A year and a half year ago my eldest daughter was looking through Target for cheap Halloween costume. I nudged her toward the Cleopatra one, and her love for all things ancient Egypt and especially Cleopatra began.

Later that year she chose Cleopatra for her person to research for her class’s wax museum—handy since she already had the costume. We read Royal Diaries: Cleopatra and listened to the section on ancient Egypt on Story of the World (deserving of its own full post later).

This year in school she went to a friend’s birthday party. Theme? Cleopatra! I did not know a small school could have two girls interested (dare I say obsessed?) with Cleopatra.

Over the winter she joined the Museum Club in which members worked in pairs to design miniature museums. She and her partner, of course, chose an ancient Egypt theme.

I haven’t let her watch Elizabeth Burton’s version of Cleopatra yet as I prefer the intellectual and resourceful take of the Royal Diaries girl. She’s growing up fast enough as it is.

Next year, students study river civilizations including Alexandria and the culture of ancient Egypt. I think my daughter will be ecstatic.

Tags: History, Cleopatra, Royal Diaries

I’m now paying for my educational TV only during the week policy, which I’ve attempted to maintain from the school year. I’m pretty liberal on the definition of educational; pretty much anything on Discovery Channel qualifies. (My goal is to limit Hannah Montanna and Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Mind candy! I will admit, however, Phineas and Ferb is quite clever.)

My daughter watched Cities of the Underworld: Maya Underground about the Maya and now tells everyone she meets how the world may end in 2012 and how the Maya sacrificed children when things were going really badly for them—droughts etc. They sacrificed adults if events were going not quite as badly. Killing children seems to have captivated her. Eek!

This makes for interesting dinner conversation, and now my family and friends are all wondering if Hannah would be better TV viewing for my young tween. Mmm....I’ll have to think about the Dracula’s lair episode focusing on Bucharest’s Vlad the Impaler.

(Sunday June 29 is Cities of the Underworld day. Set your Tivos! They are reairing Vietnam, Katrina, Jerusalem, Soviet bases, Maya and Bucharest)

Tags: History, Cities of the Underworld, Maya

I’ve found an at-home “camp” idea for my National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets loving daughter. I want to explore local landmarks and learn a little history; she wants to hang out with friends, preferably involving water. While this doesn’t include her new Super Soaker Aqua Shock Arctic Blast, it does involve mystery, clues and treasure. Since I’ll include friends, my kids should be in treasure hunt heaven.

Double Key Treasure Hunts is a local company (coming soon to a city near you!) which has organized historical treasure hunts taking kids all through St. Louis. They go to different places in the city ranging from the History Museum to the Old Cathedral to Ted Drewes. The kit includes original artifacts such as postcards and photographs from the turn of the century and is meant to be “found” by the kids in the attic, garage or basement to start the hunt.

Terreri had a lot of fun with her children, but the hunt took extensive work to set up. She decided that many families would be interested in these types of adventures if she put in all of the planning and work to make them easy on parents. With this idea in mind, Terreri set up her business in February. (stltoday.com)

What an entrepreneur. While I would love to spend the time to set up an elaborate treasure hunt like this—who am I kidding? It would never actually happen. I love this idea.

Here’s a link to an informative local media interview. There’s a commercial first.

Tags: History, National Treasure, Double Key Treasure Hunt

My kids did a culture project for school, so I snuck in the info about their ancestors’ castle (complete with pic ). I’m hoping to someday inspire at least one of my children to be as interested in genealogy as I am.

My next genealogy project will be a little more obvious. I plan on having the kids come up with a few questions to ask their grandparents and then interview them on video. We can put this into my genealogy program.

I love the YouTube of the Flat Stanley genealogy trip for all the Flat Stanley fans.

Tags: History, Genealogy