Pirate Days

Kids are very curious by nature. With some kids, it is very obvious, as it can be hard to get them to slow down long enough to see the real world. They can’t help but to engage and explore the world around them. For others its harder to see the curiosity, as even the calmest of personalities can feel mysterious on occasion. It’s harder to see with them because it can be easy to forget they are there, as they are often so still and easily get overlooked. They spend so much of their time in the books, and yet, even if they are not going very far physically, their imaginations take them on the most amazing adventures instead. The adventures can sometimes be so magnificent and amazing. They can get so lost in amazement and curiosity that their dreams sometimes just bust through the seams and they find themselves dragging the nearest playmates along with them, into their fantasy worlds. It often seems that the perfect combination, would be to have at least one of each in a play group, as to encompass the best of both versions of curiosity and engagement into each adventure. A classic example of the book-ish type of adventurer, was a young girl named Sarah.

As a young girl, nine year old Sarah loved her books. She would find herself dreaming of a hidden staircase in her closet, that only she could find and access, just like in old castles with secret passageways to get in and out. It would lead to a secret library of even more stories and adventures for her to go on. No one in her family would know it was there, except for her, thus giving her a leg up on the adventures. This would allow her to only include others when her heart desired, or needed some creative assistance on whatever new adventure she had planned. Adventures that Belle herself would love to spend an infinite amount of days exploring without distractions.

Every chance she had to dive into a book, she found herself time traveling to previous time periods. She learned about the girls her own age in those times, who of course were learning about the world they lived in themselves. She loved tagging along in the adventures that they went on, frequently getting themselves into trouble for challenging the status quo. As the girls learned about their own stations in life, they also had to learn how to interact with others from different stations and walks of life. Some of the girls liked filling the stereotype of their time period, and found themselves standing up for the rights of their new friends and their families. Others found themselves standing up for what was right, even when they were uncertain of how their decisions would affect their families. Sarah loved learning about the history of those time periods and what it meant to live in those time periods, and learned from them how to stand up for what they believed in.

She on occasion would find herself acting out the stories she read about in her imaginary play. On one such occasion, she included her brother Matthew upon her adventure. Matthew loved pirates and wanted to go on a sailing adventure, and having read about some sailing adventures in her books, she had the perfect idea for the adventure they were about to embark on. They opted for an exciting adventure upon the seven seas and fighting off the rival pirates. They had gotten wind of a hidden treasure that would do many of the crewmen well, as well as make improvements on their ship. So, treasure map in hand, and fighting off any rivals, they worked and sailed hard in search of their desired treasure. In the real world, they were simply running around chasing each other through the house with a “pirate map” in hand, despite their mother’s multiple warnings to slow down and chill out. They were too stuck on their adventure and making sure they didn’t loose their battle, that even though they responded with the standard polite “yes ma’am”, while slowing down briefly, they kept focused on the task at hand. After all, loosing focus also meant loosing their battle, loosing their ship and all of their belongings, and loosing their place in the race for the treasure.

The battle kept going strong! They encountered yet another enemy ship, just as they were approaching the desired island. They could almost see that giant x that marked the spot of every treasure hunters dream. Enemy pirates boarded their ship! “They shall not prevail!” proclaimed Sarah and Matthew as they fought them off. Every sword blade was matched clink for clink. Every arrow was caught with a shield and an arrow was returned in kind. Several of the sword battles were very close, and with a final swing, a sword caught the rope attached to the mast. The action caused the mast to come tumbling, and catch fire, hitting Sarah’s leg on the way down. Sarah was jolted back to reality when contact was made. She realized then that instead of the rope attached to the mast, it was the cord of the still hot curling iron in her mother’s bathroom, as in the chaos, her mom had just finished doing her hair for the day. The burning sensation on her leg was where the curling iron made contact with her skin, leaving a scorch mark and a lovely battle scar to show off to her friends. While unexpected, an painful, she was definitely proud of that battle scar. This adventure had to be put on pause for now. Sarah and her brother were now both unfortunately grounded for not listening to their mother. That said, the scar would make an amazing addition to the story line, when they were able to rejoin the race for the now stolen treasure.

For now, Matthew and Sarah were now pirates who had flipped, and decided to rescue the treasure from the bad guys.