My children really enjoy it when I can find a great game online to supplement our history studies. Here are a few we like:

We learned how to play Senet when we studied Ancient Egypt. This online version looks somewhat realistic, so you may want to check it out, especially if you are thinking of making your own Senet game at home.  But it is a little confusing, so for online play, I prefer this version from the BBC, which teaches the rules of this ancient board game and lets you play against the computer.  You will need Shockwave to play the BBC version.

Egyptian Tomb is more involved than the previous game. Kids get clues to solve a mystery by answering questions, doing simple map work, deciphering hieroglyphs and other exercises. There is some teaching about Egyptian gods and beliefs on this site. This site requires some reading ability. It’s not too hard as the answers to most questions are provided somewhere on the site. It’s a fun way to reinforce what you may already be learning about Ancient Egypt.

Not exactly a game, but this Egyptian Calculator is interesting…

Check out BBC’s kids game called Pyramid Challenge to see if you’ve got what it takes to be a pyramid builder.

They haven’t played it yet, but I know my boys will enjoy this embalming game, which teaches about how mummies were made.  It’s kind of gross, but pretty educational, and they aren’t squeamish types…

My boys absolutely LOVE Civilization and other “builder” games.  Nile online is a similar concept, free to play, and requires no downloads (only registration).  They haven’t played it yet, but I’ll post an update here once they have a chance to rate it.

I found a few of the Egyptian games in this post through the site Ancient Egyptian Games.  They have so many!  Hoping to get some good apps for my iPod through them, too.

Last year when we studied the Mayans we played this online Mayan Ball game. It was also neat to watch this brief video re-enactment of a Mayan Ball game.

Jacobites the 1745 Rebellion begins with a very brief video, and poses the question, “Could you have done a better job if you were the leader of the Jacobites?” As kids read information and learn more about the people involved they are asked to make decisions. Some responses prompt video clips of battle re-enactments. Definitely click the “funky” button to view this in flash. It’s much more interactive than the simple site.

Scottish Wars of Independence is an online board game. Kids spin and move around the board. Every square they land on opens up a fact file about this time period. Kids choose the 6 events they feel to be the most important and add them to a list. At the end of the game they find out whether they chose wisely or not.

Vikings in Scotland gives kids opportunities to answer questions to complete game tasks in “Build a longship” and “Build a longhouse”. Some answers are provided on video clips (at least in the Flash site) for kids to watch after they answer. The more kids know, the faster their boat/longhouse is built. There is also another game on the site, where kids try and sail their longboat around a map, accomplishing various tasks along the way.

We really enjoy the viking board game Hnefetafl. This site provides English rules partway down the page, or click here to read the rules I wrote out (which may be easier to understand!) To play this game online, click on one of the boards displayed. Each one yields a slightly different variation of the game. Don’t forget to click English on the board game page or you’ll be playing in Danish.

BBC Schools has lots of games, including some games for Modern Times.

I like Scotland During the Second World War. My 2nd grader has played this and he enjoyed it. Kids pretend to be a spy, gathering information to help them progress through the game.

My kids have not played their WW1 game Trench Warfare yet, but I suspect they will like it. It does require quite a lot of reading, but you are able to choose which weapons you want to fight with and then see a cartoon video of the chosen weapon in action. Then you are briefed as to how well you did and why. This game doesn’t teach much, other than the pros and cons of various battle tactics in WW1, but it will probably be a hit with boys.

I’ve heard great things about the BBC’s Dance Mat Typing but my kids have not used this yet, either. Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out. And it’s great! Seeing is believing. We will definitely be using this game.

For more great online games, check out the list of interactive history games offered for kids by the BBC.

I was too nervous about the carpet to use actual paint…so I put a bin of markers in the room and the kids basically just wandered in and doodled whenever they had some spare time.

For viewing the paintings, we used a couple Glade Wisp Flameless Candles. My kids LOVE these! Check your Sunday paper, as there are often coupons. I’ve gotten several of these for free (or virtually free) by saving my coupons until the candles go on sale at Walgreens.

