Cherysh Does: The Egyptian Experience

You may have noticed we are learning about Ancient History this year. We have journeyed through the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt (with detours to other civilizations in between) and are now in the New Kingdom. There have been so many resources to learn about Ancient Egypt from that we have had no trouble finding materials and ideas to read, watch, draw or make, craft and create - all manner of educational (shhh! don't tell the kids!) possibilities ....

Here I am posting photos where we are making death masks (inspired by Tutankhamen), and false beards (inspired by Hatshepsut). We were going to have a go at Nubian gold jewellery, - well, you'll see!

Here we are learning about incense and how it was used in the temples. They were fascinated! I haven't used it since I was a teenager and it makes so much dust my hay-fever just can't handle it - give me oils any day. Needless to say they want to burn some all the time now... If I let them, will they get it out of their system, I wonder?

Trying to catch the smoke!

We started by making our false beards, like Pharaoh Hatshepsut - who was really a woman but dressed like a man so that she could rule Egypt.

Then our tyrannical reign could begin....

Then we started on our death masks. They drew out the design first and then painted them.

We decided to paint the inside and use colouring pencil on the outside. Why not?

And behold.....

We had learned about how the Egyptians would sometimes be paid wages in makeup, so I was impressed to see it make an appearance on the death mask!

Mum made one for Master 2, because he was having a nap and would put up a Royal Stink if left out! Not that she needed much of an excuse to pick up a paint brush....

Master 2 did want one!

The line up...

Walk like an Egyptian?

A Crazy Egyptian?

And finally, the Nubian gold. Egypt conquered Nubia for it's resources, gold, iron and ivory to name a few. They used it to make some beautiful jewellery, among other things. So we were going to make some golden cuff bracelets. But Miss 8 decided Wonder Woman was much cooler. I had to agree.

I love the face - dead-set determination!

Our Horrible Histories Adventure!

We looooove Horrible Histories! Really, they are so much fun and the kids don't mind learning when it is that enjoyable, so I am quite happy to let them be watched or read when ever the mood takes them. So when we saw that they were going to show the Horrible Histories Awful Egyptians at the Sydney Opera House... well that was an opportunity not to be missed!

Our adventure started with the walk from the station to Circular Quay. We had plenty of time (Mum didn't want to be rushed!) so we managed to fight our way through the sea of Lion supporters; there was the final Wallabies vs. Lions game at Olympic Park that evening..., but that is a 'whole other story', and not one with a happy ending if you were a Wallabies supporter...! Point is, there was barely room to move in Sydney this day, it was incredible. We were keen to visit the Customs House, where there is a model of Sydney central under the floor. It is wonderful!

By now we had been into 'town' a few times, so Master 10 knew enough to show some 'tourists' around!

The tourists would come and go and we had a couple of moments when there was just us and a whole city to explore!

'We've been here, here, here, here, here....'

If you had the chance to imagine you were a giant, wouldn't you smash the Sydney Opera House?

A bit blurry, but I love this picture. Yes, I KNOW he is lying on a really dirty floor, but he was so caught up in exploring, it was wonderful.

Giant Koalas, Crikey!
We also felt the need to put on some Aussie colours; our small effort to even the rugby supporters out!

It was so bright, difficult for my poor wee camera to get a good shot - and a miracle to get some space to take one!

Getting closer....

Can you say 'excited'??

I was instructed to take a photo of each of them 'We're TOUCHING THE Opera house!' My goodness...

Then we were INSIDE the Opera House! And the lift has NO ROOF, how COOOL! And they have toilets! It was really all a bit much how excited they were! Still, it was lovely to watch!

Difficult to make out, stuck high on the wall in the gift shop: The 'Key' to the Opera House

I said 'No' to the beautiful but incredibly priced Lego that I knew would end up in the box with the rest of the Lego and drive me crazy....

There were some excellent holiday arts projects on while we were visiting. This activity was a beautiful collective project. If I had been on my own I would have done it, for hours..... but it was not to be! You can see by the 'completed' works hanging on the walls in the background that only select coloured oil pastels were put out at any one time. Then the children were given a mask so they couldn't see, and some headphones playing classical music, and told to draw what they felt. The idea being that you let your hand and mind wander, and just create for the sake of it. I thought it was very interesting that Master 10 concentrated so hard and drew a picture (I forget what of! It was an engineering theme!), because his personality is pretty rigid with Aspergers; one does not draw what one feels, what is the point of that? It defies 'logic'. He did however, allow himself to be 'led' by what he imagined, which was pretty amazing for him actually. Surprisingly, Miss 8, who usually jumps at the chance to follow the artistic opportunity down any rabbit hole, was not interested! It left me quite bewildered!

Boy did it make my heart glad to see him enjoying creative expression :)

Then finally, after much waiting and an incredible display of patience on their part, we were allowed to go into the theater.

I wish I could have taken more photos or there had been a programme to bring home so there would be more to show here. My paraphrased version of the plot was some Archaeologists (who were robbing an antiquities museum!) were sent back in time to the reign of Ramses the Great. The audience were treated to a mummification and a trip through judgement to the after life, with many other gems (like what really happened to Tutankhamen) along the way. It. Was. Awesome.

To our disbelief and delight, it was announced that the second half would be 3D. Cynically I observed that it was a live stage play.... Through the use of a projector the actors were able to take us 'through' a pyramid (with some grave robbers!); it was very well done. We were also attacked by a giant cobra, caught in a rock fall and chased by the Ka of a disturbed mummy. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed!

There were a few songs along the way that the kids sang for some time afterwards, but thankfully not for a while since! All in all, it was completely brilliant and exceedingly enjoyable.

There is always something fascinating happening in Sydney. We saw a wedding photo shoot - so snuck one of the Roller for ourselves ;) Then we went into a mall.... up and down so many levels - we discovered the cool Lego wall mural of Bondi in a toy store.... and we ended up in a food-court below ground level somewhere. It was light when we went in; we ate some dinner, then followed the signs and ended up going two blocks and under a major intersection to the train station - underground! It was a little disorienting!