If you are thinking about taking your child out of school to go to Disney, READ THIS FIRST!
When planning our last Disney trip, I knew for a fact that I was taking the kids out of school to go. Our last trip was at the end of May, and it wasn’t miserable but it was busy enough that I knew we’d NEVER go at a peak time when school is out. So we chose the last week of September. I figured it gave the kids time to get settled into their new class with their new teacher but no major testing would be going on. We also wanted to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. If you’re curious, our kids are in Kindergarten, 2nd and 4th.
So I thought, If I’m going to take them out of school for a week, I want to do something educational for them. I want to show the school that they did learn something new that week and it was a valuable trip for them. I ran across some travel journals for purchase on different websites and thought, I could make that! I sat down one day and make an entry for each day of our trip and printed for each kid. It included what park we were going to, and they had to answer different questions about things they did that day. How was the weather? Did you try something new? Did you learn something new? At night on our vacation they’d take a few minutes while settling down to answer their questions. Not only did it become a great travel journal to show the school we were learning on vacation, it also became a valuable keepsake! We even added pictures from each day once we got home as a little lagniappe!
Gabe’s Animal Kingdom Entry
(Plus a note from his Principal, she put notes for him throughout journal as she read!)
Hannah’s Hollywood Studios Entry
Harper’s Magic Kingdom Entry
So the end result? We sent the travel journals with them to school along with my handwritten excuse. I had never taken my kids out of school for a vacation so I was not sure at all what to expect. All 3 kids received notes on their folders from their teachers saying how much they enjoyed reading them. Hannah (2nd grader) got to stand in front of her class and show it off, telling them all about our trip (right up that diva’s alley). Harper (Kindergarten) is very shy and wouldn’t tell her class about it lol, but she stood next to her teacher while she showed it off to the class! Their reports made their way to the principal who called me. He told me he thought they were great and he is truly happy the kids had such a wonderful trip. He also said that he could not excuse their absence but would allow them to make up any & all missed work. (Works for me!) My son Gabe is in the 4th grade at a different school, he attends a magnet STEM program. He got to show off his report as well and we received a note back from his principal with how much she enjoyed it. AND she excused his absence! While we were gone, Gabe missed a book report in one of his classes. His teacher did not have him make it up, instead she gave him an A for his travel journal in its place!
All in all, I felt like the travel journals were a GREAT idea and a fun keepsake for the kids. Some of their answers are already hilarious, I can’t wait for them to read them as adults one day! This was very easy to make in Microsoft Word. I simply typed it out by what day we were doing what, printed & put into folders. I used my vinyl machine to decorate the front. Anyone interested in a free download of the file??? Here ya go!
If you’re interested in hearing more this trip and how we got our airplane tickets, park tickets, and 7 nights at The Polynesian for under $300 out of pocket, read this article here I wrote on going to Disney on the cheap! Thanks for stopping by!
