homeschoolers who cruise

[suzsummit]

Just wondering how many homeschooler parents are out there that cruise with their children? I am the mother of three kids 12, 10 and 7 and we are cruising the Panama Canal in May. Planning another cruise next year for either the South Pacific or Asia.

 

Had this great idea for the kids to scapbook the cruise and went out and got a small digital photo printer that we could take with us. That way the kids can print off their photos in the evening and put them in their scrapbook, when the memories are still fresh. Still looking for the perfect journal/scrapbook to use (have to buy three so I need them flexible and affordable) Any ideas?

 

Also any other ideas of great projects you have done while cruising? I have already contacted a local school, at one of our port stops, that we can visit. Thought this would be a great way for the kids to 'really see' how other kids live and learn.

[VikkiGarcia]

When we did Panama Canal Oct.2004 my kids were the only non-homeschooled children on the ship. ( We are year round with a two week fall break) The other families knew each other from the internet. They set up the card room for school a couple hour each morning. I know they were studying Spanish and doing some kind of port "history" before each stop. They also went as a group to the canal lectures in the showroom.

[Deb in Cali]

As a former home-school Mom I have a few suggestions. I haven't done this personally so take it for whatever it is worth.

 

Scrapbook-excellent idea. I would have them study country/ports that you will be touring. Then make sure that they collect money, stamps, and a copy small copy of the flag for the scapbook. They need to know the language and a tidbit or two about the history of that location. You could also give them the disposible cameras to take some of their own individual pics including underwater ones.

 

I would do a science field trip on one the Carribbean port such as swimming with the sting rays, dolphins etc. The need to study up on it prior to the trip. You can also do seashells, plants, trees, etc.

 

The Panama canal is a history lesson in itself. You can have (perhaps the older two) write a letter home as if they were one of the worker building the canal. Then mail it from your Panama stop. Have them write in the letter about the hardship they have suffered while working. Don't forget that Balboa crossed the isthmas at Panama to be the first European to see the Pacific. Also don't forget that the 49's crossed Panama to pick up a new boat to take them to the gold fields of California during the Gold Rush.

 

You can also discuss the recent turnover of the canal to Panama from the U.S. Please note who is actually running the canal. Another point of discussion is the importance of the canal, what would happen if it wasn't available for all countries to use. Have your students note the other ships that are also in the canal area, what country are they from where do you think they are heading and what are they transporting (if you can tell).

 

You can talk to them while transitationing the canal about the lake that is now part of the canal and how the ecology of it has changed when the canal went through.

 

You can have them study rain forests for your Costa Rica port.

 

You don't say which ports you are going to, but if you end up in San Diego there is Balboa park which houses the world's famous San Diego zoo. They also have a train museum, car museum and several other exhibits. San Diego also has an Old Town area and the first Mission out of the 21 built in Calfiornia.

 

Most libraries have VCR and DVD's tape on rain forest and on the Panama canal, and on the Carribbean. I wouldn't over do the videos because then they might be bored once there with the " I have already seen this".

 

Have fun and thank you for homeschooling your children.

 

Deb

[sunkey1]

Wow!

 

Thanks for all the great ideas, Deb. I just started homeschooling this year (2nd and 4th/5th grade) and one of the things I'm most excited about is the opportunity to visit all these wonderful places. I want my kids to "EXPERIENCE" the world, not just read about it. These were all wonderful ideas and my husband and I have already talked about taking them through the Panama Canal or to Europe on a cruise. Cruises are absolutely a great way to vacation because they can be educational, but Mom can still get a break from cooking, cleaning, etc!

[suzsummit]

As a former home-school Mom I have a few suggestions. I haven't done this personally so take it for whatever it is worth.

 

The Panama canal is a history lesson in itself. You can have (perhaps the older two) write a letter home as if they were one of the worker building the canal. Then mail it from your Panama stop. Have them write in the letter about the hardship they have suffered while working. Don't forget that Balboa crossed the isthmas at Panama to be the first European to see the Pacific. Also don't forget that the 49's crossed Panama to pick up a new boat to take them to the gold fields of California during the Gold Rush.

 

You can talk to them while transitationing the canal about the lake that is now part of the canal and how the ecology of it has changed when the canal went through.

 

Have fun and thank you for homeschooling your children.

