Diving into history

Mr 5 is really interested in Medieval Kings, Knights, Ancient Egypt ... basically Ancient and Middle Ages history, of which I have little knowledge.  I was assured at a conference by Diana Waring last year that it's fun to learn though, so I'm not afraid to dive in and read more about it all.  Although at times presenting the grisly details in a little-child-friendly way is a bit challenging.

I'm happy for my kids to learn history, and delighted that their interest is self-proclaimed, but I have wondered how it fits with my desire to have them 'dwell on good things' as the scriptures recommend.  However, there's plenty of violence in Bible history, so I obviously have a lot to learn about the whole subject!

We're not new to this ...  Mr 5 has been into Egyptology since he got a (rather advanced, but fascinating) book from his Pop, complete with Pharoah mask, games, etc.  He was about 3.5 I think, so I read it selectively.  Heavily censored snippets, for the benefit of little sister, who was, and still is, very impressionable and genuinely a bit scared of all the violence!


Today Miss 4 has joined in, and a lot of free play has centred around their dramatic telling of a Pharoah/ Kings/ Moses story hybrid.  There were many adventures earlier, such as this:

According to the children, lots of enemy kings were in our yard, with more still coming.  The kings were  going to wreck the swings, cubby house, chairs and slippery dip.  Then they were going to hurt the babies (dolls).  Something had to be done!  


Mr 5 declared "To stop the kings from wrecking the swings you have to give them lemonade with a bit of cocoa."  Miss 4's solution to the problem was much more violent, and Mr 5 suggested a compromise.  In the end though, they decided to wait for daddy to come home from work and play his part, as the victorious hero!  Whew!


Our books on the subject are limited to a page here and there.  So Mr 5 has asked me to find him library books so that he can learn "the names of all the Egyptian Kings, and what they look like".  I might be asking my friendly children's librarian for help on this one!  On the bright side, at least it's a change from mummies and embalming (and no, I didn't try the embalming-a-chicken experiment that was circulated last year).

Oh, and he says about the books I'm going to look for ... "Mummy don't forget the Medieval Knights, Princes, Kings and castles ... and the types of tools they used in war."

Hmmmm ....