How to Homeschool with Disney

Originally posted Spring 2020

Since Covid ruined our real vacation plans, we had a Disney staycation last week. I’ve already posted about all of the amazing meals and theme nights we had, (see here) but we also had a week full of Disney activities for our homeschooling! (Some links are affiliate links and I may receive compensation if you make a purchase. Thank you for supporting my family!)

The world of Disney gives us a wealth of literary, art, history, science and math homeschooling activities. Of course I consulted Pinterest for some inspiration and there ain’t a whole lot out there. One of the only Pins I found was from Thesparrowshome.com. She had some great ideas to get me started.

Below are some of the ideas I used from The Sparrow’s Home as well as some of my own!

Best Selling Educational Supplies on Amazon

Art

Mary Blair

Have you ever heard of Mary Blair? I hadn’t before last week! She is the designer of It’s a Small World and was involved in several other Walt Disney movie productions. There is a wonderful children’s book, A Pocket full of Colors- The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo, Jacqueline Tourville and Brigette Barrager. We found this read aloud on You Tube:

We then watched a You Tube video of It’s a Small World (be sure to be caffeinated ahead of time). I asked the kids to pay attention to the colors and shapes they saw in the ride. This is also a great way to double dip into some social studies and point out the different cultures represented on the ride. Afterward I used this worksheet and asked the kids to choose colors they thought Mary Blair would use. M was into it, the other two lost interest at this point.

Drawing Class

Disney actually has drawing classes with real Disney animators available online. We found this one rather fast to keep up with but if you slow it down or pause it a lot it would be great for the 9 and up club.

For M (just shy of 2 years old) I found another drawing sheet with his beloved “Hot Dog”.

Kids Preferred Mickey Mouse and Friends Store on Amazon

Music

There are countless ways to incorporate music into your Disney homeschooling theme.

• Listen to The Voices of Liberty from Epcot
• Learn about leitmotif with Star Wars and this fantastic lesson from musicinourhomeschool.com
• Watch the Disney Family Singalong on Disney+
• Watch the Dapper Dans perform their barbershop quartet
• Learn about the different instruments in the Disney marching band

Given that most Disney movies are musicals and a great deal of the rides have theme songs, the possibilities of learning about music really is endless.

Social Studies

Have you heard of Epcot? A lot of people aren’t huge fans but it is probably my favorite park (I just haven’t been able to fully commit to this decision). Half of the park is literally called The World Showcase and features 11 different countries including the U.S. A cultural & geographical education bonanza. Just ignore the fact that they’ve included Frozen in the Norway area…

Mexico

We chose to do a further study on Mexico since we do a Spanish lesson each week. We discussed the Aztecs and talked about mosaics (Disney really lends itself to art). I cut out a bunch of squares from construction paper and let M glue them down to create his own “mosaic”.

The older kids got to make piñatas instead. I found these great kits on Amazon. Updated September 2023- these are no longer available on Amazon, but here is a link to a listing on Ebay or just some mini pinatas on Amazon.

Each kit comes with three small, fillable piñatas, instructions (my kids presently ignored these) and plenty of pre-cut tissue paper. You will need your own glue and scissors to trim the tissue paper.

You will also need your own string (we used yarn) to hang it, while you are assembling be sure not to glue over the plastic hanging loop that is included.

Other ways to study Mexico via Epcot:

• Mariachi
• Authentic Mexican food- See the menu from San Angel Inn Here
• Discuss the Mayan pyramids

Obviously there is so much more to Mexican heritage and history than the items listed here. Hopefully this gives you a little inspiration!

History

Also in Epcot (I told you I like that park), is the American Adventure animatronic show. It goes over the history of America. L & E pretended they hated watching this, but a lot of questions arose. My favorite thing is when E asks a question and L is able to answer it!

The Magic Kingdom also has another animatronic show, The Hall of Presidents, in Liberty Square. Liberty Square is an area representing colonial America. The historical details here are worth looking up! Based on this area alone you could teach about
-The Liberty Bell
-The 13 original colonies
-Laws of the day (like going into the stocks!)

Literature

This list is not exhaustive, but here is a small sampling of the Disney related literature you can study!

• The Swiss Family Robinson
• Tom Sawyer/The works of Mark Twain
• Peter Pan
• Mary Poppins
• Winnie the Pooh
• Alice in Wonderland
• Fairytales- my kids were horrified to learn the of the Grimm version of Cinderella!

Stay tuned for my next post where I will cover math & science homeschooling activities for Disney!

Planning a trip to Disney World? Be sure to read these posts!

• Resources for planning your Disney World vacation
• When should you visit Disney World?