 

Deb

 

 

Thanks Deb for the great ideas! I love the letter writing idea. That is something I did not think of and the ecology before and after is also a great idea.

 

We are also going to try to collect, very small vials of beach sand so when we get home we can compare them to our local sand under a microscope and talk about why they may be different.

 

Already have two videos about the canal that we are going to watch the week before going. Also went on Amazon.com and got some cute little books about canal.

 

My other idea is that I am going to include a map of the ship's journey and the kids will chart our progress each day on the map.

 

The one thing my 12 year old is really interested in is how they make fresh water for the ship. We have already looked it up but I am hoping some ship's engineer will take her (and me!) on a tour of that part of the ship. I know they usually don't do this but I'll talk to cruise director and see what I can manage:).

 

suzanne

[Deb in Cali]

I talked about other ideas on another thread, but it was for junior and senior high students. Let them loose with a video camera, in some of the ports was one of the ideas.

 

Suzanne

 

The sand idea iand the charting of the ships course are EXCELLENT ideas. You might have them research the difference between the navigation during Columbus' time and the current technology.

 

How about collecting water in the Atlantic, Pacific and in the canal for later analysis by the microscope?

 

We always do the licence plate hunt for all the states when we travel with our RV. You can modify this idea with a small world map that the staff on the ship can identify their country. Perhaps have them sign the back with their country.

 

Have fun and let me know about your adventures.

 

BTW I homeschooled my two son for 10 years. My oldest is now in college and pulling A and B's. My youngest is now in public high school and is pulling all A's and one B. He was homeschool from K to 7th. Then went to a private Christian School for his 8th grade year, pulling A's and B's there also. It really is too bad that homeschooling doesn't work. wink wink.

 

Deb

[sunkey1]

Yep, Deb, I hear you - homeschooling doesn't work lol. My sister has homeschooled all her kids from day 1. My nephew graduated high school and local junior college the same month, then went to Boston University to get his bachelor's degree in marine biology. Now he's at Georgetown going to law school - oh yeah he had a 4.0 the whole way through so far too. I just started homeschooling my two this year (2nd and 4th) because I realized that where we live in Georgia the schools are nowhere near where they need to be if I want my kids to have the same opportunities as my nephew has. I believe our high school here only has a 67% graduation rate - pretty pathetic. Don't know what percentage of the kids go on to college. Thanks but no thanks, I'll give it a try on my own and certainly I can do better! Besides, look at one of the perks, flexible vacations!

[Deb in Cali]

My youngest DS is jelous that I didn't take him on a cruise when we homeschooled. He is not a happy camper that he isn't going to the Alaska cruise this summer either. Since it is our 25th wedding anniversary I refuse to have a teenager along. I am seriously considering booking a Mexico cruise for the whole family next spring. My oldest will be moving out soon and I want to have one final family vacation that will be remembered for years to come.

 

Since camping was in our budget we did a lot of travel camping when they were homeschooled. They got sick of camping even tho we had an RV. We didn't go last year at all and the summer before we had one short trip. So now they are starting to ask, "Are we going to go camping this summer". Absence does make the heart grow fonder. LOL

Deb

[suzsummit]

We still do the camping thing every year. I think it keeps the kids, 'grounded'. Actually this year it will be 3 days of beach camping on the California Coast. And we REALLY camp -- tents and everything-- Did I mention the battery operated blender?:D

 

Actually came up with one more really great activity to do with the kids on the ship. I am getting large pictures of the ship (from the brochure) and a list of ship vocabulary words. Example: bow, stearn, port..... and the kids are goint to label the ship with the appropriate vocab. Thought this would be fun and then then can help their dear 'old' parents when we get confused.

 

 

It had always been my dream to take my kids out of school and travel the world. So..... we only live once.... Looking into an Asia cruise for next year. Hey, I'm just spending their college tuition, :rolleyes:. And at the success rate of homeschoolers they will get full scholorships.... Sorry just my DH and my inside joke.

 

 

So anymore homeschoolers out there????

[Deb in Cali]

Suzanne,

 

We love to camp at Montana De Oro, Pismo and Big Sur.

 

We have camped at Montana De Oro at least 5 times. We Used to do a week long camping trip the last week of October since we don't celebrate Halloween. It was great. Campground was almost empty, the weather was perfect.

 

We have camped at several of the campground at Pismo with our Boy Scout troop. We usually play capture the flag Parents and siblings vs. the scouts in the dunes around 10 PM in the moonlight.

