Caeden's Archaeological Dig

We sent Caeden on an archaeological dig in the backyard a few weeks back. We have been learning about King Tut, pyramids and all that fun stuff. He didn't discover mummies or artifacts during this dig, just some treasure from the dollar store. :) Justin made an old map for him and sent him on a hunt in the backyard. I was impressed with the wooden box he buried in the garden. It took awhile to dig it up, it was heavy and I had no clue how to open it. It made for a fun adventure.

Touring Ancient Egypt

Okay, so we aren't really touring Ancient Egypt but Caeden tells me that he wants to visit Africa! We have learned about the Nile River and plenty about Mummies and Pyramids. We still have a chicken mummy to do and I really need to get it going during these cold months. It will get nasty when the weather warms up. We learned about the flooding of the Nile and watched the crops grow. We made Cunieform clay tablets with Caeden's name written on them and wrote things in heiroglyphics too. We haven't even talked about King Tut yet!

Anyway, here are some fun links to fun stuff that's all about old stuff...and it wouldn't be fair to not show you some fun books too. :)

• Tour Egypt is a fun website that is for people wanting to travel to Egypt. We can't make a trip like that but they have lots of fun things for kids to do like, coloring pages, crafts and puzzles. Take a "tour" of animals in Egypt, learn about the pyramids and you can even shop for fun stuff.
• We are learning about all of Africa, not just Egypt. So we have been studying the animals that are from Africa. We use lots of books from the library. Some great ones are by Caroline Arnold and she covers all the animals individually as well as a fun book called African Animals. We also read Elephant Quest which is about elephants but also about other animals in Africa.

• While we learn about the animals, we learn to draw them in Draw, Write, Now-Dry Land Animals and Forest Animals. At the end of the year I am going to put all his drawings and writings in a book. He has started loving these books and asks for them all the time. They have been helpful with handwriting.

If you are in California, here is a great museum (or so I hear, we are going in a couple of months).
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Plantarium

We still have so much to learn! Happy touring!

Pyramids & Mummies

Just some of our favorites...

Mummies Made in Egypt (Reading Rainbow Book)

Pyramid

I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert

The Great Wonder: The Building of the Great Pyramid (Smithsonian Odyssey)

The Nile River-Part 1

For first grade history we have just started using the Veritas Press Timeline Flash Cards in combination with Story Of The World and it is all about Ancient Egypt! This week we made a model of the Nile River (which is the longest river in the world, over 4000 miles, it is in Africa, it flooded once a year......shall I go on?). It began like this....

Laying the pebbles out....

Planting the "crops"....

Happily flooding the Nile....

and so we watch it grow.....