learned about the Panama Canal and the countries we were going to.

Someone in our group also created a fun "journal" 1 or 2 pages for each day that had fun questions to be answered or a puzzle to solve. There was information on the ports and on sea days fun things to find that had to do with the ship.

I would be happy to take on the journal if anyone is interested in using it. I helped with the last one so I know how to do it. It is basically a "workbook" kind of thing. After I complete it, I simply post the link for you to download it and print it yourself to bring with you.

Let me know what you think!

[tinkryansmom]

I think a workbook or journal is a great idea! Our DD will be in 5th grade and keeping a journal will be a part of her "homework" from her teacher.

My other DD will be 3.5 at time of sailing so I am interested in what you all think of for the little ones.

My DH is willing to help out with Math and Science also - Physics, Chem, Advanced Math.

I think this is going to be great!!

[izma]

Originally Posted by A Litle Pixie Dust

Hi everyone!

My DD Tori is homeschooled and will be in 8th grade when we go... her school allows us to count the cruise as school days as long as she does something educational in the ports and journals...so we do not bring school work with us per se. I would love for her to get together with the other kids though regardless of age.. even if she just reads while they do school work. Before the 2008 PC cruise...she learned about the Panama Canal and the countries we were going to.

Someone in our group also created a fun "journal" 1 or 2 pages for each day that had fun questions to be answered or a puzzle to solve. There was information on the ports and on sea days fun things to find that had to do with the ship.

I would be happy to take on the journal if anyone is interested in using it. I helped with the last one so I know how to do it. It is basically a "workbook" kind of thing. After I complete it, I simply post the link for you to download it and print it yourself to bring with you.

Let me know what you think!

What a great idea! That's what I think.

Our school policy on taking kids out is..."of course, why wouldn't you."

Our school policy on assigning homework during vacations is..."who wants to do homework on vacation?"

Flakey as it sounds they have great reasons for these policies. We appreciate them so much that we take it upon ourselves to learn when we travel and the kids do a class presentation when we get back.

So, we would love to participate in "school on board". I will help in some way, I guess our discussions here will help determine how!!!

[DCL_FAN_TAC]

My DD, Cassie, will be a HS Freshman at time of sailing. We are wait for HS Acceptance letters from private schools (they will be mailed mid-March) and depending on the HS selected we face various school support of the cruise. We have our fingers crossed that her final selection will welcome this travel opportunity -- as a school, they participate in multiple travels throughout the year -- and they submit all schoolwork via website. With that & a designated laptop, DD has already offered up that she would like to 'schedule blocks of time' for her studies. Granted, we have previously experienced DCL and there are areas of down times / non-events which will be perfect for bookwork.

Thanks to all for putting this thread together, looks like we can leverage resources.