Aaaarrr, Mateys! Today Be the day!

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day again!! We have always enjoyed this day to the fullest, with my kids adjusting their own Texas drawl to sound more like Captain Hook.

Interestingly, when I look back and think of how we used to celebrate most things, it always centered around food and TV! Isn't that funny? But we always found some television show to be representative of whatever we were learning about or exploring. So we latched on to Talk Like a Pirate Day and ran with it!

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Our house has been full of eyepatches and fake hooks for years now. And even tonight, Katie's pulled together a costume and is heading downtown with a friend to celebrate!

But my favorite was when my 3 kids acted and sang the Veggie Tales song: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.  We were living in Wichita Falls, Texas, and surrounded by homeschoolers who ONLY let their children watch Veggie Tales movies. That clearly wasn't my kids' experience. But when they saw this particular Veggie Tales song, they claimed it as their personal theme song! We laughed so hard at it. Three pirates sing in this video, and each of my 3 kids learned their part.  Michael and Katie were used to performing and loved it - but Alyssa was a little more shy. So they gave her lines like, "You look like Cap'n Crunch" and "Hey, look, I found a quarter!" I know I have a video in the garage somewhere of them singing this - I should get out there to find it! In the meantime, think of Michael, Katie and Alyssa as you watch this video.

Movie Options

Our video library had several pirate options, so maybe you can find one on Netflix or at the RedBox:

Pirates of the Caribbean - any one of the series would do. Although I don't think I'd try learn Pirate talk from Jack Sparrow. Ha!! Still, any excuse for a Johnny Depp movie works for me.  Hector Barbossa, on the other hand, that's a great pirate voice to emulate!

Hook - with Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as Captain James T. Hook. Lots of fun - great costumes!

The Goonies - of course you can't forget this one.

Treasure Island - if you haven't read the book, the 1950's version might be interesting to watch. Or if you have younger kids, The Muppet Treasure Island might be more your speed!

Blackbeard has several versions.  And there's a great restaurant on South Padre Island called Blackbeard's - THE best onion rings in the world. In case you're down there, it's lots of fun! But I digress - I TOLD you though - food & movies are my thing! (and, evidently, exclamation marks!!!)

Mutiny on the Bounty - you can't go wrong with that one! Especially if you want an old black and white movie.


Master and Commander is a great movie. A little intense at times, but I think it's one of Ron and Michael's all time favorites.

The Pirates of Penzance was always a favorite at our house too!
Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball might be fun to watch today!

Captain Ron - a very quirky movie with Kurt Russell. We loved this movie for a variety of reasons, probably mainly because of the name.


And as I was looking up the links for the movies we have and love, I found a link to The Complete List of Every Pirate Movie Ever Made! How about that?

Pirate Songs

The International Talk Like A Pirate Day website has a huge collection of famous and obscure Pirate songs. Lots of links and downloads are available at their song collection page.

But here are our personal favorites:

A Pirate Looks at Forty by Jimmy Buffet (we love all thing Buffet - Parrotheads, we are!)

We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - a fun You Tube version

A Pirate's Life for Me - Disney 

Hoist the Colors - from the Pirates of the Caribbean, kind of creepy, but very pirate-like (movie clip)

I Am the Pirate King - Pirates of Penzance

15 Men and a Bottle of Rum - yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! (You know this one)

The Jolly Roger - I just found this one, could be cool to learn.

I'm sure there are so many more songs! Share them here if any spring to mind!

Internet Slang

But if you want to share our shortened versions of Pirate lingo:

• SMT - Shiver me timbers!
• R - Aaaarrr (easily confused with "r" for "are")
• AVH - Avast, me hearties
• BDTH - Batten Down the Hatches!
• LL - Landlubber
• SOBE - Son of a Biscuit Eater

And, if you want to stay current on All Things Pirate - you can join the Talk Like a Pirate Facebook Page. That way, each year, you'll be reminded of the fun!

Society Crushes Budding Scientists

The video is only 1:39 minutes but it's worth a quick watch.  Science doesn't have to be a rote memorization experience - and it shouldn't be!

Dr. Michio Kaku reminds us that we have to PROTECT our children's creativity and curiosity and wonder about the science that is around us all the time!

Motivation

I'm fascinated by what motivates people... in the workplace, in the home, everywhere! This video talks about the human desire for self-motivation, and how creativity and innovation really only comes with autonomy.  This video can be applied in lots of different areas.

Check it out!

I'm adding a label Sue's Video Collection, so I (and you, if you're interested) can easily find these great videos that I run across out on the internet, Facebook, etc. They seem to vanish on me, and then I'm left wondering where it was, who shared it, or the specifics of the video. So, hopefully this will help!

