DisneyDrivenLife | The Angel Forever

Category Archives DisneyDrivenLife

Catch Me There – Mickey Mouse and Schools Collide

Posted on December 6, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

What, you ask, is controversial about Mickey Mouse and education? I know many of you are telling yourself that there is so much that Disney, Mickey Mouse, and the rest of the gang can teach your children. You do not have to sell me on that. As NDM183, I write about the world of education in The Disney Driven Life. I have used Disney within my past classroom, with my own children, and beyond.

I have been on a bit of a hiatus with my post on The Disney Driven Life. Then, I had an idea for a topic. Always on the minds of parents is whether or not it is “ok” to take a child out of school for a vacation. Being an educator who once thought a certain way, and now a parent that has slightly altered her theory – this seemed like a great topic to pick up.

What I did not expect was the controversy to hit so quickly. When I posted a question to my teacher friends on Facebook, it got heated quickly. Parents of children came in to defend their views. People talked about what they did as children and now as parents. It made me wonder if I should continue on.

In the end, this heated commenting sparked an idea. My almost finished post morphed before my eyes. It quickly became at least a three post series.

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: The Mickey Mouse Over School Dilemma – Part 1 is all about how the need to talk about this topic came to fruition. Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

Categories:
Disney DisneyDrivenLife Educational EduMICKation looking back My Other Projects photos school

100 Days of School Projects – Catch Me There

Posted on September 18, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It may only be September, but before you know it your children may be coming home with a 100th Day of School project. Did you have to do one as a child? You probably didn’t since they have not been celebrating this day very long.

Of course, my oldest has experienced this for a few years now. When he was in kindergarten we made a cool Googly Eye banner. This was something we came up with while exploring a craft store for ideas. The next year we had to come up with a project idea while at Disney World. The result was this:

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: 100 Days of School Projects with Disney Memories is all about how we came up with this idea while on our trip. I share other ideas that we considered and ask people to let me know what other possibilities with Disney they can think of.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

What 100th Day of school projects have you done with your children? I would love to know and think it would be great to share with others. Please share in the comments below and if you have written posts about them, feel free to leave a link as well.

Categories:
Disney DisneyDrivenLife My Other Projects photos school

Getting to Know You Back-to-School – Catch Me There

Posted on September 6, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This morning I will be taking my oldest son to his first day of third grade (photos coming later). My heart is hopeful for an amazing year. I think every parent wishes this for their children. Of course, no parent expects the worst and we experienced that last year. I did not write about it much because it was not needed. Bullying, bad classroom management, inexperienced administrators, bullying, and not following doctor notes just some of the issues.

Today, I will be putting on a brave face as I take NHL to school. He is excited to be in his new school and has already met his teacher. She asked to meet him this summer when she heard some of the events from last year. Yes, a teacher going above and beyond to ease a child’s fears. It made my summer to know this professional was thinking about my child.

As a teacher, I understood the need to get to know my students and use parents to help me with this. The more information you have the better things can get for the entire classroom family. Reality check here, it was SO much easier on the reverse side teaching the kids.

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: Getting to Know You – Back-to-School is all about ways that teachers and families can get to know each other. I share what I did when teaching and the latest craze in back-to-school teacher gifts.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

How do you help your child during this hectic back-to-school time when fears may be high?

Categories:
DisneyDrivenLife looking back My Other Projects nhl school

Cutting and Pasting Practice – Catch Me There

Posted on August 21, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As a teacher, you would think that I would know when kids need to learn to cut and paste. Well, you would be wrong. I have now been caught off guard with both of my kids. Thanks to this, we spent time this summer practicing and working on cutting and pasting skills. To help make this more fun, I tied in Disney. Shocked, aren’t you?!

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: Cutting and Pasting Practice with Disney is all about the project that we did and more ideas you can try. It really is amazing how much time kids will spend cutting and pasting when they have items that they love in front of them.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

So what other ideas do you have for cutting and pasting practice with younger kids?

Do not forget that even older children need to work on these skills since they do not use scissors as often as younger kids may in school and when crafting.

Categories:
arts and crafts Disney DisneyDrivenLife Educational EduMICKation My Other Projects photos

Art Education Meets Disney – Catch Me There

Posted on August 7, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

When you bring a child to an event where they need to be creative, you never know what may inspire them. Case in point was when the boys and I went to our local library for a Story Tower event run by the Tang Museum. I wrote about the actual program here on my blog in a post titled When Art Meets Library.

I hinted that NHL was inspired by Disney’s Animal Kingdom when it was his time to make a story tower. I expanded on this for my most recent Education post for The Disney Driven Life titled When Disney Collides with Art Education. NHL showed me that he learned a great deal during our trips to Disney. He knew about different animals, their habitats, and where they were within the types of vegetation. I loved how he mimicked this knowledge by creating his own animal kingdom complete with Fast Pass. To read more about this, please stop by and read the rest of the story.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

Have your children ever used things from your travels at times you least expected? Please be sure to share in the comments below.