Posts Tagged ‘pirates’

Financial Literacy for Kids: Pirates!

Thursday, November 20th, 2014

financial-literacy-for-kids

I received a copy of this book for free and was compensated for an honest review.

If you have been looking for a creative way to teach financial literacy for kids, Pirates of Financial Freedom is a fun book that will do just that! Who knew that a fiction novel about pirates could teach so much that a regular math program leaves out?

This book is probably best for teens, since my three sons understood all the concepts, but my daughter who is 9 had trouble with a couple of the more complicated concepts like compound interest. She still learned quite a lot, though, and we were all on the edge of our seats when the pirate ship encountered a dangerous sea serpent. The financial concepts are woven into the main plot line quite well, as you will see when you watch my kids goofily trying to re-enact a couple of scenes merged together from the book.

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Lessons on Financial Literacy

For the fun and goofy video my children performed about this book, I chose two scenes that took place in stores. One was a hat shop where a pirate was buying a lot with a credit card without having the money in the bank to pay for it. The pirate assumed that he would be getting more treasure in pirate raids in the near future, but choosing to spend money before you have it is the way poor people act. Rich people spend below their means, and they have the money in the bank to pay for their purchases when the credit card bills come.

The other scene was a 70-year-old pirate talking about saving for retirement. His brother began saving for retirement when he was 25, and at 40 he stopped saving. The old pirate himself did not start saving until he was 40, and he’s been saving for 30 years. So his brother only saved for 15 years, and he himself saved for 30 years–double the amount of time. They both saved 300 doubloons a month. At the end of that time, who do you think had the most money? Watch the goofy pirate video to find out the unexpected answer.

Goofy Pirate Video about Financial Literacy

And there you have it! The Pirates of Financial Freedom will teach financial literacy for kids, showing them how to have better financial skills while listening to a fun story about pirates!

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Cool Treasure Hunt to Find Financial Literacy:

You can download a sample of the book here:

Go on a treasure hunt to find more chapters of this fun book!

If you would like to use this book as part of a pirate unit study, take a look at my free awesome pirate unit study:

Follow the Pirates of Financial Freedom on Facebook

Follow the Pirates of Financial Freedom on Twitter

Follow the Pirates of Financial Freedom on Pinterest

Buy the book, available in hardback and e-book: Pirates of Financial Freedom

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Book Giveaway & Free Financial Consultation :

Enter to win one of three autographed hardcover copies of the book, plus 2 hours of financial consulting time with the author (for kids or parents!) Giveaway ends November 27, 10pm Central Time.

 

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers: Scrapbooking Supplies

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers
(
A series of 10 fun writing assignments given by a pirate)

Aaaaarrggghh! This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans here to give you ideas for homeschooling reluctant writers.

homeschooling-reluctant-writers-10Writing Idea #10: Scrapbooking Supplies

  •  You can use scrapbooking supplies! For example, you can find stickers in the form of robots, and you can write a story around that sticker. Here is another robot story. Very nice. Here’s another robot story, and another robot story by a 5-year-old. Lots of robots, eh?
  • There are pirate stickers, and there are scrapbooking papers that are like outer space and cool stuff like that. Or you can have bugs and insects and write a poem. For example, “In the midnight dark sky/ Insects are fluttering by./ The crickets are chirping./ Everything is quiet.” This was written by a 5-year-old boy. Yes, he’s good, isn’t he?
  • Take a look at more scrapbooking supplies (at your local craft store). There are so many scrapbooking papers. Look at them all! Camouflage paper, pirate paper, monkey paper, race car paper, autumn paper. There’s paper that looks like wood, and paper that looks like rocks. There’s paper that looks like burlap, paper that has music on it, football paper, corkboard paper, patriotic paper, girly paper.
  • You could write on a sheet of paper, and then glue it onto one of these scrapbooking papers as a background. You could also decorate a journal with one of these papers.
  • There are many, many stickers as well. Here are some stickers for theater, movie stickers, camping stickers, crown stickers, forest stickers, bird stickers, 3-dimensional flowers. We have cowboy stickers, pirate stickers, more pirate stickers, fishing stickers, bike riding stickers, Paris stickers, music stickers, beach vacation stickers.

