Toddler Fun, Week 24: Pirate Week! X Marks the Spot, Number 3, and Silver and Gold

Arrrgh, me hearties!

What little kid doesn't find pirate adventures to be tantalizing!?

I know our little boy, for one, is a big fan of pirates!

So, when I was having a hard time thinking of a theme for the letter X, I decided we would do a pirate week, with the emphasis on "X marks the spot"!

Week 24

Letter: X

Number: 3

Color: Silver and Gold

Theme: PIRATES!!!

Activities

1. St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum
A few weeks ago I contacted the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum.  I told them that I write a blog, and often feature local family-friendly activities, and asked if they would be willing to give me some free tickets.  To my delight, they wrote back, and said they would be happy to!  I was ticked pink when I received this in the mail:

With ARRR best regards!

So, we planned a super fun day for Aidan and his best little buddy! Technically, it happened at the end of the week, but since it was the highlight, I decided to show it first.  Here are some of the best moments:

 There were pirates everywhere!  It was every little boy's fantasy!  They had staff members working there who were dressed up as pirates, and every time they saw the boys, they gave them some treasure, which was an extra treat!

They had a VERY cool exhibit, where you could shoot off an actual cannon!  They had "match", that you held to the touch hole, and after a while it made a big booming sound.  It was great fun!  The boys were a little startled by the sound, but I figure that comes with the territory... it's a cannon!

 This is AMAZING!  This is an actual, original Jolly Roger.  The boys gave us their best "argh" faces!

 Here's one of the terrific tour guides/pirates.  They stayed wonderfully in character, and dueled the boys whenever they saw them.  Oh, and did I mention, that they gave them treasure each time?  The best!  Honestly, the staff were what made the experience magical!

 Another one of the coolest exhibits, was a bar of gold you could try to lift.  It was skinner, thinner and heavier than I'd imagined!

 Guys, this is the last pirate treasure chest in the world.  It was beautiful!  It's hard to see in this photo, but those are mermaids carved into the inside of the lid.  I didn't post a picture of it, but they did have a 400 year old chest, that they had strategically sticking out of a display, so visitors can touch it.  Of course, the littles were all over that!  You gotta love a museum you can touch things in!

 They had a room dedicated to Hollywood Pirates, which was also fun!  It was exciting to see genuine/original props from everyone's favorite pirate movies, like Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Goonies, Hook, and a few more.  There was also this great poster explaining some of the myths perpetuated by the book Treasure Island, such as X marks the spot, and burying treasure.  

We loved this pirate (Scott, I think?)!  He was so friendly with the boys, and really helped complete the experience.

 See what I mean?  Awesome!

Here are my tips:  
1. I loved the pirate activity map (that came with admission), but it's definitely for readers.  Our boys loved looking at them, and playing with them, though!
2. I loved how interactive everything was!  Also, the museum was just the right size to hold 2 three-year-olds' attention!

 3. The Black Beard Show was a little scary for our boys, and not quite what I expected.   Oddly though, the hanging, talking Black Beard head, didn't phase them at all, HAHA!!  Keep in mind, it is all pirate-y stuff, so there might be a spook factor.  Our boys honestly loved it all, though!
4. I would spend another day here any day!  This was a wonderful glimpse into the world of pirates, and every little boy's dream.

Thank you so much to the team at the St. Augustine Pirate Museum for the memorable, and magical day!  It will not be soon forgotten!

2. Key West Pirates

 If you've been following my blog, you'll know we were in Key West last week for a church service.  There is a lot of "pirate-y" stuff in Key West, including a cool-looking Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum.  We didn't go in, because I knew we were already going to a pirate museum in St. Augustine.  BUT it did look cool!  We saw these "pirates" around town, which of course we had to get pictures with!

So, we found some doubloons, as "pirate treasure", talked like a pirate and even saw this sailboat (which we decided was a pirate ship) off of Mallory Square that evening!











3.  Dramatic Play

I made Aidan this super cute pirate ship.  If you like it, you can find instructions for it here.  We played outside for HOURS!!  We also love his cute pirate hat and beard from HABA!  People often underestimate the power of play.  Kids figure out so much when they're engaged in dramatic play!  I love listening to his self-talk while he's using his imagination.  He comes up with such elaborate stories, they're the best!


