Ancient Egypt

We were lost in the sands of Egypt for quite a while. Jasper decided he really liked the ancient Egyptians!  There are so many resources for learning about ancient Egypt, that the problem is wading through them to find the best ones.  I thought I'd share some of our favorites.

Jasper loves to approach history through stories.  We read several historical novels set in ancient Egypt. They all had women as their protagonists, maybe because there are a good number of really intriguing women in Egyptian history. Sphinx's Princess  by Esther Friesner is a wonderful story based on the life of Nefertiti. His Majesty, Queen Hatsheput  by Dorothy Sharp Carter tells the story of a woman who dared to be pharaoh. Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Schecter imagines the life of Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of the last queen of Egypt.

Jasper really loved learning about Egyptian mythology. Our two most favorite books on this subject were Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs by Marica Willliams, with charming illustrations that resemble actual Egyptian art, and Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology  by Geraldine Harris, a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated treasure.  It compares well to that legendary classic of Greek Mythology which every kid outta read, D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.

By far our best resource was Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz.  This classic book was revised and updated in 2009, so there is little that is now out of date.  It gave us a framework for understanding the whole of ancient Egypt, and includes all the principle tales from their mythology.  We listened to it on audiobook, and narrator Lorna Raver made this a joy. It's nonfiction for adults, but we never found it dull.

In addition, we watched many documentaries on ancient Egypt.  One of the best was Ancient Egypt Unearthed, a Discovery Channel series that includes in great detail how they finally identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, revealing how she really died.  Jasper thought Hatshepsut was awesome and was pleased to know that she died of natural causes at an "old age", rather than being poisoned by her heir, Thutmosis III.  Another movie Jasper loved was Families of Egypt which depicts the lives of two modern day Egyptian children and their families.

Jasper was intrigued by hieroglyphs, but I knew that if I tried to show him how to draw some of them, he'd quickly lose interest.  It occurred to me that there ought to be hieroglyph stamp sets, and indeed there are.  The one we picked was this one. It includes 21 phonetic symbols and 8 ideograms. There is another one which was created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is also nicely made, and the stamps are smaller.  It has 24 stamps and I believe they are all phonetic symbols.  Smaller stamps are probably easier to write messages with, and more phonetic symbols makes it easier to approximate English.  But if you might want to use them to emboss things, such as clay, the larger ones would work well.  Jasper found a delightful penpal, a homeschooler on the east coast who also has a stamp set, and they exchanged a couple letters.  Jasper was really pleased about this, and it really helped him to pick up the sounds that go with the symbols.  Occasionally he would be watching a documentary with me and excitedly point out hieroglyphs he recognized.

French toymaker Papo has a wonderful line of ancient Egyptian figurines and a really cool chariot, for those kids who really get into it! Mine did, and they have been galloping all over the house!