Homeschooling at Disney

[Cinderellabride]

Hi,

I am homeschooling my Kindergarten son this year , and we are heading to WDW in a couple of weeks. It is going to be a huge extended family trip celebrating my DH graduating salutatorian , so mostly we will just be focusing on celebrating, and having fun. But I know there are so many educational opportunities at Disney, so I'm looking for ways to incorporate learning opportunities into our trip, without going too overboard. (I also have a 4 year old boy, but am not officially homeschooling him until next year, we wanted him to finish the preschool program he was already in). We also have about a 20 hour drive each way to get there, and I will be sitting in the back with the kiddos most of the way (my dad is driving down with us), so lots of entertaining kiddos, and some schooling would fit in well on the drive.

So suggestions on:

Ideas for the car ride?
General kindergarten learning opportunities?
We are in the middle of a Dinosaur unit study as well, and I plan to take him on Dinosaur, go the bone yard, and eat lunch at T-Rex, but any other ideas for that would be great.

Thanks!
Steph

P.S. I tried searching to see if this has been asked before, and I didn't find anything. If it has and you have link to the thread, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Kindergarten is so easy and so fun that is really takes no extra effort to do on the trip. On the way down....read read read!!! I always go to the library and get the max number of books we can get in PAPER BACKS. So much lighter and takes a lot less room. Look for dinosaur books, books on the countries in the WS, books he can read and maybe a chapter book or two. Play guess the whatever game, maybe a fun spelling bee. Play the car tag game and talk about the states your go through. Give them each a couple dollars and let then figure out what snack they can purchase at one of your stops for gas.

Down there....so much to see and do and learn. Just use some of the teaching moments to expand on what he is doing already. Ellen's energy ride also has dinosaurs. Dinosaur at AK is pretty wild and scary and not very factual .Tons of fun in my opinion, but know your child and be sure he is ok with it. My 6 year old is not. Innovation is a science lesson in overdrive. EVeryone will love a couple hours there. SOOOOO many things at Epcot....just reflect a bit on all you see and do. AK has the conservation station where he can learn all about animals. No effort, just fun! For HS, maybe talk about and plan to read on the way home the book to one of the movies on the great movie ride, maybe the Wizard of OZ. Likewise look into the book of one of the rides at MK, we did Tom Sawyer one year. Swiss Family Robinson would be fun too. Give him a budget for snacks or other things and let him to the math (round things to the nearest $ of 1/2 $) to spend it. Just have fun!!!

 

[GusGus77]

There is a misc. homeschool thread. You might want to ask on there as you will get answers from all the other homeschoolers on the Dis.

 

[Cinderellabride]

Kindergarten is so easy and so fun that is really takes no extra effort to do on the trip. On the way down....read read read!!! I always go to the library and get the max number of books we can get in PAPER BACKS. So much lighter and takes a lot less room. Look for dinosaur books, books on the countries in the WS, books he can read and maybe a chapter book or two. Play guess the whatever game, maybe a fun spelling bee. Play the car tag game and talk about the states your go through. Give them each a couple dollars and let then figure out what snack they can purchase at one of your stops for gas. Down there....so much to see and do and learn. Just use some of the teaching moments to expand on what he is doing already. Ellen's energy ride also has dinosaurs. Dinosaur at AK is pretty wild and scary and not very factual .Tons of fun in my opinion, but know your child and be sure he is ok with it. My 6 year old is not. Innovation is a science lesson in overdrive. EVeryone will love a couple hours there. SOOOOO many things at Epcot....just reflect a bit on all you see and do. AK has the conservation station where he can learn all about animals. No effort, just fun! For HS, maybe talk about and plan to read on the way home the book to one of the movies on the great movie ride, maybe the Wizard of OZ. Likewise look into the book of one of the rides at MK, we did Tom Sawyer one year. Swiss Family Robinson would be fun too. Give him a budget for snacks or other things and let him to the math (round things to the nearest $ of 1/2 $) to spend it. Just have fun!!!

Thanks for all of the ideas. I didn't even think about Innovations.

He actually loves loves loves Dinosaur at AK. Rode it several times in April. I told him we would culminate our unit study with riding that and going to T-Rex.

I LOVE the idea of reading books that go with the rides. Such a wonderful idea! Thank you.

 

[Cinderellabride]

There is a misc. homeschool thread. You might want to ask on there as you will get answers from all the other homeschoolers on the Dis.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

one thing to be prepared for is carsickness from reading. I know I can not read anything while riding in car. can watch videos but can not read.

 

[Cinderellabride]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I'll be doing most of the reading, and I normally don't have a problem. I spent many a drive to Disney devouring books (pre kids). Every once in a while it starts to bother me, and then I stop. I'll keep on eye on DS if I have him read anything (he is just learning).

 

[Schmeck]

Just use your kindergarten curriculum? What do you have in your lesson plans?

 

[Cinderellabride]

Just use your kindergarten curriculum? What do you have in your lesson plans?

I have a different curriculum for each subject. It is a lot to bring. I may bring some of it for the car ride, but I am basically making the vacation a vacation from school. I am just looking for ideas to maximize the educational opportunities of the trip.

 

[jillgunter]

There is a lot of educational things at Disney.

Animal kingdom they can learn about conservation.

Epcot there is a lot of science stuff

Magic Kingdom Hall of Presidents.

 

[crisi]

We had our kids journal - we didn't homeschool, but since we pulled them from school we had them draw (in kindergarten it was just draw and then we wrote) one thing you learned and one thing you liked. Now, with high schoolers, those early journals are fun to look at.

 

[Granny square]

Pick his favorite Disney movies. You can of course watch them but then look to see what is in them that can be observed, drawn, sung about and talked about.

A jelly roll pan and letters and pictures can be used to make stories.

Making lists of things to do, prioritizing it.

Singing songs

Listening to stories on "tape" and talking about them and what they bring to mind. Not Disney but our favorites we're hank the cowdog, little house on the prairie, and my side of the mountain. Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh are delightful and a bit different than the Disney version.

Practice opposites with the characters. Disney loves good and evil. Play word games in lines.

In the parks just talk and listen. There are a million things to observe and you'll find they lead down wonderful rabbit trails if you let them.

Counting, adding, subtracting and money. Lol, collecting pressed pennies covers quarters and pennies.

Trade some pins. Practice talking with the cms and basic manners, taking turns, etc.

So some busy things for driving and fun things that don't feel like school for the parks.