Education Trip Request - Is a Disney vacation educational?

[KMurdock]

Hello:

We are planning on taking our 3 children on the 7 day land/sea package in about 3 weeks. Their school district requires an Education Trip Request be submitted in order for their absences to be excused. I know there are educational aspects to any trip, but I am having a bit of trouble describing the specific educational value of this trip.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much.

Kimberly
murdock@nb.net

 

[imgoingtodisney]

How old are your 3 children? Will you be going to EpCot? Animal Kingdom?

 

[Carl]

Epcot and Animal Kingdom are both very educational.
The Innoventions has so many science exhibits with "hands on" experiences. Spaceship Earth has a history of civilization theme. The Land has conservation and botany educational value. Then World Showcase gives the children a view of how people in different countries live.
There is little doubt that Epcot has real educational value. Now, MGM and MK are another matter. They are mostly of entertainment value only.
Animal Kingdom, especially conservation station, has a lot of educational value also. You should find out if they expect your children to bring back a notebook or report.

 

[R4racing]

Perhaps the tours at MGM could be considered educational? They could learn how animation is done and how sounds are added to movies. Hmmm, Magic Kingdom is a tough one, maybe they could learn something from the Hall of Presidents? If they are old enough, perhaps the Land (I think that is it anyone) tour at Epcot? Or perhaps just riding the ride they can learn about hydroponics. Are any of the little classes or groups they could go to on the cruise specifically geared to learning? Perhaps they could research more about the cruise ship, how they have to plan enough food, etc for all passengers, what they do with trash from ship, how ship runs, etc. Just think of things a curious kid might ask questions about, afterall that is learning isn't it. I know someone who took a field trip for physics class to a Six Flags park, so there must be at least a little to that. Good luck

 

[disneyjunkie]

Epoct's Universe of Energy

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Read this --

http://www.wdwig.com/educ.htm

 

[TmnsnMD]

Thanks for the link, my ds has to do a report on WDW when we return from our vacation. This really helps!!!

 

[imgoingtodisney]

My 4th grade sons teacher called me at work this morning. She's planning on sending home some work 3 days ahead of time, the rest 2 days ahead of time. She told me she hopes we have a good time. This is a relief. As soon as I see my son after school I'll give him the good news. He's told me "mom, the only bad thing about this trip is the amount of work on my desk when I return". Now maybe it wont be so bad. He's spending 3 days after school with me next week at the library where I work since my husband and MIL will be driving down to FL before we fly.

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad says......................................................Hell yes this trip is educational!! You can write reports on each of the World Showcase countrys. You can do Spaceship Earth and see how communication has changed over time. You can do test track and explain how car makers just don't build cars, they do lots of tests to make sure they are building a safe car. And thats only Epcot. You can do Carousel of Progress at MK and show how life has changed in the last 100 years. Animal Kingdom is great for education, you can do a lot of the research before you go there. And who can resist a "I saw a giraffe reaching for a leaf and he stuck out like an 18 inch tounge and got it." Take down some notes that are posted about the animals. My concern would be, for the children, that I am learning too much!! Teachers need to state what it is they want the child to do/ learn. Personally, I would go with two reports, Spaceship Earth and how communication has changed over the years, and Animal Kingdom and something about the animals. My third report would be pick a country at World Showcase and explain what is good about that country. If your teacher asks for more than this, have him/her send me a message and I will explain about the benifits of WDW., and will ask how much more do you want.

 

[Dizzy-Disney4]

My DS's 3rd grade teacher has sent home some class work and homework for him to do, but he also has to keep a journal starting with today. We did get him his own disposable camera, and the first picture will be of him standing in front of our train this morning. It sounds like its going to be a fun project and he has plenty of time on the train to do his work.

 

[ktkcsmom]

We homeschool so we don't really have a problem taking off school. I told my older one's we would have to figure a way to turn the trip into a field trip so we could count them as school days. Somehow my 6 yr old found out and said "I want to ride the rollercoasters, not study them."

 

[susy]

My niece and nephew are in middle school . They are in school all day and come home with TONS of homework. What if we parents demand that the teachers send us home a report of what they taught our kids on a given day?

 

[mom2boys]

Perhaps you can arrange a tour of some of the working areas of the ship - like the engine room. Do some math problems related to the fuel used by the ship or how many people can the ship accomodate based upon the number of cabins & how many beds per cabin. Get creative. Have your children interview the captian or other crew members & find out exactly what it takes to operate a ship.
Disney is an education in logistics.
I didn't notice where you are from but throw in some geography - the places you will travel on the cruise - study the culture of the islands you will visit.
If your driving have them help navigate - even my 2nd grader is doing a map unit right now. If you are flying and have done so before, how has it changed since 9/11?

 

[sorlando]

We took my nephew in May and took him out of school. We would have been so lucky if the teacher
just let us educate through Disney, instead we had a significant amount of homework that we had
to do each evening and it was a challenge after being in the park all day.

