Thread: Are their educational opportunities for your kids while Cruising.

OK, Its a question to which I already know the answer. YES!

Here are a few things I have done with my kids to make sure that they are getting more out of their cruise experience than just a vacation.

1. Before You Go: Research papers on the history and culture of the area that you will be visiting. This will make the sight and places that they are seeing so much more meaningful to the kids when they visit. My son was thrilled to to visit the Cook Monument in Kelekakua Bay because of all the research he had done on it. DD was thrilled to find Doll in the Different Mexican state costumes because she had researched the state costume, history and meaning.

2. Bring an Atlas!!! We brought an atlas and had different crew members sign it and circle their home town. The kids would ask the crew memebers about the typical food, customs and traditions in their home country.

3. Proper ettiquette - Kids can practice their best behavior and manners and home and then put them to use on the cruise ship.

4. Good Decision making - Do you want to go to the kids club tonight or join us to see the production show in the theatre.

5. Social Skills - Again the kids can practice the good manners when meeting new people at home and then put them to use on the ship.

6. Seeing places outside the US - When kids see how others live out side the US they tend to appreciate what they have more.



So let me know what other learning opportunities that their might be for kids while cruising.

Don't have any children.

But it certainly is apparent that your children will learn a lot on your cruises!!!

Excellent ideas.

One experience that Princess cruises has for kids (unless there's only a small number onboard): there are activities held in conjunction with the California Science Center. Some are directly oriented toward an itinerary, such as making a model of a glacier in Alaska. A very popular activity is squid dissection.

Well...as a kid, I learned to dance with dowagers, to mix a perfect cocktail, to sneak in line at the midnight buffet and eat just the caviar and shrimp, and to sneak into R rated movies that they used to show on the Italian Lines ships

....but perhaps that isn't the education you meant, Suzanne....

Andrew

Originally Posted by blazerboy

Well...as a kid, I learned to dance with dowagers, to mix a perfect cocktail, to sneak in line at the midnight buffet and eat just the caviar and shrimp, and to sneak into R rated movies that they used to show on the Italian Lines ships

....but perhaps that isn't the education you meant, Suzanne....

Andrew

Ah, but did you learn to double down?

Suzanne you made excellent points. Since it is now after midnight I don't think my brain wants to function to the level to add more to what you already made great strides on.

As a kid I didn't cruise but we did travel a lot. I know there is so much I learned that I wouldn't have if not for my parents taking us with them.

We took one trip down Baja California to see the giant cactus. There had been a murder and the federalies (sp?) held us at gun point for hours. There is a lot more to the story but that is a memory that will always stick out in my mind.

We were able to see cultures that I wouldn't have realized existed as they do. You learn history but without seeing it it is a lot harder to recognize.

I have taken my daughter on two cruises. I like the ideas you have of studying the countries in more detail before we take her again. I think it would do us a lot of good also. There is always more for all of us to learn.

What really made it interesting were the two reports that my kids did on Mexico.

I our spring dance recital our dance director planned a "Mexican Fashion Show". In that number the dancers wore costumes from different states. Thats what inspired my daughter to reasearch the costumes for each of the states, and it made it so much more fun when we were in the gift shop to be able to identify each costumes right away. It really made shopping for the dolls a lot more meaningful to her. When we were in Mazatlan we went to a very nice gift shop that had a whole row of Mexican "Barbies" but we coulds see right away that they didn't have Sinoloa. The guy that owned the shop had another shop down the street and he was able to go down street and get the Sinaloa doll from the other shop. The doll was just what we were looking for. I suppose that if we hadn't done the costume research we just might have bought the doll that she liked the most in each port, but having a doll in the state costume is so much more meaningfull to her. When were were in a little gift shop in Acapulco we recognized a doll in the corner as "Colima" right away. That was two ports away, but since were having such a hard time finding the Guerro doll at that time, we decided to get "Colima" right there and not wait till Manzanillo.

For my son, his reasearch on the Aztecs included their calendar, art, religion and history. When we saw the Papantla flyers, though not truly Aztec, he remembered seeing a drawing of a huge ceremony during Aztec times that include some thing simiar to the Papantla flyers ritual. He too had that since of recognition when he saw representations of Pre-Columbian art work in the gift shops.

Our next cruise is to Alaska, and it is interesting that last years project on Captain Cook has already introduced us to Alaska. I think that I'll have to find some more books on Explorers for my son, and maybe some books on Native Alaskans for my daughter. Maybe we'll end up looking for Dolls in the dress of different Alaskan Natives??? I actually think that would be pretty cool.

Originally Posted by blazerboy

Well...as a kid, I learned to dance with dowagers, to mix a perfect cocktail, to sneak in line at the midnight buffet and eat just the caviar and shrimp, and to sneak into R rated movies that they used to show on the Italian Lines ships

....but perhaps that isn't the education you meant, Suzanne....

Andrew

This is what I call well educated gentleman

Of course, if we had gone on a cruise this winter break, my daughter would have been working on a book report, a report on the Ventura mission, and 15 pages from her Math workbook during any free time. Ah, fourth grade is so much fun.