The Sojourn in Egypt Part II, or, Shaduf!

Half way through as I write this, this is what we've done so far.

First off, resources:
Hands down best book ever: Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself by Carmella Van Vleet. This book is a well thought out unit study! Fantastic information, interestingly presented and tons of interesting, impressive, not too difficult projects about meaningful things. Umm. I like it. And she 's written a bunch of other books! The first 2 pictures are from projects from this book. The first is a "gilded papyrus" boat (floating in my yellow bathtub.) The second is a working (!) miniature shaduf (imagine a seesaw with a rock on one end and a bucket hanging from the other end. It allows you to draw enough water from a river or canal to irrigate your fields). The book also tells you how to build a much larger shaduf, but we lacked space. And big enough sticks. And a pond. The only down side to this book: no color photos. But there are other books for that!

Like the Egyptian Mummies Pop Up Book! And if you want eye popping photos, there is always the DK line of Eye Witness books, including one on Ancient Egypt, one on the pyramids and one on King Tut. But really, that's just going to the library and picking out books with good visuals. One of the best things about a popular topic in early September is that you can choose the 15 best books about Egypt (as opposed to their one book about samurai...).


I also had a ton of stuff from Dover books including a nifty pop out book of 3 mummy cases (photo by Mxyl).(Oooh! On sale for $3.18!). I like Dover a lot. Great stuff, cheap and they send out free samples every week (which is what got us hooked on Beowulf)! We have several Egyptian themed coloring books from them also.

We have a number of Egyptian themed (store bought) posters hanging around, including one that came with stickers to make a scene. I am hoping to make a mural later.


Naturally, when I asked what the weekly cookies should be, they wanted mummy cookies. Hmm. Yummy Mummy cookies. I found some recipes online, but decided they were too much work, so I adapted my favorite candy cane cookie recipe. I dropped the mint and red color and added almond flavoring. They were a bit like Mexican Wedding cookies with out the nuts. The main thing was they were sculptable into mummy like shapes... I used powdered sugar at the end to make the lines more visible. I made a double batch but am giving the recipe as a single batch.

Recipe for Yummy Mummies:
1 c. butter (can be part shortening)
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 egg
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp salt
extra powdered sugar for rolling

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar.
Mix in egg, salt and flavorings.
Mix in flour.
Roll into oblongs or mummy shapes.
Make diagonal crossing lines (for wrappings) with a knife.
Bake 9 minutes, then roll or sprinkle with powdered sugar.


That brings us to yesterday. I decided we needed to see an actual mummy, so we had a "Take Mommy to See a Mummy" day. For all the times I've wished for a more rural lifestyle, I must admit it was nice to think about which free world class museum to visit to look at their mummies.

We went to the Walters. We saw 3 mummies (a woman, a child, and a cat) complete with canopic jars and nesting sarcophagi (but none of black stone!). We also saw 2 large stone statues of the cat goddess Sekhmet, which Zorg loved. She's the one with the lion head instead of the more peaceful Bastet.

We have talked quite a bit about Egyptian religion, belief in life after death, and the intersections of Egyptian history with the Bible. It's been a good way to talk about how and why other people have different beliefs than our own.

I forgot about the cat statues we made! And the ancient Egyptian candy! What would an immersive unit study be without food! Ah, well! More later.