Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie’s Pet Salon collects over two hours of episodes focusing on the pets of the Clubhouse pals. In the title episode the friends help Minnie get everyone prepared for the pet show. Of all the various kids programming we’ve enjoyed, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has remained a favorite the longest. Our little dude seems to notice different things when he watches now than when he did when he was younger and what really surprises me is that he is much more apt to interact with the show – answer back to a character’s question now at age 6 than he ever did at age 3 or 4. While he is less interested in the Hot Dog Dance than he was when he was a toddler he still enjoys copying whatever dance Mickey and friends are up to the latest episode.
I love the way Mickey Mouse Clubhouse reinforces various lessons he is learning in Kindergarten as part of their story solution. Just by chance we had checked a Frozen themed easy reader “Big Snowman, Little Snowman” from the library this week. The story’s vocabulary focused on opposites including big / small, happy / sad, etc. Then during Minnie’s Pet Salon I noticed quite a few opposites were featured – up / down, front / behind, fast / slow. So I wrote them out so we could add them to our growing reader vocabulary. Our little dude wants to be an independent reader immediately so I’m doing my best to slow it down a bit and keep it manageable so he doesn’t get frustrated. I’m hoping that gathering new words onto cards will help him see tangible evidence of his efforts in reading even though he won’t know them all immediately (which is what he wants).
In Donald’s Ducks (a Season 2 episode) the friends are helping a group of 8 ducks make their way to the lake as part of winter migration. This episode features some basic subtraction when a few ducks go missing along with a fun segment of animal sounds as the friends try to find a missing duck by listening for his quack. The episode’s theme song offers a take on Old MacDonald while singing about Donald and his ducks.
Other early learning skills featured in these episodes include pattern sequencing in Pluto Lends a Paw (Season 3 episode) along with basic measuring and sorting in Daisy Seeks a Pet (Season 2 episode). I appreciated that Mickey demonstrated both equilateral and right angled triangles when sorting.
More often an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a great way to sneak a few uninterrupted moments in the day, but I also have found actively watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse together gives me opportunities to support or introduce early learning skills.
