As you know we've been reading the Magic Tree House series. The fourth book is Pirates Past Noon. Babycake did not want to finish the book once we were about half way. She did not like how mean the pirates were to Jack and Annie. She has such a gental heart she can't handle the pirates that would be considered "light" in conparison to most any other chapter book with pirates. I love her so much.
Anyway, Babycake was past pirates before we were done, but I managed to convince her to finish the book, that Jack and Annie would make it home safe, and once we were done we could move on the the next story. So I didn't put too much effort into coming up with crafts and activities for this theme.
Babycake has been facinated with maps for over a year now, so she did enjoy learning that pirates use maps to find treasure. We made our own maps of the backyard and pretended to hunt for treasures like wild strawberries, pinecones, and acorns. We also made a little treasure chest by painting a strawberry container. Then I drew some amazing pictures of places around our house and hid them around the house. I gave her the first picture leading her to a location where she would find the nect picture clue. Once she found all the places she would discover the treasure chest with either a snack inside, or one of her toys. Buddyboy has a stacking tower that looks like a telescope so Babycake also had fun playing with that while "sailing" in a large delivery box we had gotten earlier that week.
Though Babycake did not enjoy Pirates Past Noon, nor was she really that interested in the Fact Tracker Magic Tree House companion book, she did enjoy all the other pirate books we read. These were much more tame stories that make pirates seem friendly. I've included images of some of her favorites. I have nothing against fun and friendly stories about pirates, but I think it was a bit disapointing for her to read these stories after having learned that pirates were/are not nice, that they are thieves who steal people's belongings, or even kidnap people.
Babycake has been facinated with maps for over a year now, so she did enjoy learning that pirates use maps to find treasure. We made our own maps of the backyard and pretended to hunt for treasures like wild strawberries, pinecones, and acorns. We also made a little treasure chest by painting a strawberry container. Then I drew some amazing pictures of places around our house and hid them around the house. I gave her the first picture leading her to a location where she would find the nect picture clue. Once she found all the places she would discover the treasure chest with either a snack inside, or one of her toys. Buddyboy has a stacking tower that looks like a telescope so Babycake also had fun playing with that while "sailing" in a large delivery box we had gotten earlier that week.
Though Babycake did not enjoy Pirates Past Noon, nor was she really that interested in the Fact Tracker Magic Tree House companion book, she did enjoy all the other pirate books we read. These were much more tame stories that make pirates seem friendly. I've included images of some of her favorites. I have nothing against fun and friendly stories about pirates, but I think it was a bit disapointing for her to read these stories after having learned that pirates were/are not nice, that they are thieves who steal people's belongings, or even kidnap people.
Although I think it's important that Babycake learn the truth about all things, I want to protect her gental heart and keep her innocent as long as possible. Having always worked with children I knew there was a balance to this task, however I guess I didn't realize this tricky balance would be expanding so quickly.
