DIY Little Passports: Egypt

We’re starting our global adventure this year in the fabulous land of Egypt! Ancient Egypt, mostly… Our kiddo is ready to explore the culture and wonder of Egypt with books, crafts, souvenirs, interactive surprises, and even a movie. Check it out!

In This Package

I saw this “Uncover an Egyptian Mummy” book at Costco around Christmas time, and I had to get it! Good thing, too, because it was the last one left, and I can’t find it anywhere online! Each page interactively shows you the different steps of the Egyptian mummification process with 3D pieces plus detailed info on what the Ancient Egyptians believed. The canopic jars page might be my favorite because of how they designed everything to fit. Kind of creepy but really cool! My other option was an Egyptian Mummy Dig kit which might be better if you have a kid that likes the idea of mummies but not the nitty gritty details. This served as this month’s souvenir, and hopefully it will last her longer than a one-time use dig kit.

The Letter

Once my kiddo opens her box, this is the first thing she sees! Still don’t have a printer, so I typed this letter up and paper clipped the post card and smaller items like stamps and stickers so that she gets super excited about opening the rest.

Things mentioned in the letter:

• The Nile River
• Ancient Egypt
• Pyramids
• Falafel Recipe
• Hieroglyphics
• Stories set in Egypt (Joseph, Moses)
• Crafts to try

There actually weren’t that many easy crafts that I found for this month! The clay that I had on hand wasn’t the kind you can bake, so I couldn’t include it for making a cartouche—but that would have been cool. Instead I stuck with paper projects like a paper plate collar to cut and decorate, and an Egyptian headband with a snake to cut and color.

I actually bought an already-made digital file for an Egyptian hieroglyphics decoder for secret messages, thinking that I wouldnt have to do more than quickly get it printed. However, I had major technical difficulties and ended up not being able to download or get any help for it… Such a bummer since it was really cute, but a total waste of time and money for me. I had to complete the package, and it was feeling kind of empty in the box, so I definitely wanted to make one.I traced circles onto cardstock and colored construction paper using a snack plate and a bowl that was slightly smaller.
Didn’t even have a ruler haha! On the construction paper larger circle, I eyeballed the middle and used the straight edge of a folder to mark a straight line in pencil. Then I kept dividing the sections in half by creating more lines until I had 32 sections. Then I looked up some hieroglyphs and freehanded it! I ended up doing the alphabet phonetically, plus “th”, “kh”, and some other cool looking symbols. Just below the hieroglyphs I put the translation.
Then I decorated the smaller cardstock circle after using an exacto knife to cut a small window to see the answer. I asked Jer for help on how to attach it together to be able to spin since I didn’t have a brad, and he brilliantly showed me how to secure a string to a bead and tape the ends to the back, then glue a hard backing so that the string isn’t visible.

Additional Resources

Our library has been an “oasis” of learning materials for these projects. I looked all of these titles up at our local library’s online catalog, reserved them on the website, and they were all ready for me to pick up and check out within a couple of days! Before I let my daughter read them, I review them first. I skipped the more advanced books that resemble textbooks or large reference books on Egyptian Art, and opted for more kid-friendly ones about specific aspects of Egyptian life and history. I like to include fun picture or story books especially folk tales, as well as any that might have a recipe with a photo to encourage us to cook it together.

Cost Breakdown

• Real Stamps: Included in initial cost
• Postcard, Sticker, Play Stamp: Included in initial cost
• Crafts: FREE, all materials already on hand
• Uncovering an Egyptian Mummy Souvenir: $13.99

Total Cost: $13.99

How It’s Going

L has been engrossed in all her books. The first one she pulled out was the hieroglyphics one, and she didn’t put it down or look at another book until she had read every page. She did have a nightmare about mummies after seeing a real pic of one in a book (not the book I got her), so I’d say be cautious if you have sensitive little ones.

We watched both Joseph King of Dreams and The Prince of Egypt today, so she’s been singing the music and dancing about telling me all about scarab beetle jewelry and where Canaan is on her map. She’s done with all her shorter books, and it’s only been a day. L has now started dropping hints to me how cool it would be to have an Egyptian birthday party, and that she wants to dress like an Egyptian princess for Halloween… that’s usually a good sign of immersion!

Check out all the other places we’ve explored in this DIY Little Passports project here!