Educating While At Disney (when your kid misses school)

[~Kik-Kik~]

You could do ABC's and 123's since she's in kindergarten. Epcot as a whole is educational if you want it to be. There is a lot of diffrent ways to do it, just don't focus on it the whole trip.

 

[disney minnie]

I am a teacher that has taken her children out of school yearly and sometimes monthly. Learning is not only about being in a classroom. We believe that spending quality time with our family is a learning experience and sometimes adding all the extra "busy" work takes away from the experience. I must say that I am also the teacher/parent that does not believe in homework over the summer. Reading books over the summer is fine, but the meaningless, busy work projects are a waste of time.

I remember a parent of a (in her mind) "brilliant" child made me do a lot of research for their upcoming trip because the child needed to be "challenged". I spent MANY hours coming up with great ideas for this child and not ONE project was returned. All of my time wasted. Soon after this experience a new rule was printed in the handbook that ALL make-up work would be completed after the trip.

 

[daisyduck123]

Putting work together before someone is going to be out is difficult and time consuming.

It absolutely is. I do not give work out ahead of time.

I teach 1st grade. SO MUCH of our instructional time is spent together, seated at the carpet. I do not teach with worksheets. Worksheets are used as a follow-up activity. Some of the worksheets the child cannot do if they have not been in class.... therefor, the absent student won't receive those worksheets at all.

I tell the parents that I will save all school bulletins, hand-outs, any make-up worksheets I deem necessary to be completed, on the child's desk while he is away.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

When my DD was in 1st grade they had a traveling bear program. The bear was sent to different relatives across the country and the relatives had to send a letter about their particular state/city. We got to take the bear with us to Disney. (beanie baby) It was really cute. I tried to keep it themed to World Showcase/countries so we had the bear take pictures at the countries in different settings. It came out really cute as the bear got to try on viking horns at Norway and Hats in Mexico, eat pastry in France, pasta in Italy, pose with CM from different countries, ride EE, ETC

Innovation has some cool things that are educational.

In the MK you could teach them about the different forms of transportation, such as trains, boats, monorails, TTA, raft (from TS Island). And at HoP- how cool is that to see every president on stage at the same time. I told that to my kids 5 years ago and they still think its cool.

Have a nice trip!

 

[ecteacher23]

As other posters have said the idea of the journal is a great one and an idea that we often assign to our students who will be taking a vacation. This way you have a summary of what you did to hand into the teacher. We use kidwriting for our K students, so what this means is that on the top part of the page you would have a child draw a picture and then on the bottom you would ask the child to give you a sentence to tell what is happening in the picture and you would have them tell you the sounds they hear in each word of the sentence. If they are able to write their letters for the corresponding sound they would do this and you would write the word they are tryig to spell below their letters, if not you write the sentence for them. This way you have them doing their own drawing and writing if they are at that level.

 

[JeNScHuB]

First off I think it's great to take your kids on vacation to Disney or elsewhere. And the fact that you are still worried about your child's education is wonderful. As a school teacher I see soooooo many parents who are not involved at all.

I do agree with Daisy that in first grade in my class most teaching is done through learning experiences, games, and other "non-worksheet" ways. I try my best to get a packet together for parents who ask but I usually tell them for the most part that if YOU choose to take your child out of school for a number of days then YOU are responsible for what they miss. Think about it..what if someone at your job asked you to stay after work for at least an hour or two and do all of your work for a week or two in advance because one person was not going to be there and they needed to see it???

With the way education in today I guarentee they miss A LOT!!! And just an FYI for parents it does take a good amount of time for teachers to get work together ahead of time.

You only live once....make the most of it and make as many memories as you can while your still here!!! If you want to go to Disney with your children then do it. Just make up the work or talk to your teacher and see how you can help!

 

[ltl engine]

There are plenty of opportunities available and workshets can be worked on at many different places. For my K last year, I carried 1 worksheet a day folded in half in a ziploc with a pencil & eraser. His teacher gave him a journal to draw a picture and 2 senctences about it, a sign hunt and animal hunt. He did this while waiting at TS, for a parade, for Dad to get off RnR and ToT, etc. ....The sign hunt was ABC's so he had to find a different sign that started with every letter (this was 50% done by the time we got on our plane to fly there), we just took a list of the missing letters every day in the ziploc. There are TONS of animals to see at the world (not just AK) so he had no trouble there--actually the problem was deciding which animal to use. Good Luck and don't stress, as many people said for K teachers understand and when on the look out there are so many "learning" opportunities for curious K that you will wonder why you were worried about it.
FYI--math practice--have them count the number of people in front of you and the number of people that load in the cars--then ask how many more cars until we get on? easy things like this just present themselves....