4. Treasure Hunt

 While Aidan was napping, I drew him this pirate treasure map.  I numbered each stop.  1) his bedroom, 2) the dining room table, over which I threw a gray blanket, to make it a cave, 3) the front door, 4) the gate to the back yard - which to a toddler probably looks like mountains, 5) the shed (tiki hut), 6) palm tree, 7) sand box, with X marks the spot.

Then, I found some "treasure" (doubloons, necklaces, rings, glass bottle and a silver spoon), numbers for each station, and a "log" to mark off his treasure. 

And of course marked the sandbox with an "X".













We had a total ball!  Here are some pictures to show you all the fun we had.

     

5. Fine Motor Practice

 We practiced writing X-s... 

Cutting on the lines... 

















Tracing on the lines... (pirate week was perfect for this actually, we talked about how pirates have to stay on the line, too)

And counting!

Snacks

1. Fresh Coconut Water

While we were in Key West, we picked up some fresh coconuts!  Dan drilled two holes in them, and we drank away!  Aidan liked it, mostly because he said it's what Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) drinks from!  Oh, coconuts!!

2. Pirate Ship Sandwich

I cut a sandwich into a boat shape, as well as a rectangle for a flag.  Then I used pretzels to make the mast, then a slice of chicken lunch meat for the sail, cheese for the jolly roger, black olive slices for the portholes and clementine segments for the waves.





3. Jolly Roger  Breakfast

I made a slice of French toast, and cut it into the "skull" shape. Then, I cut some yummy strawberries in half, to use for the bandana, bananas for the bones, and chocolate syrup for the face.  The face could've turned out better, but I guess it makes it look more "pirate-y".





4. Treasure Map Tortilla

I just made a simple cheese tortilla, then used black olives for the track, a red pepper for the "X", and a spinach leaf for the tree.  It wasn't really Aidan's favorite, but it looked really cute! :)








5. Pirate Pete and his Parrot

For this lunch, I made a sandwich, then used apple slices for the bandana, olives for the nose, eye and mouth, spinach for the beard and eye patch, kiwi for the parrot, and candy eyes.  Yum!!

Crafts

1. X is for X marks the spot

For this letter craft, I cut out some green shapes for land, a blue river, a red X, and black rectangles for the trail.  Then, Aidan and I assembled it all, and there it is!

Books and Media

We Read:

1. Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman

This is a fun pirate book, and just cheeky enough for a little boy's imagination to run wild.  It's about a crew of pirates, who (duh) love underpants. They go on a mission to find golden ones, when they realize someone beat them to it...

2. Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long

Apparently, we're sticking with boy humor.  This is a sweet story about a young boy and his pirate friends, who end up babysitting his sister.  It's the sequel to How I Became a Pirate, but I couldn't find that one.  This one has lots of fun pirate words! :)

3. Eye Wonder : Pirates by Deborah Lock

This is a good book about the actual history of pirates, some myths about them (like, sadly X marks the spot, and walking the plank), the origin of the Jolly Roger, and some of the most notorious pirates!

4. Shiver Me Letters : A Pirate ABC by June Sobel

A fun, pirate-themed ABC book.  The letters are reinforced a couple places on each page, so that's nice!

5. St. Augustine A to Z by Susan Ship Calfee

This is a little-known book, by a local resident, so I love that!  Since I knew we would be going to the Pirate Museum in St. Augustine, I thought it would be a fun refresher.  D is for doubloon, so that made us very happy! :)

We Watched:

1. Jake and the Neverland Pirates - if you don't know this show, you probably haven't been around little kids lately.  In case you aren't familiar, it takes place in the world of Peter Pan, but it's not about him.  Jake, and his buddies the to stop Captain Hook from doing bad things, and spoiling their fun.  It used to be on Netflix, but sadly isn't anymore.  You can find a couple episodes on Disney Jr.

2. The Pirate Fairy - This full-length movie is part of the Tinkerbell franchise.  It's okay, and had pirates, and attempts to shed light on James Hook's early years some, so that's pretty cool.

3. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - this is the Silly Song with Larry, not the full-length feature.  I didn't really care for the latter, but the original song is HILARIOUS!  We've been singing it all week.

Toddler Fun, Week 23: Letter O, Number 2, Orange and Octopus

Who doesn't love an octopus!  They're super (SUPER) smart, have eight tentacles and three hearts.  So for the letter "O", we decided to learn about octopi.

Week 23

Letter: O

Number: 2

Color: Orange

Animal: Octopus

Activities

1. Aquarium

So, sadly Jacksonville doesn't have an aquarium, and isn't scheduled to get one until 2018. There is a new one in St. Augustine, but they are still in their "phase 1" soft opening, and are limited in their marine life.  So this meant I had to get creative.

