Pumpkin Pounding!

It’s that time of year again. For like 20 years (yes, I am getting old!) I’ve been telling you to do pumpkin pounding!

Here’s what I told you back in 2009. I swear I was 20 at the time. 😉

It’s that time of year again, and few things are as fun as pounding pumpkins.  Gather up some golf tees and a mallet (or a hammer and nails for older kids), and let each child pound the tees into a pumpkin.  Push the tees or nails in a bit to get them started, so the kids don’t have to hold them and risk pounding fingers (you can also hold them in place with a clothespin instead of fingers).  They can do patterns or just pound randomly.  This is a fabulously satisfying sensory integration activity for toddlers to teens.  It’s silly fun! 

And another time…

Poke, pound, pester and pulverize your leftover pumpkins!  Have you tried this yet?  I’ve been telling you to do it for years and it’s such outrageous fun.  Make designs, spell out words, nail pretty leaves in patterns, try pounding different objects in, pull the pegs out and leave cool hole patterns and just pound them… 

Have fun!

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Talk Like a Pirate!

Arrr!  How could I nearly let International Talk Like a Pirate Day slip by without posting about it!  Tsk!

Never fear.  I’ve assembled a few pirate goodies for you to take part with your wee pirates with what’s left of the day.

You can check out the Magical Childhood archives to help your kids choose their pirate names.

You can find sunken treasure at National Geographic education.

You can make Jack Sparrow’s tricorne hat cookies.  Any cookie stuffed with peanut butter cups is a winner in my book!

You can find pirate crafts and activities at DLTK-kids.

You can make quick and easy (adorable!) newspaper swords, bandana pirate skirts and more at alphamom.

You can find activities for junior pirates (even a pirate curriculum!) at talk like a pirate day (the main site is not always child-friendly).

Lastly, you can have fun with the kids translating text (poetry, news items, homework!) into pirate speak at the english to pirate translator.

And for fun for the grown-ups, be sure to change your Facebook language to pirate for the day!

Here’s how:

1. Click the Gear icon at the top of the Facebook page and select Account Settings.
2. The account settings page opens and the language setting is the last one in the list.
3. Click the Edit link next to it. The Choose Primary drop-down list appears.
4. Click the drop-down list and click on Pirate English.

And with that, me hearties, I’m off to t’ play with me sprogs!

Have a swashbucklin’ day!

 

Counting Sheep

Happy Thursday!  We interrupt this morning to bring you the following terrible math joke, courtesy of my hubby.

A farmer wants to know how many sheep he has in his field, so he asks his border collie to count them.

The dog runs into the field, counts them and runs back to the farmer.

The farmer says, “How many?”

The dog says, “40.”

The farmer is surprised and says, “How can there be 40 – I only bought 38!”

The dog says, “I rounded them up.”  

🙂  Have a fun day!

Happy Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day!  Need a few ideas on how to make the most of our extra day today?  Mother Nature Network has this fun list.

29 fun things to do on Leap Day

Did you and your kiddos do anything fun to celebrate?

Newspaper Acting!

Here’s a fun little activity my girls and I made up yesterday.  Newspaper acting!

I grabbed a copy of our local newspaper and a few junk mail flyers and challenged them to read lines in all different types of voices.  For instance, Victoria read a sentence about a basketball game as if it were an ad for a horror movie.  Anna read a sentence about a city council meeting as if it were heartbreaking news.  I read a sentence about a budget proposal with terrible rage.  🙂

Want to play along?  Just grab some really boring or random reading materials like newspapers, ads and magazines.  Even homework pages would work!

Here’s some suggested voices and styles:

• As if it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever read
• Like an action movie preview
• In the voice of an evil genius
• With great rage
• As if you’re heartbroken
• With a strong, funny accent
• As if it’s a children’s book for very young kids
• As if you’re super excited
• With terrible sorrow
• As if it’s a line in a romance movie
• Like you’re terribly scared

We had so much fun doing this!  We were all laughing like crazy and the girls have asked repeatedly to do some more. 

Happy Thursday!

In Praise of Silliness

“Draw a crazy picture, 
Write a nutty poem, 
Sing a mumble-gumble song, 
Whistle through your comb. 
Do a loony-goony dance 
‘Cross the kitchen floor, 
Put something silly in the world 
That ain’t been there before.”
― Shel Silverstein

Here’s to a new year of silliness and fun.  🙂

What’s Your Pirate Name?

The kids and I got a fun pirate book recently and inside was a chart to help you find your pirate name.  Unfortunately, their chart left us a bit flat (9 out of 10 names were for boy pirates, for instance!) so we came up with our own pirate name generator.

To find your pirate name:

Pick 3 numbers, each one ranging  from 1-10 (you can use the same number more than once).

If you’d like a boy pirate name, pick a number between 1-5 for the last number.

If you’d like a girl pirate name, choose a number between 6 and 10 for the last  number.

Then find the word that corresponds from each list:

First word:

1. Big
2. Long
3. Blue
4. Jolly
5. Red
6. Cold
7. Green
8. One
9. Black
10. Stump

Second word:

1. Eye
2. Boot
3. Belly
4. Bottom
5. Leg
6. Ear
7. Mouth
8. Tooth
9. Lip
10. Foot

Third word:

1. Bob
2. Willy
3. Bart
4. Bill
5. Kid
6. Ann
7. Bonny
8. Bess
9. Gert
10. Sue

For instance, if your child chose 147, She’d be Big Boot Bonny.  752 would be Green Leg Willy.  333 would be Blue Belly Bart.  And so on.

Feel free to make up your own lists too!