 

[CLR4321]

WDW has tons of stuff that is educational. Epcot World Showcase would be a good one. If you wanted to make a sort of project, you could go around to all of the countries and ask a CM from each country to write "Hello" or "Welcome" in their native language and take a pic of something that represents each country. That would actually be a neat little gift for the teacher.
AK of course is great for learning about conservation and animals, as well as different parts of the world. Dinoland has education about the dinosaurs.
MK includes a lot from the popular literature that influenced Disney, especially in Fantasyland. Carousel of Progress is all about technology and how it has grown in the last 100 years.
DHS has opportunities to learn about the movies and entertainment industry.
WDW has bits of everything as far as education goes. Technology, science, literature, geography, and history are found throughout the parks.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I forgot about Innoventions! There are some great multimedia displays in there!

The one with the plastic robots is really popular. It touches on plastics usage, and also on compatability (I'm sure there's a better name for it - being able to put different parts together. An issue just faced by the astronauts this past week when they were changing cameras on the Hubble.) not only that, but to get the plastic robot, kids are supposed to compete in a video race. The only questionable part is perhaps the idea of promoting more plastics. Still, they have been wildy useful to us.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

The OP's child is in Kindergarten. I wouldn't even give a second thought as to taking the child out or what possible learning experiences may or may not be available. I mean we are talking about a 5 year old missing a few days of Kindergarten, not a high school student missing advanced calculus. Lighten up ya'll!

 

[DawnM]

http://trying2walkwisely.blogspot.com/2009/02/walt-disney-world-lapbook.html

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The OP's child is in Kindergarten. I wouldn't even give a second thought as to taking the child out or what possible learning experiences may or may not be available. I mean we are talking about a 5 year old missing a few days of Kindergarten, not a high school student missing advanced calculus. Lighten up ya'll!

I personally posted a more generallly geared comment because I think that when this topic comes up, lots of folks beyond the OP read - so far over 1,162. Taking kids out of school is something that many parents rightfully consider carefully.

From my own experience, just about every time I missed school for a week as a kid, it nearly always impacted my grades in some way, despite my best efforts to make up the work. Maybe not so much in kindergarten, but as early as third grade it had a small impact on my grades. I think it also depends heavily on each district and the policies they have. Absenteeism is very much a topic that every school system contemplates heavily. No Child Left Behind looks at attendance rates for every grade. From that stand point, every absence is important, as state and federal funding rests in the balance.


DawnM, I haven't seen your posts in a while! Nice to see you again! I've always enjoyed your thoughtful posts!

 

[Amy162]

We just got back from WDW yesterday. My dd's first grade teacher made her a booklet with one assignment for each day, things like pick one character you met today, describe them and draw a picture. Create a math problem based on something you did today. Pick a postcard and write a caption for it. There are tons of learning opportunities throughout the park. DD loved Epcot, Innoventions was great. DD had fun with the Waste Management area that taught about recycling, and there is also a new exibit that teaches about saving, it just opened last week. The Kidcot stops are great, the girls had their passports stamped in each country. There is a lot to learn at Animal Kingdom, my 4 y/o dd can now tell you why pink flamingos are pink! It's not hard at all to find learning opportunities throughout the parks!

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Hmm...Maybe something like and here you can see the castle, Walt was going to have an apartment in there, but he never got the chance. And now we move on to......Haha.

Honestly, Utilize Animal Kingdom's educational perspective on animals and conservation, and Epcot's Overall "How Things Work" Concept. She will do great at such a young age to learn these things.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Epcot has the most educational opportunities.

Get a passport (available for purchase throughout Epcot) and have your child go to each country's Kidcot station. These stations have crafts and activities relating to each country around WS. At the Kidcot stations they give out masks for children to decorate, but if you have the passport as well the Cast Members will stamp them and write your child's name in their language

Spaceship Earth is very educational. As is Living with the Land and The Circle of Life. The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a great place too.

Innoventions has some interesting attractions worth looking at.

The alphabet book is a great idea too

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I personally posted a more generallly geared comment because I think that when this topic comes up, lots of folks beyond the OP read - so far over 1,162. Taking kids out of school is something that many parents rightfully consider carefully.

From my own experience, just about every time I missed school for a week as a kid, it nearly always impacted my grades in some way, despite my best efforts to make up the work. Maybe not so much in kindergarten, but as early as third grade it had a small impact on my grades. I think it also depends heavily on each district and the policies they have. Absenteeism is very much a topic that every school system contemplates heavily. No Child Left Behind looks at attendance rates for every grade. From that stand point, every absence is important, as state and federal funding rests in the balance.


DawnM, I haven't seen your posts in a while! Nice to see you again! I've always enjoyed your thoughtful posts!

Also, usually when this topic comes up it gets highly debated and people go way overboard with it. That's why I said everybody should lighten up.

