Homeschooling at Disney
As a Homeschool Mom I am always looking for fun ways to do school. I also try to sneak in Field Trips when I can. Last fall our family took a week long trip to Disney World. My favorite vacation destination. I mean why would you go anywhere else? Right? I love Disney vacations
Before kids it was a magical place where I would go to escape the stress of life. I would go every chance that I would get. I went through my phases, loving being there with my parents, wishing I could go with friends, hoping a boy would take me, getting engaged at Disney, going with my husband, and finally going with my own children. Well other than getting engaged there, I have been able to accomplish everything else. But it is ok, because I got to go with my husband for our honeymoon! Yay!!!
My new life as a homeschool mom.
So, fast forward 7 years and here we go again. Except that this time, I have a school age child, whom I homeschool. So I try to take every opportunity for him to experience new things. Before I went I read a few posts on Facebook homeschool group ideas about homeschooling at Disney. I could not believe the amount of schooling opportunities that there were. You could homeschool all year there. So, with it being more of an experiment for me I picked two parks to homeschool at. The first was EPCOT and the second was Animal Kingdom. Those seemed the most obvious to me, but I still wasn’t sure if I could make a day out of either one. I still wanted to try and see what we could do. It was a completely new trip for me and a great way for my kid to enjoy learning while on vacation.
I was not disappointed! In fact our next trip, I will be teaching at all four parks. The opportunities really are endless.
There is so much to talk about that I will do two posts, one for each park.
EPCOT was an acronym created by Walt Disney himself in 1966. It stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. And if that doesn’t scream come and learn, I don’t know what will!!!!
So here are my favorite spots to School at EPCOT
The World Showcase Pavilions
There is so much to learn at this park alone. The world showcase is amazing. It become an immersive classroom. You can pick one or two pavillions and just spend the day learning. Everything about the culture, the food, the history, the music of the countries. The Cast members who work there are all from their respective countries and are always more than willing to speak of their home land. Taking just a few minutes to speak with them will help your children experience people from other parts of the world. Then you can sample the food. Take in a whole dinner or sample at the table service restaurant. Drink or desserts are also available. But these are things that your kids will remember and hen they go back and read a book or a geography class they will be able to remember actual people from these lands and they will truly learn.
Future World
This is another area that you can be stuck in for hours. We rode Spaceship Earth. This ride has been somewhat updated since I was young, but it is still so fun to go through. You take a journey through time starting with the dinosaurs and the cavemen up through modern time and the internet. You even get to create the future you. I love this ride. The best is sitting in it and reviewing history with my kid. He gets to see the beginning of paper through papyrus, from the original form of printing press which was monks copying literature, through the invention of the printing press and continuing on through communication online across the world. It is truly amazing. My son even learned the origins of the modern alphabet on this ride. Then as the ride exits there are several interactive areas to continue learning including one on human anatomy where you put together a skeleton. You can walk through several of the exhibits to learn different things. Absolutely wonderful and honestly we had to pull all 3 kids away from the games so we wouldn’t miss our next fast pass.
The Living Seas
This is also called the Seas with Nemo and Friends Exhibit. It has an amazing aquarium where you can learn about several marine species. You can walk through and there is a class taught by our favorite turtle Crush. Another great area to take notes and learn about our world and our environment.
The Land
This area has a great exhibit on well our land. Learn about seeds and food production. Take a boat ride where you can learn all about how to grow your own food, find 9lb lemons and mickey shaped pumpkins. This is a fun quick ride to learn and experience our land.
These are just some examples of my favorite places to visit for a short class or a day long class. I love EPCOT. When it is a Field Trip or just a day at the parks. There is so much to see do and experience. I hope that you will try to have a homeschool day the next time that you visit.
This is just one of the parks, and Animal Kingdom is my next amazing gem for a homeschool day. I’ll share my favorites on my next post.
Homeschool has become a way of life for me. I try to incorporate it every chance that I get and love finding the unexpected classroom. These days are not just great for me but my son lights up when he can ask and learn and not have to read about it.
I hope that this post helps you plan a new way to vacation. A new way to take advantage of new resources.
If you have more tips from your homeschool journey, please comment below and let me know what to add to my list.
For more ideas on what we do, and what you can do this summer follow us on Instagram
You may also enjoy reading, My to 7 tips for going to Disney with kids.
As well as, Planning a trip to Disney -Get Started
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