We started a new year of homeschool last week and now we have a 2nd grader and a high schooler in our house….which makes it all a little crazier! (Homeschooling in high school is way different than middle school…trust me..) While Emma is trudging along with her massive high school course load, Ben and I have been diving right into 2nd grade history by exploring Ancient Egypt. Of course, we hit up the library and Pinterest to find loads of cool ideas and books to enjoy on the subject…and spent zero dollars along the way:)
Books on Ancient Egypt:
1. The Mystery of King Karfu by Doug Cushman was our favorite fictional book we read about Egypt. In this book, while helping the main character to solve a mystery, you are introduced to a lot of interesting facts about Ancient Egypt. Ben especially loved how the clues are hidden throughout the book in the detective’s journal entries. My favorite part was that we had to decode a series of hieroglyphics to find out what the lost treasure really was (Spoiler alert: It was not at all what we expected to find!)
2. Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures in Ancient Egypt by Joanna Cole
If you are familiar with the Magic School Bus series, you know that Ms. Frizzle loves to dive right into the school lesson…literally. In this book, the children travel back in time and get to find out first hand what life was really like in Ancient Egypt.
3. I Wonder Why the Pyramids Were Built by Philip Steele
I liked how this book was laid out because the author poses a popular question about Ancient Egypt and then answers it with a lot of fun details and pictures that a child can easily understand. **Ben did not like the section on how mummies were made…which was not a surprise:)
Fun Stuff
After reading all about Ancient Egypt, we headed over to Pinterest to find some fun activities and crafts to reinforce all of the facts we learned during the week.
We found this easy pin on how to make your very own sundial with just a paper plate, playdough, and a pencil.
Knowing that Ben loves to create anything artsy, I found this cute pin on creating a hieroglyphics tablet which Ben really enjoyed making (as did Emma…while taking a break from high school-ish stuff)
I also had Ben draw some Egypt-themed illustrations…which always give me a laugh!
After reading and creating things, I always try to ask Ben questions about what he learned, so here they are:
1. What is the name of the largest river in Egypt?
2. Name three animals that live in Egypt.
3. Why did the Egyptians build the pyramids?
4. What were the Ancient Egyptian kings called?
5. What kind of climate does Egypt have?
6. Where did the Ancient Egyptians grow all of their food?
Well that wraps up our unit on Ancient Egypt. I hope that this post gave you some insight into how you can homeschool for cheap (or even free) with just a little planning and a lot of Pinterest!
