Iron Homeschooler Chef

Announcer: Welcome to Iron Homeschooler Chef: Interactive! The show where contestants take one secret ingredient and use it to put together a well-rounded, interest oriented homeschooling curriculum! And you viewers at home can add to the fun by making your own suggestions in the comments section below!

Today's secret ingredient is: Pirates!

The Iron Homeschoolers are now filling their canvas totes and backpacks with pirate themed books, costumes, workbooks and action figures. Action figures? I didn't even know there were action figures! Let's go to our consultant on the floor, Vicki.

Vicki: Yes there really are pirate action figures! They're made by Odyssey Toys and each figure comes with it's own historical fact card! They have other historical figures, too, but that's information for another show!

Announcer: Thank you Vicki! Well, our Iron Homeschoolers have now taken their ingredients back to their learning areas. I notice the Smith Family has opted for cuddling around some fact- filled pirate books on the comfy couch. What are they reading Vicki?

Vicki: It looks like a mix of non-fiction pirate picture books and I see the Time Warp Trio and Magic Tree House! Those are wonderful series that mix fact and fiction!

Announcer: In the Jones Family learning area, they've invited over their co-op group for a pirate adventure! They've just rolled out a treasure map and are using their orienteering skills to find a pirate chest! They're using compasses, measuring, and I think I see some triangulation going on!

Now the Smith family is also unrolling a map. It looks like a regular world map. They're clipping out pictures of different pirate flags and pinning them to areas on the map where these different pirates would capture ships! Lots of geography going on in the Smith family.

The Jones family have found the pirate chest and it's full of Pirates cards! Vicki, can we have some info on the Pirates cards?

Vicki: Pirates cards are a constructible strategy game. You put together different ships and use them to gather money and blow up other ships. Exciting! Each ship comes with a little story and are based on real ships.

Announcer: I hear some stealthy phonics use going on now! The Smith family is using the pirate sound "Arrr!" to help their six year with reading! Clever, Smiths! Their ten year old twins are writing research papers. Jana seems to be doing hers on lady pirates while Josh is focusing on the privateers.

Uh-oh, there seems to be some problem on the Jones side, what's happening Vicki?

Vicki: It looks like two of the girls aren't interested in the pirate theme! Mom is giving them some dress up clothes to pretend to be Queen Elizabeth and pirate queen Grace O'Malley. Queen Elizabeth is pardoning Grace and knighting some of the boys who are dressed up as pirates. Who are you supposed to be Tommy?

Tommy: I'm Sir Francis Drake!

Vicki: Mom is now taking the kids into the kitchen area to make a Pirate's Pie. Amazing what you can find at Cooks.com by typing Pirate food into the recipe search! Careful! Some of the recipes call for rum. The kids are experimenting to figure out what they can use instead of rum. Mom does have her limits!

Announcer: Incredible action today. And everyone is learning, so everyone is a winner! Feel free to add some of your own ideas in the comments section!