Ancient Egypt Connections

We've been reading the "story of people" in Usborne's Children's Encyclopedia the last two weeks. It's amazing how meaty it is. We've had discussions about evolution vs. creationism already, and discussed cave people, ancient Egyptians, ancient Romans, and people of the middle ages. Next up is the Industrial Revolution. It's very cool- it just lays it out in a very basic way, what people wore, what kind of houses they lived in, jobs they did, how the government was, stuff like that. Nothing goes into great depth this year, but I think it lays a great foundation for basic knowledge and making connections of how the world works. She's asking lots of questions and we've looked some stuff up on the internet that she wanted to know when it wasn't in the book.

So. Last night we were out and were driving by this really smelly open area a few miles from our house. I'd always thought it was an old landfill, although my mom informed me later she thinks it might be a water treatment plant instead. But anyway, it smells like the dump. Things have gotten better lately- there used to be trucks there, and bare dirt, and birds circling around. Now it looks like they've finished using it or are trying to make it better- grass has grown over the top of it and it only smells on really hot days.

She was noticing how nice the houses were in the neighborhood right next to it, and I told her we had looked at a few of them when we were buying our house but decided not to move there because of the smell. As we drove by the plant, she saw the grass, and realized that it didn't smell anymore.

Light bulb moment for a five year old, I think!

She said, "Oh, there's grass now. So the yucky stuff is buried and it doesn't smell so much. It's like when the ancient Egyptians used to put spices on the dead people and bury them in the pyramids. The grass is like the spices, so we can't smell the dead stuff."

maybe it's not a perfect analogy, but I love that she's thinking about the things she's learning and trying to make connections in her world. So smart, my girl.