One of our “local” (and by local I mean an hour and a half away in Waco) museums had an Egyptian exhibit here recently complete with a real mummy. Considering we made one last year, and the kids definitely remember it, we had to go see this exhibit.
We first explored a few other areas, for instance the communication room. It had tons and tons of old typewriters and examples of different styles of communication, hieroglyphics, hobo code, and a few others.
What amused me most is for my kids, and most kids nowadays typewriters and switchboards are just an oddity from the past. They don’t have any frame of reference for them. I grew up with a typewriter in my home and used one every now and then for things. Switchboards were “before my time” really in the sense like this one, but I always saw them in movies, and have some idea of what they are. But my kids are growing up without a home phone, and so a landline is a weird thought to them.
Finally after a very long camel journey we reached the Egypt exhibit. There was quite a line for the camel ride, so they had to be patient……..
We examined an example of an archeological dig, and had a chance to guess what was happening at the dig site. This is going to lead to an activity my kids will be doing in an hour or so. But, I loved the idea of trying to figure out what was going on based on the artifacts found there.
Sadly we weren’t allowed to take any pictures back with the really interesting artifacts, but it was fascinating, and if the kids had had the patience I would have spent much longer there reading about how they studied the mummy and their theories about her.
From ancient history we moved to pioneer times and American expansionism. Okay, pretty much just life on a farm. But the kids had fun enacting what it’d be like to live on a farm back then. I especially love this picture of our friend acting like Rapunzel with her frying pan.
I’m gonna link this over to All Things Beautiful and her wonderful history/geography linky.
adventuresinmommydomblog 
Old typewriters are so cool to play with! My girls love them…we've come across them a few different times, and now we actually have a beat-up, barely working one in our garage that they play with 🙂
In museums, I often feel like I could really use some more time to read the information, but the girls are in more of a hurry than me…oh well.
Looks like a fun trip!
Oh, that looked like so much fun. Makes me long to go on a field trip!
This place looks great! I'm impressed that you are willing to drive an hour and a half for a museum – looks like it was worth it to the kids!
I am with Phyllis, we so need to get out and take some field trips.
Aww,that looks like so much fun! Someday you'll have to come visit Jamestown in Virginia. There is a great homeschool program each fall: http://www.historyisfun.org/homeschool-program.htm
Oh I still remember my old typewriter. I bet the kids would love to plunk away on one.
I saw one for sale recently at a goodwill type store but they wanted a ridiculous price for it.
Aren't those kinds of excursions simply the best way to learn.
What a cool museum, and it looks like it is laid out very well! Anna is still freaked out about our local Egyptian museum. She was terrified of an unwrapped mummy on display. So no Egyptian exhibits for us for a while