PWN Learning Adventures

Let's be real dinning room tables are notorious for becoming cluttered. And when you are a house full of chronic conditions it can become a disaster zone!

The dreaded dinner table, aka "catch all."

However, sometimes we pull out all the Toobs at once. We had so much fun learning where all kinds of animals live and still have more to go! 🌏

#homelearning #preschool #geography #biology #animals #playtolearn #learnthroughplay #structuredplay #lovesafari #safaritoobs #safariltd #worldlearning #worldmap #learnathome

We have just begun our journey as a homeschooling family, however we have practice unschooling since the day Little Learner was born.

We always assumed we would use the public school system, though we didn't fully agree with everything they offered or the politics. But we at least had to give it a shot before giving it the big red ❌. Right?!

Wednesday morning we surprised our little learner with a quick, three day trip to California and Disneyland.

Wednesday:

We caught a public bus, which we rode to the light-rail station, where we rode the train to the airport. When we got to the airport we made our way through security and to our gate. There we watched the airplanes and other machines at work. We brought along a couple of airplane/airport books. The first was a favorite of ours and the other was new to us surprise. We used the books to identify the airplanes and machinery we saw working hard. We talked about their different jobs and importance.

We then boarded the flight and watched the world grow smaller as we took off and gained altitude. While we were cruising we would look out the window at the mountains and clouds below us. During our decent we learned about ear pressure and the pain that comes along with that. We also learned how to pop our ears and relieve the pressure.

After landing we stayed in our seats while waiting for the rest of the plane to unboard. Little Learner practiced his fine motor and reverse engineering skills by latching and unlatching the lap belts. He also studied the latch, watching and asking about how it works.

We enjoyed a short trip to the beach after checking into our hotel. We threw sand into the waves and drew shapes in the sand and watched the waves wash the marks away. We watched the surfers and the fishers. It was a much different experience than our cold, Oregon beaches.

That evening we experienced homesickness and talked about that. We learned to cope and sit with those sad feelings.

Thursday:

The next day we enjoyed the happiest place on Earth. We had a lot of fun at Disneyland, and learned all kinds of things. Who says Disneyland can’t be an educational trip too!

LL had the time of his life. We went down splash mountain (twice!). The first time we sat in the back, during which he kept saying he wanted to be in the drivers seat. Our second time around he sat proudly in the front seat with a smile on his face and arms in the air.

One of our many topics of interest are “things that go” so that greatly influenced our ride choices. We enjoyed the jungle cruise, learning about the Amazon and Nile rivers, a recently discovery we have been asking about. We rode both the Mark Twain steamboat and the exploration ship Columbia.We journeyed down into the ocean depths on a submarine, a favorite we did twice as well. Being an ocean lover, LL was glued to the porthole the entire ride. We rode after the sun went down, which was awesome and and felt like a more realistic experience in the dark waters. LL loved seeing the coral reefs, moray eels, recognizing the twilight and midnight zones. He got to see the East Australian Current, which we have been preparing lessons to start learning about currents in the coming months.

We also enjoyed a ride on the steam train, the monorail, and child-driven cars. While we have enjoyed a steam engine ride before the monorail was a new experience. We learned why they are called monorails and how they work. We also got to sit passenger as our 3.5 year old took the wheel. Thankfully he told us the next day “I am not old enough to drive real cars”.

Friday:

Our plan was to leave Friday evening. We decided to head towards the beach and take a whale watching tour before heading to LAX. While we were waiting we chatted with some of the staff, who were so knowledgeable.

The boat was cold (thank-goodness we brought layers!) and the rocking was perfect for falling asleep. Thankfully once we found dolphins LL was bright eyed again. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales, however we did enjoy seeing hundred of common dolphins and sea lions. The crew was extremely kind and enjoyed talking with LL about whales. They shared resources with us so we can research even more about whales. We learned about new ocean careers, including photography and whale rescuing.