One of our favorite restaurants in Jacksonville, is Salt Life Food Shack, and they have a salt water tank.  No octopi, but beautiful fish!  Aidan  really loved looking at all the beautiful colors!  We talked about how they were salt water fish, which means they live in the ocean.

There was a puffer fish, so we talked about how big they can get!  All the blue ones were "Dory", and the orange ones were "Nemo".  










2. Fine Motor

I found this octopus sheet, and printed it out.  Then I gave Aidan a bowl of cheerios, and showed him how each one went on a circle.  It kept him (mostly) busy while I made lunch, so that was a help!

Look at how well he's concentrating!













3. Writing with Chalk

 Aidan used chalk to draw "the world" outside on our back patio, so I had him write some O-s.  It didn't last long, but he drew a couple circles. :)

And then went back to drawing "the world".  So serious. :)












4. Ocean/Beach Day

 Even though we live only about 20 minutes from the beach, we don't go nearly enough.  So, we convinced Dan to take a day off, and met up with Aidan's best buddy at the beach!

They had fun in the water, building sand castles, jumping in  the tide pools, and we even saw some dolphins!

 We (quickly) talked about how octopi live in the ocean, and this is their habitat.

I tried to get him to write O-s in the sand, but that didn't last very long, haha!












5. O-s and Octopi everywhere

 We LOVE Bay & Bee!  They're a locally owned indoor play space.  We try to go about twice a week.  Their color schemes are relaxing, the toys are engaging, the kids and parents are nice, the ladies who work there are the best... AND lucky for us, a lot of their decor is ocean-themed.  So, when we got there one day this week, I told Aidan to go "spy" the animal on the wall that was our animal this week.  And... ta-da!!  He pointed out the letter "O", and then got excited, because he realized there was one on his shirt too!

This doesn't have anything to do with o-s, or octopi, just showcasing Bay & Bee. Oh, and my genius son's skyscrapers, haha!










6. Letter Tentacle Twister

 I drew red, blue, orange and green circles on a large piece of paper, then wrote our most recent letters in them.  We talked about how octopi can bend and move their tentacles in such an amazing way, and we can move our arms and legs like that too.

Then I would say, "put your hand on the red O", "put your foot on the orange V", etc.  He did pretty well!







7. Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

This past Sunday, we had a service in the Keys, so we took the opportunity to go to the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West.

 It's a little-known attraction is family-friendly, educational, and FREE!!!  (They do accept donations.)  It's not very big, but they pack it full!  (The center has free parking, which is a huge bonus, especially in Key West.  The different tour buses stop here too, which is nice!  Also, it's air conditioned, which is very comfortable, if you've been walking around all day.  They also have a replica of a NOAA Aquarius - an undersea science lab, and a 20 minute short film about the local sea life.)

 One of the main interactive exhibits is this topographical map.  There are buttons at the bottom, each of which has a different label, like: "coral reefs, shipwrecks, currents, bridges, etc."  When you push the button, little spots would light up, showing where they were.  Aidan loved it!

In one of the exhibits, we found an... OCTOPUS!!!

 They had a couple aquariums, one of which had this lionfish.  Did you know, that lionfish aren't indigenous to these waters, and they are malicious predators, and they are considered invasive.  The other fish don't know to be wary of them, and don't know how to avoid them, so their numbers are rapidly growing, and they are becoming a threat.

 This artist uses trash found in the ocean to make art, as well as bring awareness of how we're polluting our oceans in something called the Splash Trash Tour.  She had this interactive station, where there were little boxes with a question on the outside, like "How long does it take for styrofoam to decompose in the ocean?"  There was also a sample of whatever material was mentioned.  Then, when you opened it up, it would have the answer.  It takes 500 years to forever for styrofoam to decompose.

We stopped by the gift shop, and looked around.  We saw this ocean alphabet book, and lo and behold, O is for octopus!
All in all, it was a very fun, educational and discovery-filled hour!  I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Key West, especially those with small kids, as it can be hard to find things for preschool aged kids.

Snacks

1. Octopus String Cheese Snack

This tasty treat was a HUGE hit!  I used Cheerios for the sea bed, string cheese for the octopus, blueberries for bubbles, goldfish, and grape seaweed. 

