Pirate Islands

Tommorrow (Sept. 19th) is international ‘Talk like a Pirate‘ day; and I’ll be playing pirates… yarrr! But the game of Pirate Islands is not for the house-proud, or for children who cannot be coerced into clearing up after. You have been warned.

You will need:
cushions and tea-towels
shoes removed
pirate costumes or toilet-rolls (microwave for 30 secs. for an illusion of hygiene)
for the 7 ups: paper, old tea-bags and black felt pens

Kids love turning the house upside down, as it gives them some illusion of control over their own world. Pirate Islands gives them this chance. Strew your cushions about the floor to make bigger and smaller islands, add some small towel atolls, dress up as pirates with a paper eyepatch and toilet-roll telescopes. Get in there with the kiddywinks yourself to hide treasure, sail imaginary boats, meet monkeys (soft toys make good monkeys, particularly when they’re not actually simians).

With slightly older ones, and after the wilder kind of play has abated, have some time dabbing paper with old, wet, cool teabags to make parchment. And whilst it is still damp to the touch draw out your own personal seven-seas where an X marks the spot. It is possible, with some misdirection along the lines of, “we need a lookout in the crowsnest”, to sneakly sneak a tiny treasure into the location. Bigger kids are great, they’ll resist following the map they’ve made, as they think theirs no real treasure… so you and any little ones get to see the look of incredulity on their mugs when you dig it up.

Come next spring I think I’m going to take this one step beyond by letting the grass in our little garden grow and then selectively mowing out a pirates cove. Though I may have to ban real spades.

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, 8up, pirates