Little Hands Learning | Pirate Box Review

 “A monthly subscription box, inspired by the magic of books.”

I'm taking a break from my monthly subscription boxes because I ordered Alfie one of the one-off boxes – I think it was when there was a sale on. He loves all things pirate: dressing up, watching Swashbuckle and his favourite thing is finding treasure. So, I ordered the pirate box, which was released before we started our subscription.

The activities were inspired by the book ‘The Pirates are Coming!’ – written by John Condon and illustrated by Matt Hunt. Telling the story of a little boy called Tom, it's a brilliant (and quite amusing) take on the classic ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’, as he keeps exclaiming that the pirates are coming. But the story has a lovely twist at the end… I won't spoil it. As is always the case with the books we receive in our Little Hands Learning boxes, the illustrations are just beautiful and it's a delightful story that can be told and enjoyed again and again.

The activities were:

• Make two pirates and a parrot
• Make your own treasure map
• Hunt for treasure
• Build your own pirate boat

A pirate’s life for me

Alfie roped me into making his pirates and I love creating them, although the main pirate ended up looking more like Dennis the Menace with an eye patch, with a parrot rather than a dog for a pet. I had some stickers leftover from his party bags and used those for faces. I keep regretting not using a green one for sea sickness for the shipmate. I tried to get Alfie to draw the faces, but instead it was completely my handiwork. I'm pleased with them though and since they have been created, he does enjoy playing with them – either alongside the boats or even in the sand.

Set sail on the Jolly Roger

We really enjoyed making the boats together. So much so, we had some extra lolly sticks and ended up making a collection – or should that be an armada – of ships. We even used scraps of Alfie’s leftover wallpaper for the sails, and one ended up being Spider-Man's boat with totally on-brand colours. It proved a team effort with me assembling the rafts and Alfie fixing the sails, using some of our old Little Hands Learning playdough. We even sailed our ships in craft trays full of water – not too deep – and they floated fine. I'm too scared to try them in the bath in case they end up sinking and get ruined.

Find where X marks the spot

Alfie told me you're not a real pirate if you haven't hidden buried treasure and so we will also need a real treasure map. With the two pieces of card, we each created our own versions of a treasure map and I have to say Alfie’s is loads better than mine! It really took me back to similar activities at school and I used to love staining, ripping and burning the edges of the paper or card to create something really old looking. When complete, we pretended to hunt for treasure around the house and in the garden. We have even used our maps and incorporated it with the elephant hunt activity from our Detective Box (Spoiler Alert: coming soon to the blog).

If you're interested in purchasing a one-off box or even subscribing, visit the website. And if you're looking for a discount on a future box or anything in the shop, use code: LUCYLOCKET – and in the notes, mention that I sent you.

For sneak peeks of future boxes, as well as other crafty and educational ideas, follow Little Hands Learning on Instagram.

Love, Lucy xx