And from my own expericence of taking my four children out of school, anywhere from kindergarten through sixth grade, it has had absolutely no impact whatsoever on their grades. It's one week of school. It's just not been a problem for us to take them out of school. Of course, as they grow older, we may have to reevaluate. But as far as grade school goes, it hasn't impacted their grades at all. As far as our district goes, they don't particularly like people taking their kids out of school for vacations and they are considered unexcused absences, but I don't really care for our school district policies and take my kids out anyway. They are afterall still my children. I am president of the PTO, I am the Box Tops coordinator, I volunteer in each of my children's classrooms, I make sure their homework is done every night and I make sure they are on time and prepared for school each day. So, at this point, I'm perfectly fine with taking them out of school for vacations.

 

[tinksgilrs251520]

I have not yet to pull my daughter out of school for a vacation but thats not to say that I would'nt ... But my point is if your going on a vacation then why make your kids do homework and try to catch up while on vacation... It just seems more of a hassle to get the kids attention on thier studies while they are at a place like Disney!!! I can see if your camping or seeing family at a none hyped place but this is my opinion.... I am sure that your daughter will do just fine playing a week of catch up.. Where my daughter went to school K grade had no homework given to them... I would be more concerned with her catching up from 1st grade and then on when the work starts to come home... I would go on vacation and do just that spend family time. That is the most important thng that i could give my children... maybe when we got back if the school expected some educational purpose then put together some sort of report. And along the way ask alot of questions of how things work and the differant languages at the worldshowcase but just have fun on your vacation and dont try to make a educational purpose vacation becuase to me that sounds like no more fun..... I go to disney to have a good time and have fun and if I had to make every move worring about whether or not this is educationl then I guess I would stay home and go at a break or in the summer... These are just my opinions Please peopel dont flame me ......

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I have not yet to pull my daughter out of school for a vacation but thats not to say that I would'nt ... But my point is if your going on a vacation then why make your kids do homework and try to catch up while on vacation... It just seems more of a hassle to get the kids attention on thier studies while they are at a place like Disney!!! I can see if your camping or seeing family at a none hyped place but this is my opinion.... I am sure that your daughter will do just fine playing a week of catch up.. Where my daughter went to school K grade had no homework given to them... I would be more concerned with her catching up from 1st grade and then on when the work starts to come home... I would go on vacation and do just that spend family time. That is the most important thng that i could give my children... maybe when we got back if the school expected some educational purpose then put together some sort of report. And along the way ask alot of questions of how things work and the differant languages at the worldshowcase but just have fun on your vacation and dont try to make a educational purpose vacation becuase to me that sounds like no more fun..... I go to disney to have a good time and have fun and if I had to make every move worring about whether or not this is educationl then I guess I would stay home and go at a break or in the summer... These are just my opinions Please peopel dont flame me ......

No flames here, very well put. I totally agree with you.

 

[tarheel_girl]

I am a Kindergarten teacher. I don't have a problem with any of my students going to Disney. My only problem is that I wish they'd take me with them! The ABC book is golden!! I LOVE that idea. Is this the first week of school that your child is missing? If so, I'd do a lot of responsibility type activities. What I mean is have your child carry her own tray at lunch. Have her attempt to open her own milk carton, juice box etc. This will help her once she gets back to school. If it isn't the absolute first of week of school, find out what letter/word the class is working on. Make sure that you look for that letter/word at all the attractions.

Two attractions that no one has mentioned yet are the Hall of Presidents and the Jungle cruise. Hall of presidents might be over her head, but it will be great to give her that experience. She'll have lots to share in Feb. when they discuss President's day. Jungle cruise...ok I'm stretching the educational part, but they do see animals that live all over. Maybe they aren't breathing animals but...... I'd also go to Small World after going through EPCOT. Ask your child's teacher about email. I email my parents my lesson plans and then contact them to see if they have any questions/concerns. I like to make sure that what I sent them was user friendly. Have fun!!

 

[Bullseye]

We normally go in June but had to postpone until October because of spinal surgery I just had . Because I need months to recuperate it was basically go during the school year or forfeit non refundable airfare. We were feeling kind of guilty because DD1 is a senior (DD2 is 2nd grade) and this is such an important year for her to miss any time.

But then we started thinking, I just had major surgery and you never know what the future holds, it could be sickness, job loss, state of the nation, etc etc. You have to grab these opportunities for time spent with your family because the future is uncertain and in the grand scheme of life, a week of school isn't going to make that much difference, even in senior year. Most of the time asking a child what they did a particular week in school is like asking someone the same question about work, who knows ?

I'm not requiring either child to do anything educational at WDW other than what they normally absorb while experiencing it (Epcot, AK, Food & Wine). I'll let the school/teachers decide what the make-up work should be and if it should happen pre or post trip. Memories made spending time with your family are irreplaceable!!



p.s. that sentimental stuff being said, truth be told, sorry kids but Dad just wants to go to Disney World