Monthly Archives: March 2020

Creating a Virtual Disney World at Home

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Buddy and I love Disney World. We love to watch YouTube videos of rides and planning our next trip. I saw a couple different families post about doing a virtual trip at their home while Disney World is closed. And since I am looking for new things to keep Buddy entertained at home, I decided to make a Disney World of my own.

*Disclaimer – This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I decided to do all four parks in four different rooms of my house. The signs for every park included an image to scan the magic band and fingerprint to enter. Then I had three different rides/activities for each park. I went through all of Buddy’s toys to find things to set up things to enhance the ride atmosphere. I looked for different ways to add movement while Buddy watched the rides on You Tube. Here are the things we did at each park.

Character Breakfast: I found some Disney characters and set them up for breakfast. I pulled out our Mickey Waffle maker as well, although Buddy opted to have his normal Saturday breakfast of mini muffins instead.

Epcot: Buddy is super excited to go on Soarin. I put his Mickey airplane toy by our power recliner couch. We watched the ride on TV, and I made the recliner go up and down to simulate flight. I set up a bunch of underwater creatures to be the Nemo ride. And we watched the Gran Fiesta Tour on his little arm chair.

Animal Kingdom: I hid Buddy’s little zoo animals around the room, and we used some pretend binoculars to find them. Buddy pretended to drive the jeep, and we walked around the room and looked for the animals. Then he bounced on an ottoman while we watched the Dinosaur ride. And we also searched for dinosaur bones in black beans in the Boneyard.

Hollywood Studios: I set up a bunch of Toy Story toys to be Toy Story Land. I got an empty toy water gun and set up my laptop with a desk chair for Toy Story Mania. Every time the ride turned, I spun the desk chair around. Then we did Slinky Dog Dash on an exercise ball. And then we did Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway with Buddy in a laundry basket, and I pushed him around.

Magic Kingdom: I set up Buddy’s Around the World Duplo set to be It’s a Small World, and then I pushed him around on a desk chair. We went into his rocket tent with a flashlight to do Buzz Lightyear’s Ranger Spin, and he tried to shoot the targets on the video with his flashlight. And then we did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with Buddy in a laundry basket.

Our final activity was lunch at the T-Rex cafe. I put a bunch of dinosaurs on and around the dining room table. This area was also part of Dinoland USA in terms of the decorating in our house, even though the real T-Rex cafe is at Disney Springs. I used a dinosaur sandwich cookie cutter for his sandwich and he drank out of the refillable cup we got at the real T-Rex cafe. This was Buddy’s favorite part of Disney World, and the only part of the experience that wasn’t taken down by the end of the day.

I’m attaching my printable in case anyone else is inspired to create a Disney World at their own home. Do you have any other fun activities to do with a four year old at home? Please share your ideas in the comments section.

Disney-World-SignsDownload

COVID Homeschool Preschool Schedule

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Thousands of schools across the country have switched to e-learning this week, to help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. And many parents, like me, are having to find ways to work at home while caring for their child. It’s a huge transition for my whole family, and I knew it was important for Buddy and I to have a schedule for our day.

I made this schedule and am sharing it in case it is useful to you and your family. I included pictures since Buddy can’t read to help him understand the different parts to our day. Hopefully having a visual schedule will help Buddy understand when I can play and when I’ll be busy. I have included the word file below so you can adapt it for your family’s needs.

For our reading and learning time in the morning, I am planning to read a book and do a related activity. I have a koala crate subscription, and we already have some books and projects available. Also, I am planning to use some of the books we already own along with these virtual field trips. (Links to trip ideas here and here.) I am hoping to work with Buddy to make a report of our activities to share with my husband at the end of the day. I’m sure we will also revisit some of our Time to Read Tuesday activities from summers in the past.

In the afternoon, I plan to pull out play doh, kinetic sand, our bean or rice sensory bins, do an art project, or bake. Some of my favorite sensory play activities can be found here.

I hope this is helpful to anyone else who will be home with their kids during the next few weeks. If you have any other resources to share, please share in the comments.

Homeschool-Daily-Schedule WordDownload
Homeschool Daily Schedule PDFDownload

Airplane Activities for a Four Year Old

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Airplane Activities for a Four Year Old

My family flies a lot because my husband works for an airline. And he was working abroad last summer, so Buddy and I flew together a couple times to see him. It was our first experience flying just the two of us, and overall, we both had a good time.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Before our first flight, I had purchased this Wildkin rolling suitcase for Buddy. Since we were traveling by ourselves, I needed him to pull his own toys. Buddy loved this suitcase and was happy to pull it. It fit underneath the seat, and it holds a lot! I highly recommend it.

Because our trip consisted of two long flights followed by a week in a hotel room, I wanted to bring a variety of activities. I put together a few busy bags, some games, some books, and some small toys for Buddy. Some of these were things we had, and I got some new things for the trip too. Here are the things we brought with us.

Toys

Books

Other Items

  • Kindle and headphones
  • Empty waterbottle – we always fill after we go through security and before we get on the plane
  • Snacks – fruit snacks, Ritz bits, and animal crackers are Buddy’s current favorites. I usually throw in a couple suckers too.
  • Bag of clothespin, popsicle sticks, and pipecleaners- This kept Buddy busy for awhile. See picture below.
  • Post it notes and pen – I’m not sure why Buddy is more interested in writing with a pen than a marker or crayon, but he is.

I found all of these items to be very helpful in entertaining Buddy on the flight and at the hotel. Although Buddy was content to watch his Kindle for long periods of time, it was nice to have other things to keep him busy when we were ready for a screen time break.