From an educational perspective, I would suggest the following:

Social Studies: The EPCOT countries are a perfect place in which to learn about one or more countries.
You can buy your children the EPCOT passport and have it stamped in each country and have the cast
members sign. My nephew learned how to write his name is ruins, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. If
you like, then have your children pick a country, go to the kids corner with a series of questions for
the cast members about their country, why they came to the US to work, some of their impressions and
then use this along with the other information learned to write a report.

Mathematics: Given your children a budget and a little notebook and throughout the trip so basic shopping
calculations, dependent upon age/grade. You can do percentages, fractions, subtraction, addition, etc.

Science: EPCOT has innovations which has information on communications and computers. In addition, spend
some time at the end of Test Track to understand how a car is manufactured and some of the science behind
the magic. Animal Kingdom is a wonderful place to learn about conservation, animal husbandry, bird watching, and
you can pick a wide-variety of topics.

Art: MGM has the animation tour in which you can go behind the scenes, or for older kids even taking the animation course would be fun and very educational.

I hope this gives you some ideas to help. Try to avoid taking homework from school if you can, you and your children will enjoy the trip much more if you don't have to fight every night to complete assignments. Remind
your children's teachers that education really can be fun and it is all in front of you at Disney.

 

[hogie1]

Have them tell about all the walking they did, maybe they can get credit for gym class!! WDW is great and Epcot & Animal Kindom can be educational, but make sure not to take the fun out of your kid's vacation!!

 

[royhawkins]

Certainly don't forget the musical knowledge you can pick up from WDW. They use many classical pieces from many esteemed composers, as well as having a list of songs themselves that are currently, or will be classics in time. There is much to be said about the art work as well. There is very few places in the world where you would see artwork as beautifully crafted and as expertly designed. If you were to take a trip to an art museum, you wouldn't see and learn as much (nor have as much fun). Tom Sawyer's Island (Mark Twain), Hall of Presidents, Epcot (the whole thing), even Splash Mountain (Braer Rabbit - Uncle Remus) is steeped in American History, Thunder Mountain Railroad is literally based on Coal Mine Railroads. I won't keep going but I think you get the point. Get maps of each park and individual area, and there is some faction of that which will relate to some type of history, literature, political, music, art, or etc.

Good luck.

Roy Hawkins

 

[Padre Disney]

Just my thoughts.
Our kids come home with tons of work everyday. Thats why we think the deserve a vacation as much as we do.

Over the past four years we have taken 2 trips. Each time we go in the off season usually late November or early December. We have four children so we are required to book 2 rooms. Thats fine with us. We are the ones that wanted four children so we follow the rules.
Each trip we have told the teaches in October that we were taking the children out of school for a week. Each time the teachers have talked nicely to us and said have a great trip. When it has come time for the children to collect home work to work on while they are gone the teachers give them a hard time complaining that they should only go on vacation during scheduled school breaks so they don't miss so much work. Again the reason we go when we do is a cost factor for our family of 6. Should the school like to contribute to out vacation fund so we can go during scheduled school vacations we would go when everyone else does. I'm sure that will never happen.
As for explaining the educational benefits of the trip I do not agree. Our children are going to learn and remember more from spending a week with the family then they will the week they miss school. I'm sure years from know we can ask them about the week we spent in Disney together and they will remember.
We always have the kids do what ever home work the teachers assign but it never seems to make much difference to the kids or the teachers.
Sorry to go on so much but it makes me so angry how the schools think they can tell you when you can or can't take your children out of school for a vacation.
I read on one of these boards some time back about a guy who went to court because of his kids missing more school than allowed because he went on a Disney vacation one day to long. I couldn't beleive it.

 

[Mom B]

All the stuff previously mentioned are great "educational" features
of WDW...The animals, the dinosaurs, the ecological information,
the geography at Animal Kingdom, the graphic arts at MGM, you
name it...but my favorites are the "up close and personal" look
at American history in the Hall of Presidents and, even better,
at the American Experience (I think that's what it's called) at
Epcot in the World Showcase. You have everything from American
folk music to Benjamin Franklin and so much history! Talk about
patriotic...it always brings tears to my eyes. Definitely something
to point out to the teachers!

 

[skeezixspud]

You just have to be a little creative about finding them.

When waiting in line for rides, do estimates about things like load speed, capacity, etc. ("If the cars hold 4 people, and the ride lasts 4.3 minutes, what is the maximum number of people who can ride in an hour?")

Look at the art/architecture involved with the theming of the various lands. Talk about forced perspective, which is used on some of the buildings to make them appear larger. Talk about the "New Tomorrowland" theme, of how science fiction writers envisioned the future, and the difference between their vision and our reality.

Pay attention to the landscaping; WDW has some of the best landscape architecture in America.

My DS is only 4 and we do some of this stuff on a basic level just to keep his mind occupied while waiting in lines. DH and I also talk about it; noticing the detail and speculating on why it was done is part of the fun for us.