Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Arrgh.

Maybe we’ll work on grammar today.

Ahoy There Matey! is a post from: Learning at Home

Just a reminder, Talk Like a Pirate Day is just around the corner, September 19. Plenty of time to start planning, if you start now.

Planning to raise your kids as pirates? Tim Bete offers his advice on Pirate Parenting.

Pirate Day Reminder is a post from: Learning at Home

Every year we do things a little bit differently. And even though we are not held strictly to a traditional school schedule, it just seems like the big changes always get a trial run in the fall.

This year, I have a new guidebook to serve as the basis for our curriculum, The Guide to Pirate Parenting. With Tim Bete’s book, we will certainly be sailing in uncharted homeschool territory.

If you choose to homeschool your children as pirates, your children can study vocabulary lessons (plundering vs. pillaging), health and hygiene (well, maybe not), geography (tips on where to maroon a disobedient child), science (how to remove an octopus from your child’s hair) and nutrition (hardtack and shark, yum!). For those interested in a more vocational approach, there is information on how to convert your minivan into a pirate schooner. Of course, if you do that, you will want to find an appropriate name for your ship.

I actually came across The Guide to Pirate Parenting when I found out about Talk Like a Pirate Day last year. (I should remind you that Talk Like a Pirate Day is just around the corner, on September 19. I know you don’t want to be caught unprepared for that one). I didn’t think of using the book as a homeschool resource until recently. My little boys are getting bigger, and you know, boys are interesting creatures.

There are ways to find out if your kids are, by nature, pirates. You can take the quiz here or you can sit down for dinner together and keep an eye open.

Bete provides some clues as to what to look for at the dinner table if it happens that you have pirates on your crew in your family. You might hear things like:

(10) “You can flog me, but I’m not eating creamed spinach.”

(9) “I’ve buried me treasure in the mashed potatoes.”

(8) “I’ll need another ration of grog if you expect me to eat these peas.”

(7) “Your tuna noodle casserole would be perfect to fill cracks in the deck.”

(6) “This chicken tastes like the parrot I was forced to eat after being marooned on an island for 30 days.”

(5) “I wouldn’t serve brussel sprouts to even the prisoners in the brig.”

(4) “If I eat all my food, can I plunder the neighbors before I go to bed?”

(3) “This burger is fatty enough to grease a mast.”

(2) “Too many vegetables—too little shark.”

(1) “What did they do with the last cook’s body after he was hung from the yardarm?”

If it turns out that you are harboring a pirate around your parts, Cap’n Billy and Tim Bete have some good advice for you. You could even work it into your homeschool routine.

I started thinking, though, maybe I could just save the effort and send them to public school for their socialization instead. I suspect the results would be about the same.

Homeschooling pirates is a post from: Learning at Home

I meant to post about homeschooling pirates yesterday, but just got too busy. That’ll have to wait til tomorrow I guess.

I posted earlier this week that my son has been accepted to Jump School. I’ll post more on the process of getting into the military after homeschooling over the weekend.

My boys–and their innate sense of adventure inspired my column this week.

Boys–strange and different creatures

My eldest son called recently to say that he had been accepted into Army jump school. Some time later this month, Edward will head off for the opportunity of a lifetime — the chance to learn how to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. For this news, he called his father. They have already had long talks about proper shirt-folding technique and the rigors of basic training. I am out of the loop when it comes to these conversations.

Ed was the child who used to shoot off model rockets in the front yard and fly remote-control airplanes. Those aerial pursuits weren’t enough, though. He set his sights on the Army.

Yes, the Army takes recruits who have been homeschooled. The process is a little different, but in the end, boot camp is boot camp. Or so I hear. Call your local recruiter for details.

A friend asked if I am worried about my son now that he wants to jump out of airplanes. It isn’t like this is the first time he has wanted to do something dangerous, I reminded her. Still, what mother doesn’t worry a little bit? I am content, though, that my son is doing what I raised him to do — he is pursuing his dreams. He would be miserable studying to wear a suit and sit behind a desk. He craves adventure and noise and movement, and he is getting a stiff dose of each.

