Why oh Why...keeping a journal!

[Tootles]

Could any Mom's or Dad's out there give me some ideas for a journal for my DS's homework assignment? DS8 is in 3rd grade and his teacher has asked him to keep a journal while we're away at WDW but has left all ideas up to us. DS has severe learning dissabilites (ADD, CAPD, rages, depression etc.). They have made many adjustments for him at school (thanks to an IEP test).Here's the thing, I really didn't want him to have to do any kind of a journal at all because he gets so frustrated when it comes to homework. (reading, writing etc) I really didn't want him to be "stressed" about having to do work while we're away (I would have been happy to do any type of catch-up homework with him upon return). So, what do you think he should do? I first thought of a photo journal (he has his own digital camera and LOVES photography) and then have him do an oral presentation on it. My sister (a 3rd grade teacher herself-No kids of her own yet) thinks he needs to write everynight in it, in order to practice writing. I'm pretty worried that this is going to put a real damper on our "fun filled" first trip to Disney World. What do you all think?

 

[leight]

I would have him tape record his journal entries- he can do it while waiting on lines or with you on the buses to and from the parks. It might even help distract him during those times when he would tend to get bored. Does your school special ed department have a audio transcriber? Then it can be transcribed from tape to written form for him. He can also take pictures as part of it and even interview the family and others willing to talk to him. I'm sure that if the teacher is familiar with his disabilities that any media used to keep track of his trip would suffice.

Have a great trip.

 

[brymolmom]

Well, I guess I would ask the teacher for more guidance on what types of things she is looking to have in the journal. I certainly think you need to set something up to do (obvious you agree because you are asking this) - so that your ds knows that this is schoolwork and that you need to do what the teacher asks. Maybe ask him for some ideas? That might be a learning thing in and of itself - sit down together and get his perspective of different types of 'things' he can learn or has learned in the past at WDW (this might get a large range of answers from 'I don't like people cutting in line' to 'Mickey has a blue hat'. ). Maybe for something Math related he could (at the end of the day or the next day - not in the middle of the park where it might 'stress' your vacation) - by memory think of the different size lines and waits - and maybe draw a picture (sorry - my ds is in K so this might not be appropriate to 3rd grade, but I'm sure you could expand on this idea) - to depict the different rides and the size of the lines....mabye even predicting a number of people who were in line after estimating the # of people per minute he thinks it would take to move the line up. For social studies and/or geography - EPCOT always works and is easy. Maybe print a map of the world and put it in the journal and have him circle or 'find' all the countries he 'visited' at EPCOT. I don't know the extent of your ds's special needs, but if he can write and it is a good thing for him to improve it, I agree with your sister that some amount of writing would be a good thing. Mabye this can be planned as an just-after-trip thing? Write out a bunch of questions beforehand that can be answered with a few sentences like 'Which was your favorite character, why?'. What ride do you think the whole family liked best, why? and so on - this will encourage some writing but you don't have to do it until the night before you leave or the night you get home - so you won't feel so stressed during your trip.

 

[GoinToDisney]

Teacher and mom here. Personally, I think you should bring a timer with you. Do it every day 1st thing in the am, rest time in the middle of the day, or right before bed... when ever you think is the best, most patient time of day for him. I would tell him that you are going to work on this assignment for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, he takes a 10 minute break, whether he is finished or not. Then after the 10 minute break, he works one more 10 minute session. That is it. The timer means stop, not just one more sentence. It might help to take pictures and tell about each picture. If you have a digital camera, you could take pics of his fav attractions and he could look at them on the little screen to give him something to jog his memory. Now, you could print out pics and have him write about them when he gets home, but that would be setting him up to be even more upset and frustrated. I say give this 30 minutes of your time per day (with 10 of those being a break) and call it done.

 

[Tammysue5]

I give any parents credit who have kids do the homework while on vacation. We took our first WDW vacation in Sept. (we had never pulled the kids out of school before either) and we might as well left their backpacks home... honestly, my husband and I felt that this was our vacation as well as theirs. No homework. We did some prior to leaving and the rest when we got back. (teachers were great!) Have 1 Kindergarten, 1 3rd, 1 Junior in Highschool.(All AP/Honor classes)


I think that idea of pics is a great start. Like the previous poster said, this can jog his memory when he does sit to write. Maybe buy a journal, take pics, paste them in and have him go back and write in about what is in the pic. If there are any pamplets or such at any place... ex... my girls made 'paper' at innovations (Epcot) so they stamped it and brought it home.
use these sort of things for the homework. You could put together a journal/scrap book of sorts.