 

Have trailer will travel.

Deb

[minneapolismom]

We are sailing on the Conquest 040305 with 3 boys, ages 13, 16 and 17. They love having their travel scrapbooks which can be found on www.myfarawayplace.com. The best part of these scrapbooks is that the kids work on them a little bit each day and the books are done at the end of the trip! You can add photos after the trip if you wish but you don't have to. And the books fit on a shelf for easy access for school projects later!

[alleauna]

We're also a homeschool family that are going on our first cruise this year.

 

Our oldest daughter is 17 and will be starting college next year. She's informed us that this may be her first and last vacation with us for awhile. :) Our next child is 15. He's always loved ships, the sea, etc., so he says we'd better schedule cruises around college for him! ;) The younger 2 are 11 and 5, so I'm sure they'll get to take lots of cruises with us in the coming years.

[suzsummit]

ncmom2four -- so where is your cruise to? So that is 6 in your family. Did you have to do the two cabin thing? We are a family of five and to get the two bathrooms (we really need these) we always have to book two cabins. When the kids were real small -- we did the family suite on Disney and it worked well -- except you had to climb over a kid's bed at night if you wanted so quiet time on the balcony. Two were Christmas cruises and Santa even put presents in the cabin -- It was a great time!

[alleauna]

ncmom2four -- so where is your cruise to? So that is 6 in your family. Did you have to do the two cabin thing? We are a family of five and to get the two bathrooms (we really need these) we always have to book two cabins. When the kids were real small -- we did the family suite on Disney and it worked well -- except you had to climb over a kid's bed at night if you wanted so quiet time on the balcony. Two were Christmas cruises and Santa even put presents in the cabin -- It was a great time!

 

Ours will be a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas. We were wanting to book one to the Western Caribbean so we could tour Tulum, snorkle Cozumel, etc., but our 17 y.o. requested the Bahamas instead. Since this might be her only cruise with us, at least for the time being, I thought we should go where she most wanted to go. :)

 

We're also thrilled that the ship we've chosen has a "teen" area that will include our 12 year old all the way to our 17 year old together. This will make the 12 year old feel quite grown-up while still including the 17 year old (I hear some cut-offs are 16 years), and it will help our 16 year old as well since he's quite shy with new situations at first.

 

Yes, we did the 2 cabin thing. Unfortunately, that is the one draw-back about our ship...SMALL cabins! We'll be very thankful to have the 2! We have one to ourselves, and the kids have one with bunks next to us. It should work out really well.

 

I was looking at those family suites on Disney and they look wonderful! It sounds like you had the time of your lives!

 

Pleasure to "meet" you! :)

[whale-watcher]

Cruising really is the ultimate field trip for Homeschoolers. My wife put together unit studies before Alaska and the Caribbean, and we were always able to find amazing and educational experiences for all 3 of the kids both at sea and in port. We are planning Canada/New England for this fall, and then Panama Canal and Mexico in the future. We actually first decided to homeschool when my daughter (now 14) was in Pre-Kindergarten. We were actually told by her teacher that we were doing her a tremendous disservice by taking her out of school to see the rainforests of Costa Rica, and that we should learn to set our priorities....

[jebridan]

I don't homeschool but did take my 13 yr old daughter out of school for a week for a cruise once. Besides a scrapbook and a daily journal that she kept, I had her write down and keep track of all the countries where the ships crew members were from and when we got home I had her find them all on a world map. We sailed on Princess and the crew members nametags said the country where they were from. I know Carnival crew members nametags also have this information. She got a lesson in geography without even knowing it! lol

[suzsummit]

jebridan --

great idea oabout where the crew is from. I think I will have the kids list their first names, dept they work in, and country. Then we can do some interesting stuff with graphing and demographics. Also like the idea about marking them on a world map.

 

Great ideas!

 

thanks

[ebtmsw]

Suz- we did the grand tour of panam through the ship(summit) and went to an Embera indian village off gatun lake- it was a wonderful experience for my 7 yr old - I think she realizes how much she has and has learned to appreciate different cultures,their art,dance and habitat- it was truly social studies in action- she even commented on the similarities between our culture/family and the familiies she saw- how brothers and sisters teased each other, helped each other, how the children watched their parents learn crafts, meal making etc. I would highly recommend it.