Stick With It!

I found this a while back and shared it on Facebook. But, as people probably already realize and I'm just a little late to figuring this out, Facebook stuff scrolls away and then it's much harder to find again.  So I'm going to share it here. That way, I can find it again when I want to share it with someone.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

 I like this little 2-minute video from Ira Glass, who many will know from This American Life.  This video really applies to any skill that needs to be honed, or creative endeavor that needs time to grow - not just storytelling or writing. 

And here's the longer version of this, more of just an interview with him:

For Some People, It's Just Natural

I pondered my options for the June Unschooling Blog Carnival submission. I could share a tribute to my dad, something I wrote last Fall called Holding Onto the Side of the Pool.

Or I could share the photo montage that the kids did for Ron last Father's Day. It was really sweet and if you want to take a little visual walk down memory lane with us, I'd love to snag this opportunity to share it again! So here you go:

But I didn't really feel like that was what I wanted to share. Sure, Ron's a good parent - he's involved, he listens to them (sometimes), he has helped, driven, chaperoned. Heck, once he even agreed to be in one of Katie's plays since he was waiting for her during every rehearsal - probably sleeping in the back row of the theatre. But they needed a Mr. Slugworth in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, so he took a deep breath and stepped up onto the stage.

Double Piggy Back Rides

Instead, what I really think is remarkable about him is that he is The Quintessential Unschooler. He just loves to learn. It's what he does. And when he decides to learn something, it's full immersion.  Sometimes the kids' interests or opportunities sparked his interest, or his sometimes sparked something in them.

Ron & Michael

When I was busy reading about unschooling and how to raise children, Ron was simply... living. Playing with the kids. Exploring whatever was around.  I followed him around the house, reading snippets from various books. I even bought him Gatto's Dumbing Us Down and Guterson's Family Matters. He read a little and said, "Yeah, well we all know this about schools. Um, we were there." Then he put down the book. He felt no need to have any battle cry go up about the injustices of institutionalized learning. A simple, "Bring'em home," was what I got after a long list of why I thought it would be a good idea to try homeschooling after Michael finished 1st grade.

I continued to connect on the internet, reading and learning about this new world we were stepping into. But all the while, he was simply connecting with our kids on topics that interested them. It was just the natural thing to do. And once they were home so much more, he had a lot more opportunities. More reading, more game playing - more adventures out in the community and out in the world!

Ron & Katie hiking in North Carolina

Never too young to hike Enchanted Rock!

Typical evening...or anytime

Ron's not the kind of dad who just sits around with the remote control and waits for someone to bring him a beer.  His TV watching is deliberate - the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Sons of Anarchy, and his John Wayne & Clint Eastwood video collection. But even with those, he's Skyping with Michael in Nicaragua to talk about Martin Brodeur's latest goal save, or he's playing the Movie Line Game with Katie or Alyssa as they pass through the room. I'm sure you know it... you pick a line from a movie and say it, then the other person has to guess which movie it was. For a while, we had quite an extensive movie watching period, so they could come from anywhere: Monty Python, Three Amigos, Beetlejuice, The Blues Brothers, Jeremiah Johnson.... just to name a few. It used to drive my mother crazy when she'd come to visit. They could spend an entire dinner playing that game! She wanted them to have "meaningful" conversations. I just smiled because I knew the connection that was happening between them was the real goal.

Backyard Hockey with Katie & Michae

When we lived in Alaska, where our homeschooling started, Ron took up hockey. He always enjoyed watching the sport, but he was born and raised in Mesquite, Texas. Not a lot of hockey there. So even though he was 20 years older than most of the guys playing, at 44, he signed up for a little boot camp, and figured it out. He started going to pick-up games, the kids tagging along to watch. Next thing you know, they're all signing up for hockey teams, we're trekking across the state to tournaments,  and even building an ice rink in our back yard!

Dry Ice Experiments turned into Mad Science!

Next stop would be California. Sadly, the ice rinks weren't nearly that important to Californians, so it was time to shift gears. Alyssa and Michael were really interested in horses, so Ron took them to find a stable that offered lessons. He picked the brains of the ranchers and horse owners every chance he got.  The kids were always with him out there, so they watched and listened and learned. He helped Alyssa figure out how to drag feed through the stalls to give to each horse. He bartered for horse leasing, and agreed to help build a giant riding arena. So he and Michael climbed ladders, measured and sawed for weeks until it was finished.  All three learned so much there. 

Michael learning to ride Gilly

Once when they were out riding horses together, they found a little injured barn owl.  He showed 

them how to wrap it up in a towel and get it to the local raptor center. A few weeks later he was taking them out to see it be released back into the wild.

