We Return to Egypt
This week we’re reading The Story of the World chapter two - Egyptians Lived on the Nile.
It tickles me that when I started reading the chapter, JediBoy said, “I used to like Egypt when I was little, Mom, but I don’t like it any more.” Can you hear the ennui in his voice? He thought, at the ripe old age of six, that he had been-there-done-that with Egypt and that Egyptology was a passion for babies. (What can you expect from the kid who insisted on being Thoth for Halloween when he was three?)
What tickles me about that is the way he was completely sucked in as I read on. Especially when we got to the second half of the chapter, which briefly touches on Egyptian mythology. He was able to keep up his I’m-so-bored face as we went on to read the book Ancient Egyptian Jobs by John Malam, which explained what real, everyday people did in Ancient Egypt. But when I pulled out Egyptian Myths by Jacqueline Morley, he couldn’t help but be drawn into the dramatic stories of the gods. He demanded that I keep reading, and keep reading, and keep reading until my throat was parched.
He has spent much of the rest of the day making “Ancient Egyptian Weapons” and “playing Egyptian” and describing to me the details of Ancient Egyptian life, and making really interesting statements (”I think the god we call GOD today is the god of the gods, and all these gods don’t exist anymore, but there are other gods now.”) and reading and rereading his book of History Dudes: Ancient Egyptians.
We are, of course, making a model of the Nile in a pan on the picnic table - yesterday we molded the river and delta from foil, added potting soil around it, planted grass seed and let it flood. Today we made four tiny pyramids - the three pyramids at Giza and the Step Pyramid - out of model magic (air-drying clay) to reside on the banks of our Nile. I’ll have pictures of that in another day or two, once the pyramids are dry and we can add them to the pan.
Filed under you could call this "school", pictures, history |4 Responses to “We Return to Egypt”
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Oh my gosh … I LOVE that costume!! Did you make it?
I love JediBoy’s ideas on theology.
Yup, that is one hand-made Thoth costume, because, wouldn’t you know, it’s not the sort of thing you can go out and buy!!
I bought a baseball cap at the thrift store and used papier-mache to cover the top and front and shaped it over an aluminum foil beak, then painted it with tempera paints. It was a lot of fun making it. The clothing bits are just white fleece with fabric paints for the designs. I made the kilt so big it went around him almost twice, and just pinned it shut, and he can still wear it now. The Thoth hat held up well too.
Thank you, thank you for your compliment! It was a very weird night of trick-or-treating, because he would get asked at every house, “Now, what are you?” and he’d launch into his whole speech… “I am Thoth, the Ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and writing….”
God! I can’t wait until he’s old enough to read American Gods.
That costume is so awesome!! I keep trying to get my older two kids into Egyptology with me but so far it’s been a no go. Hopefully I still have time to warp the 5 year old to my ways. *evil laugh*