[boatbaby]

Ok, so my 25 month old DS is wayyyyy into pirates. WAY WAY WAY.

And I am trying to feed off of that interest as much as possible in our everyday play.
But so many books/ toys/ facts about pirates that I could use to engage him also have guns/ swords/ canons etc.

We are VERY adament about no weapons for as long as we can help it.

How to I teach him about pirates and enagage play while avoiding the darker side?

I feel like we dig for treasure and hoist the anchor all day everyday. And I do everything around here in my pirate voice at his request, I am beginning to sound like Diane Rehm

Any other ideas?

 

[Calidris]

paper roll telescopes, climbing the mast, er, what's that thing they sit in on top of the mast? could you build one?
Can you maybe extend the pirate thing to explorers (exploring the jungle etc - of course then there are all the stolen land/subjugation of native peoples issues, but for now it could be all about jungles and animals

: )

 

[srain]

General sailing-related stuff
Dress-up in piratey stuff
Talking parrots

 

[~member~]

What the pp's mentioned and they pretend like one of them fell off the boat and they all work together to resuce them. "Ah Hoy! Matey overboard!" Then they pretend to throw ropes to them.

 

[CryPixie83]

treasure hunts with cool maps!

 

[mightymoo]

The wiggles have a character "Captain Feathersword" who carries a feather and tickles everyone. You may not want to get into the wiggles show, but they have some great songs about pirates since they have this character, my daughter loves their music. I liked their adaption of the sword into a feather.

 

[Calidris]

Oh yeah, Captain Feathersword is cool

 

[bobandjess99]

Get Playmobil, and remove the swords...the rest of the sets are pretty cool for imaginitive play

 

[akkimmie]

Captian Feathersword works well in our house and ds has never seen who he is

This is a great thread

:

 

[Fiestabeth]

My dd has always been into pirates, too!! And the weapons never came into our play until she was older, and we had a ton of fun. Every playground we went to from the time she was 3 until 6 was a pirate ship, and she would designate the areas of sea and land. I participated fully, and just grinned at the parents who gave me those looks.

Anyway, steering the ship was always a big deal. I was the first mate and had to follow all of the captain's directions. A lot of playgrounds have the big wheel that you can use. Searching for treasure was paramount as well, and seeking out new and exciting sea creatures kept her well entertained too. Taking the treasure back to the homeland and using some of it for charity and some of it for new fun stuff was fun, too.

ARGH!