The Rundown – Week in Review – The Disney Edition

Don’t mind us — we’ve just been hanging out at the happiest place on earth all week and, my stars, we’ve been going non-stop soaking in all of this happiness.  To make things even better, we’ve even been able to learn quite a bit along the way.  Not bad, huh?

The Rundown - Homeschool Week in Review - Week 13

This is our first time visiting Disney World.  It’s also the first vacation we’ve taken in years.  In fact, Prissy had just turned one when we last escaped as a family.  Some time away was overdue, for sure!  You can imagine how floored I was to learn that Hubby had something this big up his sleeves.  He had this trip in the works for nearly a year and didn’t let me in on any of the Disney World planning until September.  I still can’t believe he was able to keep it to himself for that long.

We’re having a wonderful time and I’ve got hundreds of pictures to show for it.  What better way to put them to use than by sharing some of them here?  Here’s a look at our trip thus far:

Family Fun

We’ve spent our days at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Disney Springs this week. We’ve done lots of exploring, lots of riding, lots of laughing, and lots of eating.  My gosh, lots of eating.  The food here is ridiculously good!

The Rundown - Week in Review - Disney Edition

It comes with the territory here, but we’ve had quite a few celebrity encounters this week!  Prissy has especially loved this part of the trip and it’s been so sweet to see The Boy being sincerely happy to indulge her in all of this.

For the record, her time with Elsa was probably the only time in her life she’s been speechless.  She literally said nothing to Elsa.  She looked up in amazement and smiled the whole time.  :)

The Rundown - Homeschool Week in Review - Week 13

Funschooling at Disney

When I learned we were heading to Disney World, I was tempted to break out my lesson planner and start researching how I could work this trip into our homeschool plans.  After all, any trip can be educational.   After some thought, I resisted and opted to just call this an off week.  We’re year-round homeschoolers anyway so a week off in November can certainly be afforded!

The Rundown - Week in Review - Homeschool at Disney

It turns out that there’s a lot more to Disney World than character sightings and rides.  Those are great and we’ve loved every minute of the “just for fun” aspects, but there’s lots to learn here, too!  Even though none of it was planned in advance, the “funschooling” happened anyway!

The Rundown - Week in Review - Homeschooling at Epcot's Living with the Land

Maybe that’s why Epcot is my favorite Disney Park.  I’m floored by the things happening there!  Our two days spent at Epcot have been full of sciences, history, and geography.

There’s plenty to talk about when it comes to Epcot, but I still can’t get over Living with the Land.  The boat ride takes you through Disney’s living laboratory and focuses on the relationship between people and earth.  The coolest part to me was checking out the greenhouses.  We got to check out Disney’s efforts in vertical growing techniques, fish farming, and aeroponics.   An added bonus is that some of the harvested plants are used in Disney restaurants.  How cool is that?

The Rundown - Week in Review - Homeschooling at Epcot

The Seas with Nemo and Friends seemed like it would be a great option for Prissy since she’s a younger rider.  We had no clue what else was waiting for us there!  We got to get up close and personal with some amazingly beautiful sea life there.

The Rundown - Week in Review - Homeschooling with Epcot's World Showcase

We knew to expect good things from Epcot’s World Showcase and we certainly felt like we had been around the world when we finished.  Our time at Epcot took us through Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Japan, Ireland, Morocco, Australia, China, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Italy, and even the United States.  By simply exploring Epcot’s offerings, we experienced more international culture, food, and geography than I could’ve ever planned in one week.

The Rundown - Week in Review- Week 13 Disney Edition

The funschooling carried over to our time at Animal Kingdom.  Our safari ride gave us a chance to see giraffes, elephants, rhinos, zebras, and a whole slew of African animals I never knew existed.  Our safari guide was incredibly knowledgeable and made it a great experience!

We loved our time in Africa, too!  The music was hopping, the atmosphere was lively, and Prissy and The Boy even got to open the market place for the day.  What fun!

The Rundown - Week in Review - Homeschooling at Disney's Magic Kingdom

Our first day at Magic Kingdom was spent chasing princesses for the most part, but we were able to sneak in some American history.  The Hall of Presidents showcased our story as a nation and highlighted many of the great leaders who have brought us to where we are today.

We’ve still got more time to spend at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios before we head home, but I really won’t be surprised at all find even more funschooling waiting for us there!

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We’ll be home next week and will be happy to slow things down a bit.  Between recuperating from the trip and getting ready for family to visit for Thanksgiving, we’ll be busy enough!

All in all, it’s been a wonderful, but busy week for us…. I hope yours has been just as good!

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Happy to be linking up with Homegrown Learners for Collage Friday and Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for Weekly Wrap-up.

Weekly Wrap-Up