My facination with Cleopatra

When the kids and I were discussing what they wanted to learn about this year, I discovered that they felt we had never "finished " studying ancient Egypt because we had not had our "Egypt Meal" (a rough approximation of ancient Egyptian fare, eaten with much pomp and circumstance and created by all).   We last studied Egypt almost two years ago!!  

Ancient Egypt, Round Two

This time the kids wanted more than just mummies and pyramids and daily life.  They wanted history, and out of all ancient Egyptian history, most of all they wanted Cleopatra.  I do not even know where they heard about Cleopatra.  All I knew about her at the time was that she was supposedly very sexy, had an affair with Mark Antony, and was the last Queen of Egypt.  How to make this appropriate for an eight and five year old?  Luckily I found "Cleopatra" by Katie Daynes , published by Usborne.  I love Usborne books.  Still in the kids section I found the less discrete but oh so fascinating "Cleopatra; Ruler of Egypt" by Kerrily Sapet.  

Some highlights include

-Cleopatra was Greek!

-Cleopatra was a distant relative of Alexander the Great

-Cleopatra's parents were brother and sister, a common practice in her family

-Cleopatra was the first in the very long Ptolemaic dynasty to bother to learn Egyptian

-Cleopatra had a son with Julius Caesar

-Cleopatra was about as politically savvy as they come

-Oh, and she first met Caesar after she had been smuggled into her own palace (seized by her little brother/husband and his scheming advisers) wrapped up in a rug.  

Now, if you caught this part of ancient history in school, none of that will be a surprise, but if you didn't, go back and take a look, Cleopatra is fascinating.