2. Octopus Sandwich

For this lunch, I made Aidan's sandwich on a slider bun, added candy eyes and a strawberry mouth.  Then, I cut a bell pepper into the tentacles, and put tiny drops of hummus on them for the suckers (actual name).







3. Octopus Popsicle

I bought this popsicle mold at IKEA, and it's awesome!  I've been making smoothies for us lately, and this day I made a "Hank the octopus" one.  I used strawberries, clementine juice, frozen pineapples and peaches, carrots and honey.  It was a red/orange, which was perfect!  I stuck gummy worms in it, and stuck it in the freezer.  Be forewarned though, the gummy worms are REALLY hard to chew when frozen, Aidan nearly choked on one.  Also, this whole thing is SUPER messy!


4. Octo-dog

For this lunch, I cut the bottom 3/4 of a hot dog into 8 tentacles. Then, I cooked it in a pan, with the legs sticking out (making it look kind of like a pinwheel).  As it cooked, the tentacles started to curl.  After they cooked, I laid in on its side, to make sure the "head" got cooked too.  Then, I cut two strawberries to (kinda) look like a squid.  I added goldfish, and two carrot star fish.  Oh, and cheerios for sand.  And candy eyes - I'm telling you, those candy eye balls are the bomb!  They bring everything to life! 

Crafts

1. O is for Octopus

I helped Aidan write his name. :)  Then, I cut out an orange O, and 8 tentacles (by the way, it's hard to make octopus tentacles, vs jellyfish tentacles).  We glued them all on the back of the "O", flipped it around, stuck some eye balls one it, and there it is!  So cute!







2. Hank Craft

 I drew out a "Hank" head, then cut out white and blue semi circles for the eyes, and drew a "frowny" face.  I drew lines on another orange piece of construction paper, and helped Aidan cut on the lines.

 I wrapped the tentacles around a pencil, to make them "crinkly".  Then I helped him glue them to the back, and...

There it is!

Books and Media

We Read:

1. I Spy In The Ocean by Damon Burnard

This is a fun acronym book!  The letters spell out ocean, and lucky for us, O stands for octopus!  Aidan's grandma got this for him when he was little.  So much fun!





2. Finding Dory Little Golden Book 

A sweet book that retells the story of Finding Dory (longer description below).








3. An Octopus Is Amazing by Patricia Lauber

This was a great book we got from the library!  I've mentioned it before, but did you know, you can reserve books at your local library, even if they're not at your branch?  (If you have a library account) You can put a hold on them, they'll deliver them to your branch, you'll be notified when they're in, and you can go pick them up!  Isn't that amazing!?  Anyway, this is a fun read, and very educational about octopi.  Like, did you know, that once a female octopi lays its eggs, and takes care of them until they hatch... she dies?  Yeah, fun stuff!


4. My Octopus Arms by Keith Baker

Another library find, this is a fun book about all the things an octopus could (possibly) do with their arms.  Some of them are hypothetical (like baking), but octopi are so intelligent, they probably could!  At the end there's a sad octopus, and the big octopus shows that his arms can also squeeze and hug.  Aidan decided the little octopus was the baby, and the big octopus was the mommy.  But as we now know... that is not likely.  Lol.


5. Octopus's Garden by Ringo Starr

Alright guys, now how often does a Beatles song coincide with your theme for the week?!  So, the Beatles song Octopus's Garden, written and performed by Ringo (my personal favorite Beatle), has been illustrated by Ben Cort, and it's a delightful trip through through fantasy!  It actually comes with a CD, with the song on it, for a fun sing along!

We Watched:

1. Finding Dory - This is a new Disney gem, and if you haven't seen it, you're in luck!  As of writing this post, it is on Netflix!  It's the sweet story of Dory, a pacific blue tang, who was separated from her parents, and has short-term memory loss.  She ends up at the Marine Life Institute, where she befriends Hank, the... wait for it... octopus (actually, he's a septopus - he's missing a tentacle)!

2. Octonauts, Season 2 Episode 16 - Octonauts and the Mimic Octopus - (on Netflix, it's Season 2 Episode 10) - We're big fans of the Octonauts!  If you haven't seen it, it's a fun show about a group of animals who help ocean animals that are hurt or sick.  In this episode, we meet a mimic octopus who can make himself look like a bunch of different animals!

3. Octonauts, Season 1 Episode 12 - The Octonauts and the Monster Map - this episode unfortunately isn't on Netflix, but you can find it on youtube here!

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