Learning to sail with Katie & Alyssa - Folsom Lake

Ron was always interested in sailing, so while we were still in California, he bought a little Venture 22 sailboat. He and Michael worked and worked on it. All three kids learned to sail at Folsom Lake.  So when the homeschool group in Davis needed chaperones for a sailing charter through the San Francisco Bay, he was the natural choice to step in. Ron, Michael and Katie all sailed on the Gas
 Light, a 50 foot Schooner - what a trip!

Helping Alyssa pet a Bat Ray (Monterey Bay Aquarium)

His interest in history took them to Angel Island for a group overnight trip. His love of science led to a Halloween party full of dry ice experiments.  His fondness for the outdoors took them on mountain hikes, snow cave adventures, camping trips, and beach excursions.

I could list one adventure after another that Ron experienced with each of the kids. But that might take a little longer than a typical blog post. Suffice it to say that Ron did not stand on the sidelines. He was a hands-on, involved dad. Not because someone told him it's good to do that, but simply because it was the natural thing for him to do. The kids were curious - about everything - and so was he. So when opportunities presented themselves, he was right there with them - guiding, listening, and stepping up to "give it a try."

Learning is simply a part of life for him.
For Ron, unschooling the kids was just a natural extension of that.

Just a cute picture of Ron & Michael (1991 Welcome Home)

The Beauty of Math

Protect Your Creativity

We start out with an abundance of creativity, but over time, it seems to fade.  Many of us recognize now that there are actually forces at work against creativity: peer pressure, schools, competitive society, marketing.  And then the more children are exposed to these destructive mediocre-creating ways, the more our creativity is squashed. Without protection, little by little it would be gone.  One of our jobs, as mothers, is to hold the space for our children's creativity to grow and blossom into whatever it needs to be.

Preserving our creativity is vital - it's the basis of all innovation, progress, and growth. That's why, as unschoolers, we found developing creativity to be more important than learning the times tables. Calculators can do that. But inventing or creatively problem-solving? That can only come if your creativity has been nurtured.



I want to share a few really good articles on the subject that I found out on the web:

Why People Secretly Fear Creative Ideas by Jeremy Dean
Jeremy writes the PsyBlog and contends that there are some very human traits that also work against our creative selves. He doesn't say this, but I think it's easy for us to simply blame school for squashing kids' creativity. And, while I think that it does, Jeremy's piece helps us understand that while we might say we want to promote creativity, our actions often show otherwise. Understanding that we have to overcome our bias against that uncomfortable-ness that comes with doing something new. You might see yourself or  others in some of the descriptions he gives. This will help you with conveying the right message to your children, to others, and even to yourself.

How to Become a Creative Genius by Kim Roach
Kim gives six tips for expanding creativity. Keeping a journal on hand to capture those fleeting ideas, imagining conversations, increasing your reading, mind-mapping, to name a few.

How to Instantly Boost Your Creativity and Happiness by Sandra Martini
Sandra encourages us to take 15 minutes to examine what's blocking our personal joy these days. You might be surprised how that can affect your creativity. I found this article on the Creativity for Life, which has a lot of articles to poke around and read.

AHA! Great Moments in Creativity by Mitchell Ditkoff
 Mitchell shares stories of Rene Descartes, founder of the Scientific Method; Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine; Richard Wagner and Wolfgang Mozart, exceptional composers; Rudyard Kipling, famous writer;  Tchaikovsky, Nutcracker composer; Kekule, a Flemish molecular scientist. He gives brief little snippets of each of their lives, and how "great creative breakthroughs usually happen only after intense periods of struggle - even madness."

I think we should spend as much time pondering how to protect our children's creativity as we do thinking about educational experiences we would like to see them have. We have no idea what our children will face in their adult futures. Rote memorization won't really be much of an advantage for them. But creativity and the ability to problem-solve, that is what will be REAL tools we shouldn't be overlooking.

 "The things we fear most in organizations -- fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances -- are the primary sources of creativity." - Alfred North Whitehead

 "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pierce

 "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou

I'd love to start a collection of articles about creativity. If you have any you run across, would you consider putting them in the comment box here? I'd really appreciate it!

See Genius!

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world...are the ones who do."

I absolutely love this video. It comes from the Humanity Healing Network. The writings are from Jack Kerouac. Doesn't this make you think about raising children to be who they are MEANT to be? Not just "successful" or "likeable" or "employable"...

It makes me think that our whole purpose as parents should be to help them get so comfortable in their own skin that they can do what they've been put here to do. No fear. Eyes open.

Cydney reminded me that a smaller version of this was part of an old Apple computer commercial. No wonder it seems so familiar.