Counting Like An Egyptian

I discovered a book produced by the San Francisco Exploratorium in our local library called “Math and Science Across Cultures: Activities and Investigations from the Exploratorium” that is crammed with great activities for kids ages 10 and up.

The activity we focused on, “Counting Like An Egyptian. Math in Ancient Egypt,” is part math and part history and is easily accessible for your child if they are at the pre-algebra stage and enjoy reading. Basically your kids become amateur archeologists for a couple of hours: deciphering hieroglyphics from photographs of ancient tablets, and then learning about the Egyptian calendar system and how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide Egyptian style.

Great fun for the kids along with a chance to work with photos of primary source materials combine into the perfect activity for those of you teaching your kids in the style of a classical education.

Happy Start of Summer!