The 19th September is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. This crazy festival began as a joke by Americans John Baur and Mark Summers and is now celebrated worldwide. As children love the idea of pirates and hidden gold, why not join in the fun this year with your own family?

DRESS LIKE A PIRATE

Any aspiring pirate has to look the part. Fancy dress shops can supply all you need, or have fun creating your own costume.

Old clothes are fine as pirates were never the cleanest, so take your scissors to an old pair of dark trousers or jeans and cut them ragged-style just below the knee. Combine with old shoes or wellington boots and a plain white or stripy top for the basic outfit. Now accessorise with:

Headwear. A bandana is great for crew boys and girls, whilst the ship’s captain requires something a little more authoritative! Simply draw a captain’s hat template onto black cardboard, decorate with a silver foil skull and crossbones and attach with elastic threaded through two needle points. Alternatively, visit www.kidscraftweekly.com/printables/pirate_hat.pdf for fantastic instructions to make a really snazzy hat.

Eyepatch. Cut out a segment from an egg box to get the perfect shape, colour black with child-friendly paints and attach with elastic as suggested above.

Cutlass. Draw a cutlass (curved sword) template onto shiny silver cardboard and cut out. A simple template can be found at www.totalgirl.com.au/e2Shop/Uploads/420/pirate_sword.pdf

Belt. If you don’t feel like donating one of your designer belts complete with bold, brassy buckle then make your own from coloured card and silver foil.

PIRATE LINGO

You’ll need these phrases to really talk like a pirate, or gentlemen of fortune as they liked to refer to themselves.

Ahoy there!        Hello
Avast            Stay still and listen
Aye aye            Yes, okay
Booty            Treasure
Grog            Usually rum, can mean a glass of juice or milk!
Landlubber        A “land-lover”, someone unused to ship-life
Me Hearty        A trusted friend or well-loved child
Pieces of Eight        Silver divided into eight pieces to use as change
Shiver me Timbers    An exclamation of shock or surprise
Swashbuckling        A fun adventure
Walk the Plank        Captured sailors walk the plank into the sea

TREASURE HUNT

Children go crazy for treasure hunts. Draw a map, giving the most mundane locations in your house and garden  exotic-sounding names. Then stain it with cold teabags for an authentically aged look. Once your little buccaneers have solved the clues and followed the map to where X marks the spot their reward can be a bag of shiny chocolate coins. Spanish gold at its best!

PIRATE THEMED ATTRACTIONS

As Talk Like a Pirate Day falls on a Sunday this year, why not celebrate it with a trip to somewhere pirate-related? With imagination, places like Hamble (Hants) or Bosham (West Sussex) can easily become the bygone haunts of those who flew the Jolly Roger. Alternatively, here are a few suggestions for swashbuckling days out.

Legoland in Windsor has Pirate Land, complete with Jolly Rocker swinging galleon and Pirate Falls Dynamite Drench water ride (expect to get wet!) There is also a themed show, The Pirates of Skeleton Bay, featuring acrobats.

The Lymington Treasure Trail takes families through the pretty New Forest village on a search for pirate gold.  Follow clues on a 2 ½ mile long trail and find the fictitious Captain Tom Johnson’s loot. Trail leaflets are available at the Lymington visitor centre or online at www.thenewforest.co.uk Lymington is also home to family friendly pubs and perhaps Hampshire’s best fish ’n chips.

Pirate Pete’s at Clarence Pier, Southsea is one of the South Coast’s largest play areas, complete with pirate ship, ball ponds, aerial walkways, etc. It is suitable for children aged two and above. Afterwards, take a stroll to the atmospheric Naval Dockyard at Portsmouth.

At Southwark can be found a lifesize replica of The Golden Hinde, in which our most famous pirate, Sir Francis Drake, performed many of his adventures. Self-guided tours below deck are available daily at £6 for adults, £4.50 for children, while special events bring history to life. Found near London Bridge tube station, please visit www.goldenhinde.com or call 020 7403 0123 for further details.

FAMOUS PIRATES

Long John Silver, the hero of Treasure Island, first introduced the idea of wooden legs and parrots on pirate’s shoulders. Captain Hook was Peter Pan’s arch-enemy in J.M. Barrie’s much-loved tale. Pan cut the villain’s hand off in a dual and he got his name from the fiercesome hook used to replace it.

Blackbeard, otherwise known as Edward Teach, was a native of Bristol who terrorised the Caribbean in 1717. He is said to have lit fuses in his beard to scare his foes. There isn’t a single account of him actually hurting anybody. William Kidd is the only pirate known to bury treasure. To this day it has never been found, although Southampton treasure hunter Cerris Francis remains hopeful that one day he will uncover the booty.

GREAT PIRATE READS

The Night Pirates by Peter Harris
Young Tom wakes to find little girl pirates trying to steal the front of his house. He sails with them to a treasure island where they make away with the grown-up pirates’ ill-gotten booty!

Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy
“Where there’s gold, I’m a-goin’!”  Pirate Pete and his parrot search for gold on Mermaid Island and her neighbouring isles, where children brush their teeth and read books to help them go to sleep at night. But whose ship is on the horizon giving chase?

Mrs Pirate by Nick Sharratt
Mrs Pirate goes on a riotous shopping trip. This is a child’s learn-to-read book with colourful pictures and simple rhymes.

Pirate Things to Make and Do by Usborne Activities
Simple to follow instructions to make everything a little pirate needs, from hats to hooks to telescopes.

The Captain Pugwash series by John Ryan
Dating back to 1957 for those with a love of nostalgia. Rest assured, the crude urban myth about the characters having sexually explicit names is untrue.