When my boys have “camp-outs” in their tents, they color paper to look like a fire and tape it around one of these candles. The candles are perfectly safe, as they are battery operated, but they seem to flicker like a real fire. We’ve had lots of fun with them!

I gave each boy a handout that showed, step by step, how to measure the size of the pyramid, select the appropriate amount of sugar cubes and build the pyramid to scale. Each boy also had a cardboard platform (made from the side of a cereal box), a bottle of glue, a marker and a box of sugar cubes.

Knox didn’t bother marking anything. He just poured about half a bottle of glue on his cardboard, slapped down some sugar cubes, poured more glue on top and did another layer, and so on.

I kept warning him his pyramid would not turn out right without careful measuring and counting, but he didn’t seem to care! Each boy had been promised a sugar cube to eat when their pyramid was done, and getting that sugar cube in short order was Knox’s primary objective!

In spite of what I perceived as carelessness, Knox’s pyramid turned out perfectly! It seems that this activity was mere child’s play to his engineer’s mind. He perceived in 30 seconds what needed to be done, did it and moved on.

Colin and Jack, on the other hand, were much more careful. They laid out the base of their sugar cube pyramids and traced an outline around the base with a marker.

Next, they removed the cubes, painted the inside of the outline with glue and replaced the bottom layer of cubes. In spite of these precautions, Colin still felt that his pyramid base was not perfect. He took great care to turn each cube until all sides were even and flat, and fit exactly within the glued area.

After laying the base, they carefully painted the inner cubes before placing the next layer. Each layer was gradually smaller….the base was 6 x6, the next layer 4 x 4, then 2 x 2 and then 1 cube for the top. Jack made his larger, starting with 7 x 7, then 5 x 5 and so on.

This activity was easy enough for 3 year old Cal to participate in. He enjoyed it, too, especially eating a sugar cube at the end!

I got four male dolls at a garage sale and instructions from one of my favorite crafty homeschool sites. One doll even had a leg that kept falling off, but it didn’t matter for our purposes! If you have girls, feel free to use a Barbie!

1) We talked about the internal organs and drew a red heart on each doll to signify the fact that the Egyptians mummified the heart separately and then placed it back inside the body.

2) Next, we wiped the bodies down with “wine”. For this step, we used equal parts water and white wine vinegar, and a cotton ball to apply it to the dolls.

Knox thought it was funny to give his Hulk Hogan doll a bath. I’m glad to see him so happy!

3) Then, we used a clean cotton ball to wipe the bodies down with a mixture of olive oil and cinnamon.

4) Then the bodies were sprinkled with Kosher salt.

5) We set the bodies aside to dry. This isn’t strictly necessary in my opinion. The site where I got these instructions said that they let theirs dry for 40 minutes, to symbolize the 40 days it took to mummify a body. The dolls need to be cleaned before wrapping anyway, so you could skip this step.

6) While the dolls were drying we cut out amulets from fun foam to place inside the wrappings.

We also tore the fabric strips we would need for the wrapping. I was not strict about getting muslin, as it was not cheap.

I just got several pieces of white or off white remnant fabric. We cut the strips about one inch wide…once a cut was started they could easily be ripped the rest of the way by hand. That was, by far, the fastest way to tear the strips. We saved a bit of fabric for covering the heads and feet of the dolls (see step 8).

7) In Ancient Egypt, of course, the bodies weren’t washed again before wrapping, but the dolls were really greasy from the olive oil and yucky from all the salt. I washed the dolls and dried them with paper towels before the next step.

8) I read on this site that it is easiest to do the wrapping if you cut out a large square of fabric for the head and another for the feet and attach the squares with rubberbands.

By the way, that same site has instructions for making a mummy out of tinfoil which mimics the shape of a Barbie but doesn’t ruin the doll. They also tell you how to dye the linen strips in two different strengths of hot tea to mimic more natural mummy coloring.

I thought about using the tea for a few minutes, but reminded myself: this is supposed to be relatively quick and easy. It doesn’t have to be museum quality, Molly!