Epcot, is an awesome place to 'do homework'. I know that not everyone will agree with me... but I honestly felt that the kids learned so much in that 2 weeks we were there. From the World Showcase, Ellens energy adventure, Innnovations, Safari (AK) Hall of Presidents (MK) etc.

My DD8 (3rd grader) did a speech on EE... she did research on the Yeti,,, and found out that this was one of the most difficult animontronics Disney ever had to create.

I hate to see a family vacation ruined due to stress. Enjoy the vacation and do what you think is right for your sons homework.

 

[Zeebs]

If you are taking him out of school for the trip then I think he certainly needs to do something while on the trip school related. I really like the idea of a photo journal. Do you have a digital camera. If so you could get him to write a wee sentence after reviewing the pictures and he can decides which ones to use. Unfortunately while you want a relaxing time he needs to know that one of the reasons he is there is because he isn't at school and the comprimise of this is that he has to do a wee bit of homework.

I hope you have a great time and you all enjoy yourself.

Kirsten

 

[3littleHalls]

I found a journal print out(might be one of the stickies at the top of this board, or there was a link there) that has journal pages for each park. Has characters on it, and asks questions like "My favorite thing about Magic Kingdom is..." My favorite ride is.... It shouldn't take but a few minutes each day as part of getting ready or going to bed.

 

[Tootles]

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far! The positive encouragment I get from the Disboard replies is always such a good feeling! I like the idea of taking pics that he can then "review" (with CAPD he has a very lousy short term memory). I will most definatley look up those journal pages as well. I do agree though with the other poster who mentioned that she didn't agree with homework while on vacation. I wish we could just do catch-up work before or after our trip. His teacher says "no" to that (she feels it would just overwhelm him) but feels as she puts it, "he is so creative and would most likely really enjoy talking to the class (presentation) all about his vacation". He does enjoy talking! I just hope that he doesn't get too frustrated (which leads to feeling bad about himself, which leads to anger...). This is our first trip to WDW, and most likely the only trip our DS's will have while they are young. So, this taking him out of school, won't be a frequent occurance. Ugh. I still dread the journal exercise though.

 

[purplepixie]

Do you have a video recorder? You could do a video diary. He could be a reporter and tell about what's going on around him. I also thought that the picture idea would be fun too.

 

[perdidochas]

Could any Mom's or Dad's out there give me some ideas for a journal for my DS's homework assignment? DS8 is in 3rd grade and his teacher has asked him to keep a journal while we're away at WDW but has left all ideas up to us. DS has severe learning dissabilites (ADD, CAPD, rages, depression etc.). They have made many adjustments for him at school (thanks to an IEP test).Here's the thing, I really didn't want him to have to do any kind of a journal at all because he gets so frustrated when it comes to homework. (reading, writing etc) I really didn't want him to be "stressed" about having to do work while we're away (I would have been happy to do any type of catch-up homework with him upon return). So, what do you think he should do? I first thought of a photo journal (he has his own digital camera and LOVES photography) and then have him do an oral presentation on it. My sister (a 3rd grade teacher herself-No kids of her own yet) thinks he needs to write everynight in it, in order to practice writing. I'm pretty worried that this is going to put a real damper on our "fun filled" first trip to Disney World. What do you all think?

Have him write one sentence each day, and do the journal.

 

[Tammysue5]

Do you have a video recorder? You could do a video diary. He could be a reporter and tell about what's going on around him. I also thought that the picture idea would be fun too.

This is a great idea! Something we have done as well. We even bought the kids a cheapy black and white Movie 'board' that you can write Scene 1 take 2 ... and it has the 'clapper' thing to put in front of them to start. They love doing this.

Mom mentioned that he likes to speak so, this may be a wonderful alternative... a movie/video journal. Or even take many different 'scenes' with him as a reporter and you can always edit when you get back.

Great idea! Purple pixie.

 

[ntink]

How much time do you have when you get back before your DS has to go back to school?

