Egypt Homeschool Camp June 2014

The boys had a fantastic time at Egypt Camp this past weekend. We spent all of last semester studying all about Ancient Egypt with our Homeschool Co-Op and ended the study with 3 days at the Great Sand Dunes.  How cool is that?  We've never been down there before but it was a spectacular location and I think we'll go again in a couple years.  We played in the sand and the water at the beach a lot.  We were supposed to build pyramids at first but the boys decided that sand castles were a more reasonable option :).  We met the rest of the group for dinner time and all the kids had on their costumes.  They each had tunics, some had swords, other had fans, we even had a pharaoh.  Each child was called up to spin the wheel of fate that encourage role playing activities - such as "Your cat died.  See the embalmer." or "Professional Mourner for 1 hour." or "The Pharaoh is pleased with you."  Each kid had an occupation, such as scribe/farmer/fisherman, etc.  EMan was a fisherman and CJ was the Pharaoh's Zoo Keeper.  The first night we had a weighing of the heart activity just like in the book of the dead.  I got to play the roll of Isis.  Sweet eh?  The kids had small bags with an anatomically correct heart stamped on them and they filled them with their pick of random items.  If it was heavier than the feather they were devoured.  If it was lighter they were free to move on.  The kids thought it was great fun.

 Steve took a morning and went sandboarding.  The rest of us hung out for a wheel of fate activity followed by an irrigation challenge.  They were split into two villages and had to dig a canal and build a shaduf (a sort of lever inspired bucket lifting tool the ancient Egyptians built).  CJ's team won the challenge.

 Next they had crocodile hunting.  They had to chase after an inflatable crocodile down the river, bring it back to camp and put mud on its eyes.  After more free play in the water we changed into costumes and learned that the old Pharaoh died and there was a new one!

 We celebrated the new pharaoh with a big feast and a talent show.  I was proud of CJ for playing "Hot Cross Buns" on his recorder for the talent show and EMan for showing all the cool things he can do with silly putty.  What fun talents!  We also enjoyed a market with the group.  Everyone, according to their occupation, traded goods and services with each other.  At one point EMan became very popular because word got out that he was trading Swedish Fish candies.  Everyone wanted some of those!  CJ got lots of attention from others wanting his finger puppet lions, tigers, zebras and giraffes.  He also had a blow up monkey that he traded for a fancy necklace!

One of the games we played was called tug of hoop.  Using the crooks we made in class the point was to tug and twist the hoop away from the other person.  EMan LOVED this game and played it with everyone who was willing.  On another note: CJ found a bug, he must be a bug magnet!