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Ancient Egypt for a 4 year old

847 Views 11 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  joensally
My 4 year old has been really into reading about ancient Egypt lately. We have a book on mummies and one on the gods and goddesses, which she devours (the gods/goddess book is what she has chosen for her bedtime book the last few nights, LOL...).

Does anyone have any suggestions for more reading? The problem is finding books that are geared towards younger kids--anything past early elementary level is a bit too much for her.

Any activity suggestions?

Thanks!

(PS: I've cross-posted this in the Homeschool forum. Hope that's ok!)
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"If I were a kid. . . " series is good. I went to Amazon and searched for children's ancient Egypt and got pages of results. I know for our 9 year old, he has churned through a lot of those books and they are good for our 4 yo twins too.

I would guess there are some great Osborne books too. We have some on mythology that are great for beginner readers/beginner history buffs.
The Magic School Bus series has a book about Ancient Egypt. I think The Magic Tree House series may have one, too.
How about the horrible histories series
http://www5.scholastic.co.uk/zone/bo...-histories.htm

We're inheriting my brothers collection for my 5 year old next time we visit. I seem to remember him starting about collecting them at about 6.
Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt (Magic School Bus)
http://www.amazon.com/Ms-Frizzles-Ad.../dp/0590446819

We have this -- good book and something you can re-read and get more detail.
We have a hieroglyphic stamp kit that's fun. I'm not sure whether your 4 y.o. would like it. My kids were a little older when they used it. It isn't this one, but it's a similar idea:

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/...ptian-Symbols/
If you live even slightly close to NYC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great Egyptian section that's worth traveling for.

If the costs involved look scary, remember:
  • admission is a suggested donation, not a fee, How much you give is u to you. You can give a more reasonable $10 each (you can give $0.05, but that seems a bit extreme to me personally.)
  • If it's too far to be a day trip, you don't have to stay in NYC, there are plenty of reasonable family motels in the suburbs.
  • Though parking and tolls are expensive, you can park in the suburbs and take public transportation (though for a large group, driving yourselves might be cheaper.)
Quote:

Originally Posted by LaughingHyena View Post
How about the horrible histories series
http://www5.scholastic.co.uk/zone/bo...-histories.htm

We're inheriting my brothers collection for my 5 year old next time we visit. I seem to remember him starting about collecting them at about 6.
These might not be interesting for a four year old. They're not very visually interesting (black and white line drawings) and the content can be rough, with an emphasis on the gory and bizarre. DD was older 6 or 7 (???) when she got into them, and she regularly reads/rereads all of the series (Horrible Science and Horrible Geography; I can't get my hands on Horrible Maths). DS started them at 6 IIRC, but I don't know how much he actually reads them as much as looking at the cartoons.

Ditto the DK, MSB and the If I Were a Kid -those ones are great. Heiroglyphics are a lot of fun, and a child with good fine motor skills might enjoy carving words in heiroglyphs into clay. Good Times Travel Agency has an Ancient Egypt book, and Usborne has highly visual resources as well.

Ancient Egypt is a lot of fun, and both of my kids happily branched into a lot of Ancient World stuff and my daughter is a huge mythology buff, of all varieties.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by cdahlgrd View Post
"If I were a kid. . . " series is good. I went to Amazon and searched for children's ancient Egypt and got pages of results. I know for our 9 year old, he has churned through a lot of those books and they are good for our 4 yo twins too.

I would guess there are some great Osborne books too. We have some on mythology that are great for beginner readers/beginner history buffs.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by eepster View Post
If you live even slightly close to NYC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great Egyptian section that's worth traveling for.

We're in CA, so unfortunately a trip to NYC is not in the cards for us right now. We did go to the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose, CA (http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/), and if anyone is in the area I'd recommend checking it out. They have a few human mummies (one of a 4 year old girl), several animal mummies, and a re-created tomb, which DD really enjoyed.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I picked up the DK book at the library the other day and have requests in for others.


Some mentioned the Story of the World Activity Book in my other post; they have a chicken mummy activity that sounds really cool! FYI for those of you who also have kids really excited about mummies.
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The first book of Story of the World does a nice job of ancient Egypt in a way that's accessible to young children. We have the CDs as well which are nice for the car.
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