My thoughts are that he can take lots of pictures on the trip then once you are home, do a "journal" or 1 sentence per picture (8-12 that tell a story about the trip or one particular event) and have him present that to the class. It really sounds like doing any more than taking pictures will really impact the joy of the trip for him.

My DD9 has a lot of frustration with her homework, the physical act of writing in particular, and although we are working on it, the teacher has said that I can type her assignments. She will either speak into a voice recorder or do a messy draft and then I type the final - so far this year I have done it twice.

 

[Tootles]

No, no video recorder...unfortunatly. What a wonderful idea though!

Thanks to 3littleHalls I have decided to do the print out journal pages she recommended-looks easy enough. There are typically 3-4 simple questions a day, and that's it. It will certainly help with the frustration of "thinking of what to write about". All he has to do is complete the sentances. I showed them to him and he seems interested in it, so hopefully if we prepare the journal pre-trip (put it together and read through the questions) he'll know what is expected of him. We'll most likely re-read the questions in the mornings before we head out to the parks to remind him of what he should be thinking about during his day. Hopefully it will only take 10-15 minutes each night to complete, giving him a wonderful keepsake in years to come. He'll pass in the journal the day after we return (it will be in the middle of the school week) but I doubt he'll read from it to the class. He's quite the character, so he'll most likely just "wing" that part! Include a few snapshots, a souvenier, park maps and pins...and voila! Assignment Complete!

 

[disykat]

We took my son out of school for a family wedding in Hawaii when he was in first grade. I credit that trip journal writing experience as being a major breakthrough in his academic life. In our case, it was my requirement, not the teachers, but he didn't know that!

We got a journal with lines on 1/2 the page and had him write a couple of sentences and draw a picture. One thing that helped us was having him tell us what he was going to write and then helping him by repeating it back to him as he wrote it. Keep it simple and stress free!

When we came home we put pictures on a poster board and he dictated the captions to me. We made gecko shaped cookies (you could do Mickey Mouse). He read his journal, showed his pictures, and shared cookies for his report. That was years ago, now your son could just do a little power point or something to show his pictures.

At home, getting him to write was very hard. On vacation, when he knew all his classmates were in school working, it wasn't bad at all. For him, it was a very positive experience.

 

[mickeymouse1017]

This is the link to a journal that I had gotten from other DISers. I liked it a lot and think that it is not too time consuming. Good luck and enjoy your trip!
http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/kids/journal.shtml

 

[Aliceacc]

Could you buy a series of postcards and have him write a series of cards to his class?? I bet is will seem a LOT less like work and you'll get a lot less resistance.

 

[meandtheguys2]

Have him write one sentence each day, and do the journal.

Exactly. Even captioning his photos would be of benefit.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Well we have always gone WDW off season and my son is non-special needs and we found out years ago that doing homework at WDW is really hard on kids. Now we have done it during travel down and back and Ds has always known that he has to comlpete any work the teacher assigns ,not while at WDW. I can see how overwelmingly hard it would be having a child with the OP's child's special needs stay on task to complete an activit y among all the over stimulation.

Only once were we asked for a special WDW project/ journal type assignment and this is what we did.

We took pictures of DS in every country of Epcot and also purchased a set of the Epcot postcard. (Ask for them in any Epcot gifts shop)- We did silly things like having DS put on a hat in Mexico of pose like an artist in France. When we go home... Together we put it into a book. Keep the writting to where his abilities are. Make it really cute with captions like "today I went to China"- If writting just a few words is where he is Tpye a fill in the blank type form: today we went to ______________. I saw____________________. My favorite thing was_________________.

Children with special needs have to work twice as hard all the time cut him a little slack on the trip and try to make it as easy as possible and fun at the same time.

 

[Gillian]

I like the postcard idea! I may have DS do that when we go in December. He can write some to his class and maybe to his specials teachers (science, languages).

DS is in 2nd grade and his school is light on homework, usually just daily reading and something longer over the weekend. I've asked for more for him so that he gets used to it.

 

[IlliniMouse]

My son is also in the third grade and his teacher wants him to do a journal. I already printed the journal pages off of a website, and was going to have him do it anyway as a keepsake. She thought that was a great idea, and was awesome as far as taking the time off school. I love some of the other ideas mentioned here, so we should have a great journal to take back to school!