Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide (Cultures of the Ancient World)

We got this book as part of a curriculum on Ancient Egypt, and at first I was slightly disappointed. I am not sure exactly why, but I just didn't realize how much information was really in there. Maybe because the book is only two-toned in color or something, I just saw it as a bunch of basic projects (i.e. make a bracelet, make an Egyptian tunic, cook a fig cake) with some paragraphs of text interspersed.But over time, I came to appreciate the book more. We kept going back to it for some of the basic information in the text parts. And as we did some of the projects and compared it to other Egypt project books out there, we appreciated the versions in this book more. The recipes were easier, all the basic projects were covered (i.e. write in hieroglyhics, make a cartouche), and it was one of the only children's books out there who mention the Nubians and Hittites at all.Definitely the Egyptian section is the best of the four. I am not sure I would buy it as my star resource for the other three cultures. But we're definitely glad we bought it since we like it more than "Old Testament Days," "Make It Work," "Pyramids!", and even Broida's other book "Ancient Israelites." Worth the 11$ to have it around.

This book is a great resource. Using it (along with a few others) for homeschool study of ancient civilizations. Text is pretty thorough and they add interesting sidebars that are pretty memorable (Mesopotamians buried dead under their houses and had a tube that they sent food down to the dead! if that's not memorable what is?). Each aspect of the civilization (housing, food, clothes, work, etc) has text and then a project--projects are good quality ideas and should appeal to both boys and girls. One of the first projects was to build a floor plan of a Mesopotamian house using Legos. Later there were projects using clay and a weaving project as well as recipes for food and so on. I'm pretty experienced with craft projects and I thought these were well thought out, challenging enough while not being frustrating, and you ended up with something worthwhile. Looking forward to the Ancient Egypt section.

This is for those of you who are debating whether you should purchase this book: This book is more than I'd hoped it would be, especially for only $11. For each activity, there is also a lesson that tells its relevance. I was expecting maybe a 50 page "workbook" type activity guide, but this one has 173 pages, and isn't formatted like a workbook at all. Also, the maps in the book are very detailed and easy to read - and easy for my kids to understand. The pictures are in black and white, which is rarely any fun for kids, but for $11, I think I've gotten my money's worth. :)

A fun little book of activities for elementary-aged students. Most require little to no prep and materials (or simple ones that you likely have around the house). We are using this book with Story of the World book and History Odyssey Curriculum, and this is a very nice companion with lots of ideas to help reinforce learning. I look forward to checking out the other books in this collection!

This isn't a bad activity guide but I found myself not using this book for my homeschooler. The activities we did do we enjoyed but many included items we didn't have. This is one book I wish I would have passed on. We had more fun with activities we found in the internet.

We homeschool and this is a wonderful resource for teaching ancient history. It contains detailed and clearly-written histories of the civilizations it covers, and lots of fun activities to introduce kids to these cultures' clothing, food, jewelry and homes. We used it a great deal, and it is a bargain - lots of activities and information for a very reasonable price.

I'm using this book with my kids (we homeschool) and I really love the maps (they are better than some other people maps...) and the projects are fun and interesting. My son liked SOTW because it's about leaders and wars, but now he and my daughter are enjoying this book because it's about clothes and food and how regular people lived -- which is at least as important!

As described.

This books is crammed full of information and activities and will be a fabulous resource. I think its slightly drier in tone than a couple of other similar activity books which makes me feek like it will be more suitable for my daughter in a few years (she is 5) maybe from 8 yrs? The activites are very complete and cover a range of areas but are fairly complicated.