Friday, January 13, 2012

Goodbye Week. Hello Weekend. Lessons Learned: Take 29.

Goodbye short week of school (which is why this post is late; I slept in today).
Goodbye lunch with great friends at Michael Symon's restaurant, B Spot.
Goodbye yummy pulled-pork sandwich from B Spot that I simply went head-over-heels for.
Goodbye interesting documentary we saw at school last night, Race to Nowhere about the stresses kids face today to excel and to live an over-scheduled life (I'll post about this in more detail soon).
Goodbye to the first part of What I Made Wednesday's Family Rules Project. I am overwhelmed by the interest out there. Thanks so much for visiting!

Hello 4-day weekend and enjoying some downtime.
Hello new snowfall that came in a flurry.
Hello trip to Hobby Lobby to gather supplies for my son's costume (see Lessons Learned below).
Hello bringing to life the Egyptian god Ammut and hoping it turns out looking awesome.
Hello messy, paper mached fingers, glue-gun burned fingertips, and mother-son bonding.


Yes, I know you're curious. Well, my son's school has a 4th grade tradition: The Mummy Wrap. They've been doing this for 30 years and it's sort of a rite of passage for the kids in this grade because it is an annual event that I hear is A-MAZE-ING! The kids are studying early civilizations and have worked their way through with ancient Egypt being the current area of study. Each student is assigned a part including astronomer, doctor, Pharoah and Queen (the ones who have "died" and are to be mummy wrapped), the wrappers, there are so many I can't name all the roles. The roles I have not mentioned yet are the gods during the mummy wrapping ceremony.
Here's the premise: the goddess, Ma'at has a feather that she gives to the god Annubis. Annubis weighs the feather on a scale against the deceased's heart for judgement of a life. If the heart is lighter than the feather, the heart is pure and the deceased is sent to the after-life to live in paradise. If the heart weighs heavier than the feather, the heart is impure and is given to the Devourer of the Dead, Ammut, the Gobbler, to eat. Hence, no ticket to paradise for you! Ammut has a head of a crocodile, a body of a lion, and the hind legs of a hippo. Guess what role my son got? He is so super-excited to play Ammut. He did all his research, wrote down his sources and facts, developed his own script, has it memorized, etc. He is ready to go, except for the costume. So off to Hobby Lobby we go and I have to say, I'm am rather excited about the prospect. My son has drawn his idea on paper so we have a vision. You may not be aware that the needle and thread and I do not get along very well. I don't sew. Period. The lesson I learned this week is no matter how daunting the project, it's nothing a little paper mache, glue sticks, duct tape, and confidence can't solve. Wish us luck!

2 comments:

Suzan Wood-Young said...

The mummy project sounds very cool. I've always been drawn to Egypt and it's mythologies. P.S. I miss you on the weekends. ;)

Anonymous said...

I loved this post. I read it twice. I never get enough of the old ancient stuff, ever.

When I lived in NJ I swooned over visiting the Met Museum in NYC for their Egyptian exhibit. Swooned, I tell you. Before our financial world came crashing down, our son attended a classical school and they studied in depth the ancient civilizations, starting from the very beginning. I miss it. Nick used to write songs about the silliness of the Roman Emperors - sorry I'm rambling and can't shut up! ;0

Have you read the The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer? I haven't found them at the library but on Amazon a long time ago, and love reading them with the kids.

Please, please, please follow up on this - can't wait to see your Ammut!!

xoxo michele

 

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