DIY Ancient Egyptian Toys

We've been studying ancient history this year (anybody with me?) and along with reading the Bible and other books, I've been trying to incorporate as many activities in as I can.  I have the book Old Testament Days, and it is a fantastic resource!  It essentially walks you through the Old Testament giving short summaries, a little cultural information, and lots of activities to help your children remember and understand the stories better.  You can use the "Look Inside" feature on amazon to see quite a few pages from the book, if you're interested.

We have been learning about ancient Egypt and, this week specifically, about Moses and how he grew up in the Egyptian culture.  I had the kids make a couple little toys that Egyptian children might have played with.




Trevor made a Serpent Throwing Stick.  I took an old wooden spoon (if you don't want to give up one of your spoons you could get one cheaply at the dollar store, or even just find a fat stick in your yard) and he decorated it to look like a snake.  He drew a design down the handle and made the round part to look like the snake's head.  The little Egyptian boys would have practiced throwing these at targets, so Trevor went outside (he only lasted a few minutes in this freezing weather!) and gave it a try.  It's a fun, simple little toy.







Mackenzie made a Paddle Doll.  Once again, I found an old wooden spoon (well, this one was actually a salad tosser thing) and had her draw a face on it.  She decorated it by drawing a necklace or something on it (it's hard to tell exactly what her little 2 year old hand drew =)  and I added some ribbon curls to the top for hair.  I guess it doesn't look exactly like an Egyptian, but you could try harder to be more faithful to reality if you want!  I think her little 'doll' is so cute!






The kids really enjoyed this activity and I liked it because it was simple and helped the kids relate to what we were studying.  You could make these as simple or fancy as you'd like, so it works for a toddler or an older, creative child!

I see there is a similar book, called Classical Kids, for learning about ancient Greece and Rome.  Have any of you used that one?  I'm thinking of getting it for when we get a little further along in history (unless you all have negative reviews =)

Do you have any favorite activities that you have done with your kids while studying ancient history?