Chemistry (and Pirates)

Yes, I know it be Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I be trying to catch up on all the stuff we been too busy to blog about! Shiver me timbers!

Annnd, I'll take a break from that to tell you that we started high school Chemistry last week.

Evidently, this is the class that many fantastically overcompetent home school moms do not want to teach. Maybe because we work with strong acids, horrible toxins, set things on fire, and occasionally blow things up?


I thought those were why we wanted to do chemistry!

At any rate, I wanted a class of 6 kids.  Six is perfect: enough for a good discussion, but not too many to oversee when we set things on fire, and an even number so they can have lab partners.


I got two classes of six: a girls' class on Tuesdays and a  boys' class on Thursdays! In practice this has been fantastic, and I, at any rate, am really enjoying both classes.

The only change to the plan is that I will now be finishing before Lent, instead of finishing before Thanksgiving (it had been two classes a week).

Unfortunately, neither class landed on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Adventurers, however, started up with it's very first trip today- let the anchor fall on me liver, that was fun!

We went to the Natural History Museum and saw the skeletons (crossed bones!), dinosaurs, gems and
minerals.

I'll post more pictures on Wednesday, but I'll leave you with this one of the Hope Diamond being eyed by my crew of scallywags.

To wrap things up, we sang many many verses of "My Name was Captain Kidd," and watched a BBC documentary on Captain Cook.  Not technically a pirate in the conventional sense, but very interesting to watch.

It Be Talk Like a Pirate Day Tomorrow, Matey!

Ye've been warned!

We've been making maps and playing around with pirate stickers, mad libs, and  doodles all week.

The maps are drawn on regular paper, soaked in tea, then (when dry) singed with fire.

The doodles are half drawn pictures where you need to draw the other part.

In this case, you had to draw the sea monster that is attacking the pirate ship.

I love doing this with all six Zoomlians because they come up with hilarious variety!

Here, Klenda draws an unfortunate giant merman, and Oob draws a sniffy fish that also kisses (run away!).

Choclo drew a megalodon with stripes (as well as a another shark).

Mxyl drew a terrifyingly cute little rubber ducky.

"It can bite off an entire nail with every mouthful, " he explained, "and with enough nails gone, you'll be treading water."

So, there's that.

Hmmm.  I might have boys.

Not pictured, Leena drew Gamera, and Zorg drew Larry Boy.

And we got a little silly with stickers!

Tomorrow we'll do a treasure hunt, and probably make pirate hats.

More piratey stuff, including web resources, from our earlier adventures, here.

Talking Like Pirates

 Arrrr!  We did talk like pirates, matey!

Here we have Klenda threatening a nervous Leena.

Leena actually made a pretty winsome damsel in distress!

We had a good time doing map work and other piratey printouts in our Talk Like a Pirate Packets.

I think the favorite was the Pirate Mad Libs.

 Klenda helped with costuming.  She made hats and eye patches, as well as face paint scars.  The scars were realistic enough to alarm some adults!

But, of course, the favorite part of the day was the treasure hunt!

This time they really had to dig for it - in the mulch pile! 

I had buried it very shallowly, but I hadn't counted on the people on the pile shifting the mulch so much.  They actually had to dig quite a bit.  But it was worth it - licorice whips filled with sour candy- mmmm!

It was so much fun that the Zoomlians set up a second treasure hunt for their friends in the Anatomy class!

Don't Fergit, Matey!

It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! 

We'll post pictures of this year's shenanigans later, til then have fun reminiscing about pirates past (with links to fun activities).

Happy Belated Talk Like a Pirate Day!

 Did we celebrate?  ARRRRRRRRR!

We were a bit busy on the actual Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th), so we celebrated over the whole week!

We made treasure maps, which we aged with tea and fire.  An process equally impressive and smelly: very piratical!

It was interesting to see how detailed and/or realistic the different maps were.

We dressed up as pirates, aided by the redoubtable Klenda and face paint!

We went on several treasure hunts.  I set one up, and then Klenda organized one, and Oob has been making treasure hunts ever since.  His clues are cryptic, but, since he wants to lead you through it by pulling you along, it all works out!

We did a number of piratey Mad Libs, and other printables.

Fantastic website with more home schooly pirate resources here and pirate car games here.(HT to Diane Kieth Flynn for both of those)

We listened to Moby Dick (not technically pirate, but also not for land lubbers). (HT to Living Books for the Ears)

And it was the last hurrah for the squid and shark!