Pirate ships: what do they do with them?

[undergroundernie]

I am stuck deciding what to get my 4 year old ds for Christmas. He has been mightily into trains, then diggers, then fire engines but now doesn't seem to have any burning interest. He's spent most of the week on top of the climbing frame pretending it's a pirate ship but I don't think he has the faintest idea what a pirate is. His only pirate experience is the Rottenbeard episode on the Lazytown DVD.
Do your children have a pirate ship and if so what do they do with it?

DS has had a pirate ship for a few years. He has a number of plastic pirates of different sorts, a plastic mat with an island and lots of sea on it - and an extra 'pirate island' - all ELC. He sets all the pirates up, as goodies and baddies, and then knocks them all down amidst lots of kerpowing, and pulls the whole ship apart until it is a shipwreck. Then he does it all again in various scenarios. Depending on the child, I think they need a bit of playing along with them until a certain age. And actually the little pirates are more played with than the actual ship.

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DD (3.6) wants a pirate ship and Pop up Pirates! She's really into Peter Pan at the moment. DH is delighted and wants to get her the Pirates of the Caribbean one but I think we're going to opt for the Playmobil one.

Ooh good link, Pruni. Looks like a stocking filler to me!

my ds's have the playmobil one and play with it in the bath. they love it

The Playmobil one has canons that fire cannonballs! Here, in the capable hands of Cap'n DS1 (5) and ah har me hearties DS2 (4) the pirates get involved in all sorts of adventures involving helicopters, motorbikes and other 21st century playmobil, they don't seem to mind tho'.

ds has loved his Playmobil one but it is a lot of money if you aren't sure. There is simpler red sailed one for under £30 and a treasure chest of accessory bits for about £20. ds combines it with a jail, island, lagoon and castle with knights for big battles !

DS2 (2.5) took the sails and rigging off his and then just played with the cannon ball

DS1 had his when he was about 4 and he loved it. Played with it for hours. I once caught him eating a jammy dodger that was a bit worse for wear and rather soggy looking. I was a bit confused as we didn't have any in the house. I then discovered that he had been scooping the jam out of them and then storing the remaining biscuit in the hatch of his pirate ship to consume at a (much!) later date

Someone reassure me that it's OK for a girl to want a pirate ship .

I got ds2 a pirate ship last Christmas and he's played with it a lot - sometimes the pirates have battles with the Star Wars figures; it gets very complicated.

I want a pirate ship - preferably one with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom on it.

surfermum my DD loves it, her playmobil princess and unicorn often take it joyriding.

she isn't a weirdy then!

dd plays with it too - there are female pirates among the crew !

Do the girls have battles?
Is it a masculine aggression thing?

argos do the pirate ship and castle for £29.99, my eldest had them years ago and loved the ship and my youngest aged 2 plays with the ship in the docs surgery

ds2 got a fab pirate ship last year for christmas and he does like pirates on tv and pirate books...but he never played with it in fact i donated it to charity yesterday!

actually all these accounts of imaginative play make me wonder because ds2 just doesn't seem to bother!

DS1 has the Peter Pan pirate ship & it amuses them for ages in the bath!
They love to trap the baddies & sometimes drown them!!

My dd2 has a pirate ship, she loves anything with figures though.

Playmobil one went down well with my girls.