The Game of Senet

Homeschool is mostly suspended until I figure out how I’m going to get through each day (blah), but we did manage to cut out and paste together a homemade Senet board game set, to tie in with our Ancient Egypt studies, based on Story of the World and a WHOLE BUNCH of living books.

You can visit this site to look over the rules and print a copy of this Senet board as well as patterns to make decorative popsicle sticks for tossing instead of dice.  I used this online version (also available for download) to get a feel for the rules.  (slightly different arrangement:  the board zigzags back and forth instead of “reading order” like the printable one).

It took Naomi Rivka about a minute to learn the basic strategies and the game held her interest for about 45 minutes – a complete game!  I’ve never tried playing a complex game with her, but this will lead nicely into Mancala, a category of African games I’ve been wanting to introduce, mainly because you can play it in a decorated egg carton, using nothing but beans.  :-)

And, of course, even with a broken foot, I can still READ.  More Ancient Egypt reading:

 

• Easy Readers:
• Tut’s Mummy (Level 4 reader)
• Usborne Beginners – Egyptians (picked up a while ago at Value Village)
• Mummies Made in Egypt (plus the Reading Rainbow DVD, if you can find it!)
• I am the Mummy Heb-Nefert (weird, but the kids found it fascinating)
• Rich and Poor in Ancient Egypt (freebie from the library)
• Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Boy King
• Plus, readings from…
• Hillyer’s A Child’s History of the World

… and many, many others.  What a delight to start our year of ancient history with such a treasure trove!

And then, for me, two slightly more grown-up books:

• The Murder of King Tut (not much more grown-up – I’d actually classify this as teen fiction, but not particularly well done, at that; if you click the link, you’ll see all the negative reviews from grown-ups, annoyed at being tricked into buying what they thought was an adult book, but I didn’t expect much and found it reasonably enjoyable)…
• The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer (author of Story of the World)… bought at last, in genuine BOOK (not Kobo) form, and I’m looking forward to digging into this to expand my own mind right along with the kids’.