Boys are strange and different creatures in my estimation. They take chances. They put things into the washer, via their pockets, that girls would not even think of picking up. Boys are creative in their own ways. My older boys used to build forts, turning the backyard into a child-sized shantytown. They used leftover building materials and scrounged up nails. Those forts were manly survivalist enclaves until their sisters moved in.

The girls brought carpet scraps and started hanging curtains. The boys moved out and tried to find places so uncivilized that the girls would leave them alone. They climbed trees and dug holes. It worked, to a degree.

My youngest son is showing a certain bent toward adventure, eagerly following in the footsteps of three older brothers. At 15 months, Atticus believes he can keep up with the big boys. A few days ago, I watched as he played in the tub. He thought it was great fun to stand on one foot, lean back so he was completely off balance and then stomp the other foot down to make a great splash. My son was completely disappointed in my skills as a mother when he realized I was removing him from the bath and further temptation.

He cried. He sobbed. He screamed and flailed. I held firm for a while but then decided to give him a second chance. Atticus was delighted. Of course, you know already that he went right back to balancing and splashing. I took him out again, this time for good. For that moment, it was in my power to keep him safe, and I vowed to do just that, even though it made him unhappy.

As we battled it out, I remembered that one day I must let go of this one, too. He may well want to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, or he may find something equally startling to the heart of a mother. I think Atticus sensed my thoughts because he calmed down, perhaps plotting to become an astronaut or run with the bulls in Pamplona one day.

He will probably call his father with the news.

On raising boys is a post from: Learning at Home

After learning about Ask a Stupid Question Day and Talk Like a Pirate Day, I had to keep searching for other special days to celebrate.

January 16 is officially National Nothing Day. Well, I’m not sure how official it is because making it official would mean someone had to do something. Then it wouldn’t really be nothing, would it?

If you are still with me after that little bit of nothing, you might like to know that National Nothing Day was thought up by Harold Pullman Coffin in 1973.

If you are particularly industrious on Nothing Day, you can send an e-card and there is even a lesson plan to use on Nothing Day, but that seems like it defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

Celebrate Nothing Day….Do Nothing is a post from: Learning at Home

Ahoy, Mateys! Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day, a fine day if ever there be!

So, what do homeschooling have to do with pirates, eh? Pirates love lesson planning as much as walkin’ the plank!

If ye be a parent, cast your anchor over at Pirate Parenting where Cap’n Billy reminds ye that tomorrow be Walk Like a Pirate Day.

“Ye can start Sept. 20 pretending you have a peg leg or that yer toe was bitten by a bilge rat. You could even put a live codfish down your pants, if ye want to walk like “Crazy Legs” Johnny Jibson, the first mate on me first ship. But “walking the pirate walk” means acting like a pirate in every way. “

If ye be wonderin’ what vittles ye might scrounge up for dinner, Cap’n Billy also suggests:

Prepare a typical pirate meal for yer family!
Here are some menu suggestions:
    • Salt Cod and Rice (heavy on the salt cod)

  • Rice and Salt Cod (light on the rice)

    • Salt Cod Medley (salt cod combined with chunks of salt cod)

    • Salt Cod and Salt Cod with Salt Cod in a Salt Cod sauce

    • Rum

Mmmmm……I guess that counts for the social studies for the day!

Ye can also find out if ye be raisin’ a pirate or a landlubber here.

If ye be needin’ a foreign language requirement, try the pirate talk translator. 

Or ye can sail over to this roundup of pirate lore.

Ye can also assign yer scurvy homeschoolers to read about the history of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

No homeschool day is complete without vocabulary lessons. For an explanation of The Five As (because there be 5 of ‘em), this video should explain all ye need to be knowin. Arghh!

Talk Like a Pirate Day is a post from: Learning at Home