9) We just dipped each strip in a paste made of one part flour to three parts water and wound the strips around the dolls.

Of course, three year old Cal insisted on doing his all by himself!

10) We just did this today, but I believe it takes a day or two for the dolls to dry.

One of the boys refused to use the paste on his linen strips. He didn’t want to ruin his doll, even though none of my boys has ever played with G.I. Joe type dolls. Can you tell which one isn’t truly mummified?

This was a fun activity. We all enjoyed it! As three year old Cal was placing his completed mummy on the table to dry he said, “This was great, mom!! This was really great!!”

My first stop today was Goodwill, to buy some white sheets that we could use for costumes. On the way in, I quickly asked the Lord to help me find something I could use for playing pieces for the games I wanted to do tonight. I needed 20 pieces and had no idea what I would find. I was thinking maybe checkers or something.

Why is it I am still surprised by His extravagance? Right there, in the front window, was this game, “Escape the Mad Mummy”. Guess how many Egyptian-themed tokens were inside the box??? Twenty. It even came with a big pyramid.

Next, I went to Walmart to get the food for the feast. I found everything I needed, even fig jam! The shopping was the hardest part of throwing this feast together, and I’ve already told you how easily that was done!

When I got home, I printed out some recipes (see bottom of this post) and got started on the feast. We had a tray of fruits and vegetables (grapes, raisins, chopped dates, lettuce, cucumbers and radishes), a bowl of sliced melon, “Ancient Egyptian” marinated chicken, and carmelized leeks. I also served sliced bread, a staple of the Egyptian diet, along with a choice of spreads (hummus, honey and fig jam, all store-bought). For dessert, I made Egyptian Tiger Sweets. It seems that the Egyptians didn’t eat a lot of meat, but poultry was available and my husband and four sons are not willing to eat vegetarian, even for one meal, so I threw that in to appease them.

This was a great summer meal, with very little cooking. The leeks took less than 20 minutes to prepare on the stove, and the chicken was grilled. Other than that, the only prep work was slicing fruit and bread! The kids were asked to taste everything, which they were willing to do. They didn’t like the leeks, dates or radishes, but they made up for it in chicken, bread and fruit consumption. I knew I was right to make the chicken!

While the leeks were cooking I quickly made the costumes. It took less than 15minutes to make all six. Instructions are at the bottom of this post.

The boys wore kilts and I had a simple Egyptian-style dress. I wrapped the kilts around the boys’ waists, tucking the loose end in at the waist. The little boys thought it was great fun when their kilts accidentally fell off, again and again and again, so I had to use safety pins to hold them together. The boys and my husband all wore their kilts, and no shirts or shoes. I had found some Egyptian necklaces in a gumball machine at Kroger last week, so we all had those, too. The look was complete when I applied some black eyeshadow with a damp brush above and below everyone’s eyes.
While we were setting up the games, Cal slipped into my bathroom and got into the black eye makeup. He came out proudly, saying, “Look, mommy! Now I have Egyptian hands!”

After dinner, we played the Egyptian games. I had already printed a gameboard and the rules to play the ancient Egyptian game Senet. My kids have been enjoying an online version of the ancient Egyptian game Hounds and Jackals, and I wanted to find a way to make a board for that, too. I ended up printing out two additional Senet boards which I cut up and taped onto two pieces of cardstock to make a nice Hounds and Jackals board.

We all enjoyed playing the games, especially Colin. He has been wanting to learn Senet all week.  Here are some instructions for how to play Hounds and Jackals.  The board they are using looks more like a cribbage board, with pegs, but our homemade board worked fine with some modifications.  We didn’t have the fancy dice, either, but regular dice can work fine, too…just modify the instructions to fit what you have!

I have read that Hounds and Jackals is similar to our American game of Snakes and Ladders.  If Hounds and Jackals seems too complicated, you could use a Snakes and Ladders board instead to play something a little more familiar to little ones and readily available.

This was really a fun evening. At bedtime, 3 year old Cal folded his kilt and put it on his dresser, “For the next time we play Egyptians!” I asked him what his favorite part was and he said, “I had two favorite parts. The games and the feast.” Those were my favorite parts, too!

