So over the summer Eli and I have started reading The Magic Tree House book series aloud {me reading}. We LOVE our adventure books! You see, the tree house takes the two children to wherever they point to in a book. It takes them to all different time periods and countries! We typically read an entire book in one sitting because they're that good. And then afterward we spend some time learning more about the place we read about! I actually started Eli a notebook just for these tree house books. After we finish a book I have him draw a picture about it. Book #1 I had him draw a picture of a tree house. Book #2 I had him draw a volcano and the town of Pompeii. Book #3 I had him draw a pyramid. And then we continue with more learning activities. Here's what we did after reading Mummies in the Morning, a book about Egypt, pyramids, and mummies! Activites (you could go MUCH more depth but I just wanted to do a little overview): 1. Find Egypt on a world map. I would LOVE to have a huge poster of a world map for the play room, perhaps one with some images that depict the different regions but have yet to find one. Haven't really searched much though either. 2. Look at pictures and diagrams of real pyramids. 3. Build your own pyramid -- paper craft found HERE. You're supposed to coat it with sand, but after I selected some "clean" sand from our sandbox it still smelled like cat poop so I threw it out and we just left it as the paper pyramid. 4. Write your name in hieroglyphics using the symbol key. In the story Jack and Annie decoded hieroglyphics to help the ghost-Queen find her way to the Afterlife. These are all our names HANNAH, SARAH, ELIJAH (Eli wanted to put his full name), and DAD. Carter was napping so he wasn't part of the activity. Eli did his own but I helped with the others. 5. Play a mummy computer game. This "treasure hunt" helps you learn more about Egyptian traditions and some of the things they include in the mummy's tomb. 6. Using toilet paper wrap each other like a mummy. I chose Hannah to wrap up because 1) I would take a lot of toilet paper to be wrapped. and 2) Eli was more likely to be the better wrapper. Although I did most of this. (note: I used curtain tie backs to tie Hannah's feet and arms together so should wouldn't accidentally break through the paper right away.) 7. Watch a History Channel Netflix video about pyramids and what's inside! Fun family activity! 8. Discussion: What IS the Afterlife and how do WE get there?
