It’s now Tuesday, and we are back with Dawn at 5 Kids and a Dog. Our “E” for the day is Environment.
Now, I’m not talking environment, as in recycle everything you use to protect the Earth. I’m talking about the ideal environment that encourages (another good “E”) learning. We learned early on in our homeschooling walk that what was a learning environment for my husband or I was not necessarily a good learning environment for our kids.
I’ve mentioned many times that both of our kids learn well when Disney is thrown into our learning environment. Just the other day, DS8 remarked that our new cat rubbing against his leg was communicating by tactile communication. Thank you to The Science of Disney Imagineering – Animal Adaptations: Communication which both kids watched some time ago.
Long ago, we discovered another subject that fascinates DS8. Trains. It can be Thomas, Chugginton, or any other train. He LOVES trains. So, I discovered that our somewhat nearby railway station was supposed to have their steam engine running for short trips, not just on National Train Day, but on Mother’s Day, as well. Since Don had to work, I decided to take the kids to ride the steam engine. The night before, I read that tours would be given through the train maintenance shop, too.
We got up early and headed over to the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, AZ for a day full of train fun and learning. We got to ride behind a restored 1920s steam engine in restored 1920s coaches. We were able to tour through the maintenance shop. This was a true highlight for all three of us. We were able to tour through the cab of a diesel engine, a restored parlor car, and caboose. They had a gentleman in a parked steam engine teaching about the different mechanisms that controlled the driving of it. The difference between the diesel and steam engines was startling. There were several model railroaders there with their trains set up and running. One gentleman had a model railroad set up to demonstrate how much work it takes for engineers to arrange the order of freight cars. DS8 got to attempt to move the freight cars back and forth through the switches from one line to another (4 tracks across) to try to get them in just the right order. I have to tell you that we all have a new respect for those engineers.
We will now take what we saw and learned to bring more train oriented learning to DS8’s environment. DD11 LOVES history, so this trip was right up her learning environment, as well. What do you use to expand on your child’s ideal learning environment?
That sounds like so much fun! My boys got to take a luncheon train tour with my inlaws last summer and they just loved it. Trains are interesting and I enjoys traveling by train. It sounds like a day your kids won’t soon forget!
No, they won’t forget it! Trains have always been big with them. I’m glad that your boys had the opportunity to take a train trip because it seems so many kids don’t get that opportunity any more!
What a wonderful field trip. I am a very visual person, but have kids that don’t learn that way. I constantly have to make a compromise between the kids learning style and mine.
Finding out what works for both the parent and the children together is so hard! We still struggle with this, and we are on our 6th year of homeschooling.
Oh yes! My 7 year old is to be train maniac, still is to some extent. He learned to read through Thomas’ books. Providing the right environment is surely important.
It’s wonderful that there are so many different topics of books available to help us find just that one subject that helps our kids learn to read! We have used Thomas and Disney books to help build that interest in reading.
That sounds like an awesome field trip! The train photo is really good!
It was lots of fun!