Recipes:

I found a list of common Egyptian foods in our curriculum. For recipes, I did a search online. I am not an expert in ancient Egyptian cuisine. If someone else said the recipe was “authentic”, that was good enough for me.

Korrat (Leeks)

Ingredients

2 lbs. leeks
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil
lemon juice
salt

Wash the leeks carefully to remove any soil between the leaves. Trim the root ends and cut off the tough green part of the leaves. Slice the rest into 2 inch pieces.

Fry the garlic and sugar in hot oil for a moment, just until the sugar becomes slightly carmelized. Add the leeks and turn them, over low heat, until they become slightly colored. Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt. Pour on enough water to barely cover the leeks and stew them gently over low heat until they are tender and the liquid is reduced. This took about 15 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Tiger Nut Sweets

Ingredients
I put about 1/2 cup of chopped dates in the food processor until they were ground. Then I added about 1/2 cup pecans (the recipe calls for walnuts, but I didn’t have any). I added a splash of water, just so it would hold together. You can add cinnamon, but I did not. Shape the mixture into balls, coat in honey and roll in either ground almonds (I didn’t have these either, so I used sesame seeds). Cal and I LOVED these, but the other boys and my husband all thought they were too sweet.

Ancient Egyptian Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 onion, grated
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together and pour over chicken. The recipe says to cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to overnight. I only marinated the chicken for about 30 minutes before grilling it and it tasted great!

Directions for Egyptian Costumes:
I had purchased 3 twin sized white sheets. I left one untouched, for my husband. That was easy! I folded the second sheet in half (top to bottom) and then in half again (side to side). I cut the sheet in half so that I had two pieces, both folded top to bottom.

I took one of them and cut along the fold, making two pieces, both 1/4 the size of the twin sheet. Those became the kilts for the littlest boys. Cal’s was still too long, so I folded it in half to make a long, narrow strip. It was perfect!

I took the other half of that sheet and cut out a square in the middle of the fold for my head. I used Stitch Witchery, which is an iron-on product that requires no sewing, to close up the sides of my Egyptian dress, making sure to leave holes at the top for arms. I realized too late that my sheet was too sheer, so I ended up wearing a white skirt and t-shirt underneath.

I took the last sheet and cut it in half to make two larger kilts for the bigger boys. Voila! In less than 15 minutes we had 6 costumes, with no sewing. I think it will take very little to turn these awesome Egyptian costumes into Roman or Greek costumes later this year.

Never say never.

Here’s Jack, stirring the salt mixture today.

Our 11 year old and 8 year old remember when King Cluck was embalmed, and our 6 year old and 3 year old want the opportunity to preserve King Cluck II. I want my oldest boys to build on what they learned when we did this the first time, so I am actually considering taking it a step further. We may bury it in the backyard and dig it up next year to see if it really worked! Here’s a link showing what happened when some kids did just that.

My kids want to bury it for 4 years and dig it up next time we study Ancient Egypt. I’m not sure if I can bring myself to go that far.

Supplies needed for this project:
baking powder (3 cans)
baking soda (3 boxes)
chicken (small, or cornish hen)
freezer bags (large, get lots of them)
paper towels
plastic gloves
rubbing alcohol
salt (about 10 boxes)

Here are the directions:

1)First, put on gloves!

2) Remove the neck and package of organ meats. You can dispose of these or mummify them, too!

3) Wash the chicken well with hot running water. Pat dry with the paper towels. Wash again with the rubbing alcohol and pat dry. Wash the inside of the cavity, also. Make sure to dry the chicken as much as possible inside and out before continuing to step 4.

4) Mix 1 box baking soda, 1 can baking powder and 4 boxes of salt in a large bowl. We used a 5 gallon ice cream bucket. You can add cinnamon to help with the smell.