This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, signing off. Aaaaarrggghhh!

Calling all homeschooled kids! I dare you to make a video response to this pirate video on YouTube:

  • Write a full page story, using scrapbooking supplies to decorate your writing..
  • Read your story  into a video camera, and upload it to YouTube.
  • Go to the above video on YouTube, and press “video response.”
  • I am automatically notified when someone posts a video response. After watching it, I will embed it right here on this page!

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers #9: Mysterious Picture

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers
(A series of 10 fun writing assignments given by a pirate)

Aaaaarggh! This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, here to give you ideas for homeschooling reluctant writers.

homeschooling-reluctant-writers-14Writing Idea #9: Mysterious Picture

  •  Cut out pictures from magazines like National Geographic or any other magazine that might have a picture that gives you ideas on some story that might be behind it.
  • (Showing 1st picture) Here we have a picture of someone pulling something out of the water. What is it? What could it be? Has he been looking for it for years? Is it pirate treasure?
  • (Showing 2nd picture) And here we have people who haven’t seen each other for years. Why haven’t they seen each other for so long? Tell the story behind this picture.
  • (Showing 3rd picture) This woman is saying good-bye to someone. Who is she saying good-bye to? Is it her son? Why is he going away?
  • (Showing 4th picture) The people in this classroom are very upset. What are they upset about? How come? Are they going to cause a riot? What are they going to do next?
  • (Showing 5th picture) Why is this woman being pulled out of a car? Is there something wrong? Is she being kidnapped in that car? What’s going on here? What’s going to happen next? Is she going to fall?
  • (Showing 6th picture) And what’s this woman doing with a crocodile on her head? Did the crocodile just jump down on her head? Did she go hunting for it, and is she going to have it for dinner? She looks very brave. But what on earth is going to happen next?

So you see, any picture could have a story behind it that is interesting and exciting. You could even write a novel based on one picture.

This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, signing off. Aaaaaarrrrggh!

Calling all homeschooled kids! I dare you to make a video response to this pirate video on YouTube:

  • Write a full one-page story based on a magazine picture.
  • Dress up as a pirate, and read your story into a video camera. Upload it to YouTube.
  • Go to the above video on YouTube, and press “video response.”
  • I am automatically notified when someone posts a video response. After watching it, I will embed it right here on this page!

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers #8: Ideal Summer Vacation

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers
(
A series of 10 fun writing assignments given by a pirate)

Aaaaarrggghh! This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans here to give you ideas for homeschooling reluctant writers.

ideal-summer-vacationWriting Idea #8: Ideal Summer Vacation

  • You can plan your ideal summer vacation any time of year. Grab a sheet of paper and write a full page of what your ideal summer vacation would be. For example:
    • Would you go to the ocean? (Look at ocean pictures and describe why it’s so calming to you.)
    • Or perhaps hike through a forest to a waterfall? (Describe the waterfall.)
    • Or maybe you just want to go to a lake and go swimming, build sand castles, and float on a big ol’ rafty thing that looks like a banana. (You can come up with other ideas, like traveling to Europe!)

I’m sure you can come up with some plans for your ideal summer vacation. This is Dread Pirate Susan Evans, signing off. Aaaaarrggghhh!

Calling all homeschooled kids! I dare you to make a video response to this pirate video on YouTube:

  • Plan your ideal summer vacation. You can look at brochures from your local tourist office, or just make something up out of your head.
  • Write a full page description of your ideal summer vacation.
  • Read your description  into a video camera, and upload it to YouTube.
  • Go to the above video on YouTube, and press “video response.”
  • I am automatically notified when someone posts a video response. After watching it, I will embed it right here on this page!