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 13: Letter K, Number 3, Red and Kangaroos

Ah, kangaroos from Down Under.  The trademark pouch, crazy strong legs, and the very cool fact that they're from Australia.  On top of it all, they're one of the few animals who start with the letter "K".  So, here's our Kangaroo week.

Week 13

Letter: K

Number: 3

Color: Red

Animal: Kangaroo

Activities

1. Visiting the Jacksonville Zoo

If you've visited my blog before, you'll know we have memberships to the zoo.  It has been the best investment!  Cost-wise, after the first two visits we've been been going for free.  So, considering we visit at least once a month, it's been well worth it.  In addition, we've gotten discounted tickets for multiple other zoos and aquariums because of our membership.  (Like seeing these wallabies in Tampa.)  If there's a zoo near you that is part of the AZA, I don't think there's a better use for your money!

First of all, I think zoo maps are a terrific and FREE learning tool.  Aidan had fun finding whichever animal we were looking at, and then I'd help him figure out which way to go to the next.  Map reading is an important life-skill, you can't ever start too early.

I was a little disappointed, the zoo's website says they have kangaroos (the Australia loop is a little hidden, and we hadn't spent much time there), but when we got there, and asked where they were, they said their last kangaroo passed away a couple years ago of old age.

They did, however have wallabies, and as the zoo keeper said, they're basically little kangaroos.  So, we fudged a little, and told Aidan they were kangaroos, I don't think it'll hurt him in the long-run, haha!  It was a terrific day!

2. Bay & Bee

Another thing we like to do, is go to Bay & Bee.  It's a locally owned indoor play space, where we have a membership.  They have TONS of fun toys, one of the things they had out this week were these beautifully illustrated flashcards.  Of course, we were thrilled (as you can see) to find K is for kangaroo!






3. Counting Kangaroos

Aidan is really into everything being "mommy", "daddy" and "Aidan".  So, I figured kangaroos found a picture of a kangaroo family for us to count, and practice numbers. 









4. Coloring pages!

I found some cute kangaroo coloring pages here and here.  We "traced" kangaroo, and I tried to get Aidan to color the kangaroo red (like a red kangaroo), but my sweet, determined boy wanted it to be blue.  And the females are blue sometimes... so it works. :)


5. Australian Animal Movement Dice

I found this great Animal Movement Dice from Mothernatured.  It features 6 Australian animals.  I printed it out, put clear packing tape on it, to make it more durable, and then taped it together.  Then, he tossed it, and had to act how that animal would.  Hopping like a kangaroo, chomping like a crocodile, and climbing like a koala.


6. "Don't Lose The Baby" Letter Recognition

 I made Aidan a pouch out of a Tide pod container.  I painted it brown, drilled 4 holes in it, and put a "baby" in it.  I then wrote out some letters on the pavement.  Whenever I said the letter, he had to find it, and hop to it, without "losing the baby".  It was tons of fun!

It was great fun!  It combined the grow motor skills of jumping, while paying attention to the monkey in the pouch, and recognizing letters!

7. Arky, Arky Song

Remember that kids' song, "The Lord told Noah, there's gonna be a floody floody...?"  There's this 90's (?) video floating around the internet, which I was hoping would inspire Aidan to dance and sing, but he just watched in awe. :)

Snacks

1. Kangaroo Mango Snack

For this tasty treat, I used mango, candy eyes, fruit leather, and chocolate chips.  All yumminess!

Crafts

1. K is for Kangaroo

I cut out a K, then a tail, head, pocket and baby kangaroo.  He assembled it all, and voila!

Books and Media

We Read:

1. Dr. Seuss's ABC 

I love this alphabet book!  It's silly and goofy, and rhymes, and all the things a kids' alphabet book should do.

2. Yes We Can by Sam McBratney

This is a sweet book about 3 friends who learn that no one likes to be made fun of.  I think it's a great lesson for kids to learn, especially as they start navigating friendships.

3. It's Lovely When You Smile by Sam McBratney

Although Aidan is usually a sweet and happy go lucky little boy, of course he does get grumpy, and this is a great book to help kids deal with those feelings.

We Watched:

1. Wild Kratts, Season 1 Episode 19: Kickin' It With The Roos - Of course, as you know, we're Wild Kratts fans around here, and I was thrilled that there was a kangaroo episode.

2. Blinky Bill - This 90's Australian cartoon was one of the only English cartoons we could get growing up, and I was so glad I remembered it!  The main character is a koala, but one of his friends/sidekicks is a kangaroo, so it works. :)  He and his Down Under forest friends have adventures, and help each other out.

3. The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That, Season 1 Episode 15: Jump - This episode is about animals that jump, one which is kangaroos, of course.

So, that wraps up our kangaroo week!  Next week of course we'll talk about turkeys!!!  Happy Thanksgiving, all!

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