Ahoy Matey! – International Talk Like a Pirate Day Activities

Ahoy mateys! Looking for a way to make an ordinary Sunday special with your family? Well, you are in luck; Sunday, September 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! No matter what age your kids are, you can capitalize on this day to make some fun memories with your family. Here are some ideas how: 

Create a Pirate Themed Sensory Bin

Use brown kinetic or sensory sand as a base for the bin. You can use cheerios as a base for a taste-safe option. Throw in some gold coins, jewels (use with caution: could be a choking hazard depending on your child’s age), scoops and bowls, and maybe some pirate figurines or a boat. My son separated the gold coins (aka doubloons) and jewels into different bowls, and then we counted them. Here are the materials I used.

Learn Pirate Words

 Have fun learning and practicing pirate-talk together! We practiced using the word doubloons and the phrases aye matey and pirate booty. As we walked through Target looking for the materials for our sensory bin, the whole time my son (almost 2 years old) was giving everyone a good laugh and smile because he was saying “doubloons!” on repeat. One lady chuckled when he stopped in the middle of an aisle and pointed at the ground, and said, “doubloons down there?”. Here is a list of other pirate words you can learn together and use during this day. 

Go on a Treasure Hunt 

Set up a treasure hunt inside or outside your house! Create a treasure map of the area with a big X over wherever you hid the treasure. You can make it as simple as follow the map to find the treasure, or you can make it a multistep process with clues they have to find that will ultimately lead them to the treasure. The treasure could be a pirate book you rented from the library, the pirate-themed sensory bin you create, or some yummy snacks! We tried out Pirate Booty cheddar blast puffs as a snack after our sensory bin.

Read pirate books

There are so many fun books out there that you can read about pirates. So head to your local library or hop on Amazon and get some! Some titles you can look for are: Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting, Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map by James Dean and Kimberly Dean, and Pirate Pups (Paw Patrol) by Golden Books and Fabrizio Petrossi. 

No matter what you chose to do to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day, use this day to make lasting memories with your family. Be silly, have fun, and hopefully no one ends up having to walk the plank!