[sandyneck]

I am so happy to hear about all you cruising homeschoolers!! We did the Panama Canal in September. We watched a dvd on the making of the canal and the kids did a paper on it. They knew more than most of the people on the ship and were more than happy to impress with their knowledge! I also had them do a travel journal. One page was research on the port, the next page was their experience in the port and a page for a picture. We have gone on two caribbean cruises and are going to Alaska in August. On our last cruise we went to Roatan and visited an orphanage for the day and brought them much needed supplies. The kids really enjoyed that. We all love to travel and not being tied to a "school" schedule is a real blessing. Happy Homeschooling!!

[suzsummit]

Sandyneck -- how old were you kids and what was their favorite part of the cruise? We also have the video and are going to watch it next weekend. I also have bought a few books for the kids to read beforehand. I think this trip will be an amazing educational trip. I even copied a very easy learn Spanish book for the kids to work with. I focused on words and phrases they might see/need. It will be interesting to see how much Spanish they can translate while we are on the trip.

To all homeschoolers -- FYI -- there was an interesting thread going on the Crystal Cruises board about cruising with kids. In the beginning the 'fellow' adult cruises seemed less than thrilled about kids on Crystal. BUT... if you keep reading the thread once the cruisers found out the kids were honeschooled, they were welcomed with 'open arms'. It was a funny change of emotions. It must mean we are doing sonething right by homeschooling:D. It makes interesting reading. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=156834

[whale-watcher]

We did the Panama Canal in September. We watched a dvd on the making of the canal and the kids did a paper on it. They knew more than most of the people on the ship and were more than happy to impress with their knowledge!!

Where did you find the dvd on the canal? We are planning a Panama Canal cruise in January and this would be a great way to prepare.

[sandyneck]

Suz summit, my kids were 8 and 9 for the canal cruise. They loved everything, but two of their favorite parts were eating in the dining room everynite and having everyone pay so much attention to them, as there were only a handful of kids on board. We did the canopy tour in Costa Rica and they liked that alot, didn't see a lot of wildlife, but it was neat. Everyone on the tour was somewhat taken aback when my 9 year old son started an in depth conversation with the guide on fire ants. He is a total bug nut, so it was heaven for him. I would be glad to answer any more questions if you have them.

 

Whale watcher: It was actually a video, I thought it was a dvd but I just double checked. It is called "Panama, eEploring the Panama Canal" and it is put out by SkyRiver Films. My dad actually had bought it when he did the Canal. Another great resource is Mentura. You can rent up to 3 DVD's at a time for 20.00 per month and they have tons of educational stuff. We were able to rent a couple of dvds on some of the ports of call we went to, and I just rented three dvds all about Alaska for our upcoming cruise. Be glad to answer any other questions.

[sandyneck]

By the way, are there any homeschoolers cruising on the Vision of the Seas August 26th?

[whale-watcher]

Anyone have any suggestions for educational shore excursions in Ocho Rios or Cozumel? Our kids will be 7, 12, and 15 when we take out Panama Canal cruise this winter. We plan to snorkel in Grand Caymen, and I'm sure we will have no problems finding great activites in Costa Rica or Panama. We were thinking of the Tulum ruins for Cozumel, but this sounds like quite a trek...

Thanks

[sandyneck]

If you are going to Grand Cayman I highly recommend going to Stingray City. It was awesome and my kids still talk about it. The stingrays are literally all over you. We went with Captain Marvins for considerably less than the ship tour. They also stop at one other place for snorkeling. I also started out thinking we would go to Tulum in Cozumel, but it just sounded like too much travel time and walking around time. We went to Xcaret which I also HIGHLY recommend. They have everything there, ruins, cave snorkeling, swim with the dolphins, snorkeling (had a sea turtle swim next to me!) animals (had a howler monkey two feet away from me) and lots more. You do have to take a ferry to the mainland then a bus, so that required some travel time. If you want to stay on Cozumel, we went to Chakanaab Park our last trip. It has swim with dolphins and snorkeling. It wasn't quite as "educational" as Xcaret but it was much cheaper and closer too. I love Cozumel. All the above mentioned places have websites so you can check it out and see if it is something you are intersted in. Independent tours are much cheaper than the ships, with the exception of Xcaret, which is quite pricey either way, so the convenience of the ship tour is nice.