Theme Days: Pirate Fun

“Hey, you guys!” It’s time for a pirate theme day, all centered around The Goonies. “Goonies never say die!” Remember Sloth and “Baaaaaaby Ruth” and the majestic One Eyed Willy pirate ship full of dazzling treasure? Those booby traps are so death-defying too! Sure, don’t get me wrong, during this movie I did have to raise my eyebrows at least a dozen times at the bad language, dead body, and reference to drugs and sexual torture and thought, “maybe I should have watched this first”...but hey, we watched it when we were kids, so it must be okay right? But really, once you get past all that, then it’s a true adventure - except for the intense french kissing, more bad language, and the violent abuse of a disabled adult child. Okay, but if you get past all that - you can have a pretty awesome Pirate Theme Day or weekend that brings back all the nostalgia for us 80’s kids. If your kids are younger, or you just don’t relate to 80’s nostalgia, maybe swap out The Goonies for Jake and the Neverland Pirates or Blackbeard’s Ghost - both Disney films and both probably much more appropriate.

Or, you can center it around the Magic Tree House Pirates Past Noon book or a Treasure Island book read-aloud. The Spouse read-aloud the entire children’s abridged version of Treasure Island on our pirate theme weekend before and after The Goonies film, and we watched the vintage Disney movie version too. It’s fun how Treasure Island sets up pirate folklore so well - with Davy Jones Locker, the parrot on the shoulder, treasure map X marks the spot, the black spot, and the wicked but loveable pirate, Long John Silver. You can throw in some books about Jack Sparrow pre-Black Pearl as well (there’s a kid book series) and watch those movies too (we watched the first one under the stars). 

Pirate Decor

You don’t need much, but get some decorations like chocolate coins, eye patches (maybe have them decorate their own for a fun craft!), pirate bandanas, and “Pirate’s Booty” for snacks. As a side note, I knew it was worth buying the pirate photo booth looks and decorations since I knew more pirate days would be in our future! But, what I really loved about our theme was our treasure hunt.

The Treasure Hunt

You need an empty beer or wine bottle, paper, and some kind of treasure. We also used a compass for some extra educational value. I made a map from watercolor paper by burning the edges (almost caught completely on fire so have a bowl of water nearby), and then I lightly brushed brown watercolor all over the paper. After letting it dry for about five minutes, I used a sharpie to make a map. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but it was so fun to have it match the look of The Goonies map. I found a cute little pirate poem about treasure and greed that I wrote on the map to fill up the empty space. I rolled it up, added the rubber band, slid it in the bottle, and hid it among some of our plants outside. We had our kids hunt around our property to find their treasure using a compass practicing some true life skills. X marks the spot! They got their chocolate coins (and some Mad Matter - their favorite!) and were ready to listen to some Treasure Island while they ate their booty. Yes, the hunt wasn’t as awesome as it could have been if I had planned more than 2 hours prior, and you can totally find great pirate treasure hunts on Etsy and Pinterest that are all poetic and creative. I just didn’t want to take the time to search and print all that in such a pinch and knew it would take only 10 minutes to make the map. 

Pirate History

There’s tons of pirate history YouTubes to choose from, and I literally searched for it in the moment, but if you pre-screen some options first, you could have a history focused educational moment before turning on The Goonies or whatever piratey movie you choose.

Sometimes I do just throw a theme together. When the Spouse says, “Let’s watch Goonies tonight!” I know I have just hours to pull it off - but I felt like Goonies was worthy of more than just a movie night. It was worthy of a little bit of learning, a little bit of adventure and discovery, and a lot of fun. And at the end of it all, we can say to our kids, just like Data’s dad, “You are my greatest invention.”