Inside: Are you celebrating Pirate Month (August), Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th), or just looking for a novel way to help your kids burn energy while sharpening their listening skills? We invite you to play a game of Simon Says with a pirate twist!
When my kids are getting increasingly loud, and I begin to suspect that the situation is rapidly evolving towards a full-blown sibling fight, it’s my cue to step in with a creative distraction.
I’m like that: full of tricks and twists that I’ve acquired over the years and lovingly kept handy whenever the situation calls.
All my kids love pirates, so a quick round of Simon Says with a pirate twist is often a welcomed distraction for all ages.
The basics of this game are simple. You gather your kids around you and tell them to perform different physical tasks. The trick is to listen carefully to the special code word. If the codeword is there, kids should go ahead with the task. If the codeword is not there, the task should not be done.
Since we are doing a pirate theme, our code words can be “Pirate Simon Says” or “Captain Commands.“
So, “Captain commands to dig for gold” is a go. And “Dig for gold!” is not.
If you played a few games of Simon Says with your kids in the past, you know that it can be hard to think of fun actions on the spot. Right? Even more so when it’s pirate-themed.
So, let me share with you some ideas that proved to be successful in my house. I also have a printable of Simon Says ideas with a pirate theme for you that is easy to download in my freebies library.
Pirate-Themed Actions
In place of the standard (and, let’s be honest, boring) Simon-Says tasks like jumping jacks or touching the floor, our tasks are related to something that pirates can do.
Since I received kid’s yoga instructor training, I like to nudge my kids toward yoga poses.
When my kids were younger, I would call out the command and quickly get in the pose, so my kids could copy me. By now, though, all my kids are very experienced yogis and know all the yoga poses by name. So, I can just call out yoga poses, and they will know what to do. However, even more often now, I just tell them to come up with their own creative pose for each command.
So, to sum it up, how would your kids know what to do when you say “hit the deck” or “row your boat”?
There are three ways to go about it. You can either:
- go with your kids over each command in advance, explaining what you expect them to do,
- allow kids to improvise (so fun to watch!), or
- (my favorite) do each action as you call it out. This has an extra element of a challenge because it’s so easy for kids to immediately start copying what you are doing without checking for the code word first! (Plus, and this is always a plus in my books, it’s a perfect workout for those days when you are too busy to fit in your own workout 🙂
Here are some ideas for your PIRATE-THEMED commands:
- Dig for gold: kids pretend to dig, or they can get in a downward dog, digging their hands and heels into the ground
- Row your boat: make rowing movements with your arms or do a yoga boat pose while moving your arms wildly around
- Hit the deck: everyone drops to the floor or does a child’s pose
- Clear the deck: sit down on the bottom and lift your legs (boat pose in yoga)
- Enemy boat on the horizon: put a hand over your eyebrows to block the pretend sun while staring in the distance or do a yoga horizon lunge (in a deep lunge, extend the same arm as the leg in front toward the back of the room, and roll to the edge of the foot that is in the back)
- Defend the ship: assume a fighting stance or do a yoga warrior pose
- Climb the rigging: pretend to climb a rope or do a yoga bow pose (while laying on the tummy, arch the back, grab your ankles and pull them up like a rope)
- Walk the plank: get in a plank pose
- Abandon ship: pretend to jump off the ship or do a yogic jump from downward facing dog to sitting on the bottom
- Scrub the deck: forward fold with scrubbing motions with hands or sit in a chair pose and wave arms around
- Happy Hour: happy baby pose from yoga, or kids can improvise
- Chow time: sit down with feet crossed and pretend to eat
- Mermaid: pretend to be a mermaid sitting on a rock or do a yoga mermaid pose
- Swim ashore: swimming movements while standing or laying on tummy
- Navigation time: sit on the bottom, open your legs like a book, and pretend to study maps drawn on the bottom of your feet (butterfly pose in yoga)
- Divide the booty: get on hands and knees and lift one hand and one foot off the ground (maybe pretending to move objects), then change sides (bird dog pose in yoga)
- Gunnery practice: stand on one leg (tree pose) and sharply point index fingers at different objects in the room (Very challenging! I often fall over 🙂 ) or do a dancer’s pose
- Take cover: use others to hide behind (if you think it’s not going to lead to an accidental fight), or simply pretend to hide behind folded arms, or use furniture to hide
- At ease: kids can dance, roll around on their backs, or do a yoga triangle pose.
Do you like to give your kids the opportunity to move and burn off all that energy? I do too.
Here are some other quick games that I like to play with my kids:
Having trouble finding this to download/print in the password protected page (despite signing up and following the link).
Hi, Julianna! Check your inbox. You should have all the downloads there now. Good luck!