5) Put some of the salt mixture into the bottom of a ziploc bag. Place the chicken inside the ziploc bag on top of the salt. Pour some of the mixture into the cavity until it is full. Then pour more salt into the bag until the chicken is totally covered. Place the sealed bag inside a second freezer bag and seal. We like to place these bags into a styrofoam cooler with a lid (I got one of these at the Dollar store), as it really will start stinking soon. If you have salt mixture left, save it for tomorrow.

You might decide you want to get some small masks, too!

6) Check the chicken every day for the first week. If the salt is wet, put on your gloves, remove the chicken from the bag, dust off the salt and repeat step #5, using a fresh ziploc bag. You will probably need lots of the salt mixture, so you might want to mix up a bunch and keep it in a big bucket or ziploc bag.

7) After the first week, check the chicken once per week. If the salt is wet, transfer it to a clean bag and add more of the salt mixture inside the cavity and around its body. You’ll probably need to do this about once every 5 to 10 days.

8) After about 6 weeks, put on gloves, remove the chicken from the bag, and dust it off as much as possible. Wet a paper towel and wipe away any remaining salt. Dry it immediately afterward with paper towels.

9) Rub scented oil inside the chicken and out. You can make this oil by filling a jar with cooking or baby oil and adding a combination of pleasant-smelling spices to it. Allow it to sit in a sunny location for a week. Shake the jar 2 to 3 times a day. Drain the oil and discard the spices. This can be used in the mummy making process or as an Egyptian “perfume”. *Note: if you didn’t make this oil up ahead of time, and you are preparing your bird for wrapping right now, you can rub the body with dry spices and and then rub in unscented oil.

10) Stuff the inside of the bird with fabric or sawdust and spices (optional).

11) To wrap the bird, tear linen into 1″ strips. I am not a “purist” so we will use a cheaper, white remnant fabric rather than linen. Mix white glue and water (1 to 2 parts water to one part glue).

12) Dip the fabric strips into the glue, then begin wrapping. Wrap the wings and legs separately, and then the body. You will need to wrap the chicken in at least 2 to 3 layers. We are planning to wrap some amulets into the mummy (like the Egyptians did). We’ll cut our amulets in Egyptian shapes out of colored fun foam.

13) The boys are calling the styrofoam cooler a Sarcophagus already, so we will probably decorate that as well, before (possibly) burying it.

The fiasco: Apparently, we used a no-bake dough recipe. I didn’t read carefully enough, and here is what happened as a result:

Just as the Nile River overflowed its banks every year, this molten mixture would not be contained by a mere jelly roll pan, and oozed all over the bottom of the oven. Oblivious until we smelled smoke, we enjoyed reading about Egypt from A Child’s Geography: The Holy Land while the kids colored pictures in their History notebooks.

Once we realized our cookie dough maps weren’t turning out as hoped, we quickly switched to plan B. I got out some refrigerated dough (kept on hand for cookie emergencies!) and baked those up instead. I pressed them into a pan, and cut it into four wedges after it cooled. The kids were able to refer to a copy of my Teacher’s Map of Egypt, which shows the locations of the Nubian Desert, the Sinai Peninsula, the Red Sea, Nile River Delta, Pyramids at Giza, etc. Each child had a plate of M&Ms, chocolate chips, Hershey’s kisses, sprinkles and bowls of blue and green frosting with which to re-create an edible map of Egypt. We even used the molten no-bake dough as sand.

Even 3 year old Cal enjoyed this activity tremendously, and showed great discipline not to eat his cookie until his map was finished.

This activity is a keeper. In spite of the mess, I enjoyed it lots more than the Salt Dough Maps we made last year. Besides being fun, no one begged to keep their maps for posterity’s sake. Everyone was happy to eat the results of their hard work, and between the reading, looking at the map and careful placement of Hershey’s kisses pyramids, blue frosting Nile, M&M mountains and molten sandy deserts, everyone learned a lot!

The No-Bake recipe for this activity is:
2 cups peanut butter
2 1/2 cups dry powdered milk
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
one 16 ounce bottle of light corn syrup.
Mix together and form maps on waxed paper.

If you want a baked version, use any bar cookie recipe. We used Pillsbury refrigerated dough balls, pressed together into a cookie sheet, then cut into large squares.