Homeschool trip to L.A. – California History

My husband and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on Friday and to honour the milestone, we drove down to Los Angeles area to take the kids to Disneyland and to visit the La Brea tar pits.

My 5 year old daughter had never been to Disneyland, and my son was there last when he was 2 and we visited with his older cousins.

Logistics

We left the Bay Area on Thursday afternoon after finished our school work for the day and packed the car, so around 2 p.m. This got us south of the Bay Area before commuting traffic started and crossing across L.A. to Anaheim around 8:30 p.m, again avoiding much of the horrendous traffic.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn & Mini Suites literally right across the street from the park entrance. This was a great decision, because as many know, Disneyland is a day of a lot of walking and standing in lines. The hotel also had a free breakfast and a pool.

Visiting Disneyland

Every visit to Disneyland is different with kids, depending on how old they are. We opted to just spend one day at Disneyland, knowing in a few years, we will drive down again and have an entirely new experience. There is so much to do in just one park, it is impossible to do it all.

This visit, my daughter was very into meeting the characters. Apparently there is a character breakfast, which I didn’t know about. So we spent a lot of time like little paparazzi waiting for characters, but it was great to follow the kids’ leads. My husband and son went off and did some more things that my 8 year old wanted to do, including leaving a bit earlier to go back to the hotel and rest after a very loud, hot, busy day. Even though part of me wants to push my kids to squeeze every last minute out of those expensive ticket admission prices, the kids left the park that day happy and fulfilled. My husband is a really good dad and partner. He reminds me that the real value is in the positive memories, not proving that we can eke out 16 hours and ride every single ride 😂.

Part of our trip to Disneyland tied into our California history curriculum. Disneyland is part of California’s history, right? RIGHT.

Complimentary Books and Movies

In preparation, we listened to the Sherman Brothers music, composers at Disney for several decades. They wrote the music for so many movies we love – Mary Poppins, the Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Winnie the Pooh, as well as classic Disneyland tunes like It’s a Small World, and The Tikki Tikki Tikki Room.

Some other resources learning about the Sherman Brothers for older kids/teens are the documentary, The Boys:

The Sherman Brothers are characters in the movie, Saving Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks.

My son also read a biography of Walt Disney, and we read a couple picture books about building Disneyland.

Here are some lovely stories:

Pocketful of Colors by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville

This is a biography of Mary Blair, who was a colorist for Disney films and designed the aesthetic of the It’s a Small World ride. Sadly, this ride was closed for refurbishment when we were there, so we didn’t get a chance to ride it.

Who was Walt Disney by Whitney Stewart

Little Man of Disneyland by RH Disney

Bill Peet An Autobiography, by Bill Peet

Bill Peet was an animator at Disney for many years and he wrote in his autobiography of his experienced working on different movies at the studio.

In gearing up to go to the park, we watched many of the episodes of the Imagineering Story, a show that goes into the engineering behind building Disneyland. We also watched many YouTube videos of what the rides are like so that the kids weren’t scared to ride them.

I’m hardly a Disneyland savant – there are so many other blogs and channels from others who know all the tricks of visiting the parks, and I will definitely be checking out more of those before our next trip, and scheduling that character breakfast!!!

Visiting the La Brea Tar Pits

Saturday morning we checked out of our Disneyland hotel and drove across L.A. to visit the La Brea tar pits.

In our California history curriculum, we read about California in the ice age and the different animals that once roamed this landscape 40,000 years ago.

Parking was easy, though it cost $20. Here are the kids standing in front a bubbling pit of tar in the heart of Los Angeles.

The museum had a lot of hands-on activities for the kids. Lots of fossils they could touch, docents to answer questions, high quality animated videos explaining key concepts, and a very sticky bucket of tar to try to pull a rod out of. Spoiler alert, it was very difficult. I can see why so many animals died in those pits.

Want to learn more about California’s ice age? Here are some books and movies we liked:

What Was the Ice Age? by Nico Medina

Once Upon a Mastodon by Bonnie Worth

All About Strange Beasts of the Past – Roy Chapman Andrews (1st Chapter)

Keep in mind that All About Strange Beasts of the Past was published in 1956 and we have learned a lot more about the fossil record since then. I still include the first chapter, the Tragedy of the Tar Pits because it really set a scene and told an exciting story of what it must have been like to be one of the animals trapped in the tar, and how they might have gotten there.

And of course, for funsies, there is also always

We drove home on a Sunday morning to miss the traffic congestion (good idea!) and we were home by early Sunday afternoon to reset in time for another week of homeschooling ahead. There is so much in L.A. to do and learn to compliment our homeschool lessons, but they will have to wait for another weekend away!

What are your favourite things to do in the Los Angeles/ SoCal area with kids? What are your best Disneyland visiting tips and tricks? Do you have any favourite Disneyland bloggers? Would love to hear from you!

Warmly,

-Heather

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