Our Homeschool Day 10/3/12

We are studying Ancient Egypt and made "papyrus" today. As much as the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus, it's hard to believe it became extinct in modern Egypt. Luckily, Dr. Hassan Ragab imported some plants from Sudan and Ethiopia and planted them. While the exact methods that the Egyptians used to make papyrus is unknown, Ragab experimented enough that he felt he had a good idea as to how it was made. 
1. Cut strips from the papyrus plant stem.
2. Pound the strips flat.
3. Soak them over many days.
4. Put on linen or cotton.
5. Lay strips horizontally (overlap strips) and then cover that with slightly overlapping strips laid vertically.
6. Cover with linen or cotton and squeeze out water.
7. Squeeze and let dry over 3-4 day period.
Papyrus has a distinctive criss-cross pattern.
*Source: Great Ancient Egyptian Projects You can Build Yourself by Carmella Van Vleet:

We followed the instructions found in this book to make our own version of papyrus.
Here are the boys soaking the strips and laying them in the criss-cross pattern on aluminum foil. 

After this step, we put another piece of foil on top and rolled it with a rolling pin, and waited for it to dry! 

Today has been a struggle for my youngest, who is sick. He was still awake at midnight last night and I had to give him medicine to help him sleep. He is really dragging today! Here's a photo of him in our sun room, snuggled up with a warm cat and a blanket, listening to Handel from YouTube during our composer study: