Disneyland-Inspired Mouse Books Unit

With a Disneyland getaway coming next year, we are exploring Disneyland-inspired books and activities to get us excited, reading, and learning!

I've done similar units with Aidyn when he was 3, again when he was around 7. Now, with Jack and Natalie in tow, we're diving in to an enchanted, magical, and fun learning adventure.

Here's what we did this week. Since it all started with a mouse, we began with mouse books, tailored for preschool age and middle school age. Take a look at what we read!

*Note* The following unit is very light and gentle because 1) I believe in gentle learning at the preschool age, 2) It's officially summer time so Aidyn isn't required to do any in-depth schooling, and 3) I am in my third trimester and simply don't have the energy/mobility to do all the things I'd like to.

Preschool Books:

Jack and Natalie loved these mouse-centric books, especially Mouse Mess and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. 

Middle School Book:

Aidyn read through Redwall independently. After each chapter, he wrote a 1-2 sentence summary of the story. We discussed it together throughout and when he finished we critiqued it. Out of a scale of 1-10, he rated Redwall a 100!  


Inspired Activities:

Frederick by Leo Lionni led to a fun collage activity. Lionni is known for his collage-style illustrations, so I cute out some simple images of mice, rocks, sticks, and plant life for the littles to play with.
 

 
 They constructed trees and nature scenery, but soon Jack discovered that some of the leaves looked more like alligators, so he pretended his alligators were eating all the other shapes!

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Matthew's Dream by Leo Lionni immediately inspired Jack to paint. Unfortunately, Natalie had already gone to bed, so Jack had a solo paint session.

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Mouse Mess inspired some fun discussion about Jack and Natalie's penchant for mess-making, especially with food! This became a book we read over and over (I think because they identified so much with the messy mouse!)

Music:

This week we filled the house with classic Disney songs, just to get into the mood. Jack and Natalie especially love The Three Little Pigs song and reenacting the whole story of the wolf attempting to blow down the pigs' homes.

  

In Other Happenings:

Jack and Natalie both love reading books, with or without me! They're both super active, playful, and curious. Best buds, they often take off together to jump in the trampoline, play with their water table, cook in their pretend kitchen, share their love for dinosaurs, and cuddle together.


Aidyn has grown into a sophisticated learner. He reads well and comprehends more difficult books, but his first love is gaming and creating YouTube videos. I am excited to see what is around the corner for him in junior high and high school.

 

Long-Overdue UPDATE!

I started this little blog almost ten years ago.

It was meant to be a journal of sorts for our homeschooling journey, starting when Aidyn was only three years old.

And now, hard as it is to believe, he is twelve years old and now has a little brother and sister (and soon a second sister!) who has joined him on his learning adventures.

It can be a hectic life, but it's filled with love, learning, and constant growing.

For the past nine years, we have mostly homeschooled in a relaxed, classical and literature-based way. We have read through many of the great books, rousing adventures, solid classics, and books of fantasy and imagination.

Aidyn's brother, Jack, already expresses eagerness to "do school" like his brother. He enjoys painting, drawing, writing, and being read to. He claims his favorite book is The One and Only Ivan though I haven't read it to him yet; he just likes carrying the massive book around with him.

Aidyn's sister, Natalie, is a full-on explorer extraordinaire! She is constantly making messes, dumping water, touching things she shouldn't, and knocking over objects all in effort to understand and explore her world. She is insatiably curious and employs an impressive range of vocabulary.

We also have a baby girl, Ember, due in just a few weeks.

I am beyond excited to see how they all continue to learn and grow together. Now that Jack is expressing more of an interest to tag along with his brother, I'm going to start him on a fun learning adventure, harking back to when Aidyn was only four and we explored the same topics.

We have a Disneyland trip planned for next year, and I want to take them all on a Disneyland-inspired learning journey over the course of this year. Of course, it will be gentle, fun, and exploratory (no boxed curricula or forced table time or worksheets here!).

We will be using the many lands of the Disneyland Resort to inspire our learning adventure. When in Adventureland, we will read books about the jungle and savanna, exotic animals, and tropical fruit. When in New Orleans Square, we will read about pirates and their plunders, ghosts and spooky mansions, and explore the creole culture of Louisiana.

Now that Aidyn is an independent and strong reader, he can enjoy many of the classic works that inspired these stories and lands.

I am going to do my best to continue my little blog-journal, so we can record all of our children's educational journey. It is heartwarming to be able to reach back and read what Aidyn was doing so many years ago and how much he has grown.