King Tut

On Thursday, we went to the King Tut exhibit with Gramma.
There were many exquisite treasures from Tut's burial, as well as those of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

One really interesting piece was a statue that had been smashed during rogue monotheist pharaoh Akhenaten's (Tut's daddy) reign, which was restored under Tut, in a more modern style. I was oddly drawn to an ostrich plume fan that depicted Tut hunting ostrich, followed by a figure of a running Ankh... The wooden statue of a very young Tut has incredibly expressive eyes. The small viscera coffinette for Tut's liver was amazing, and the funerary mask of his grandmother was too, especially her eyes, which even had tear ducts! My husband was most taken with the intricate relief work on a ceremonial dagger that was found on Tut's mummy. Mikro's favorite thing was the resin cast of Tut's mummy. He was tiny! His head and rib cage were about the same size as 7 year old Mikro's, but he had really long legs. I was surprised by his slight stature.



My parents have never been happy about our decision to homeschool. It's way too "out there" for them, and I've heard all the usual stereotypical objections over the past couple of years... which is what makes what happened at Tut so funny and so sweet!

My mom could barely see to read the signage at the exhibit, so Mikro was reading everything to her, and talking to lots of older people who were asking him questions about the Egyptian stuff (how do you know that's Thoth, what's he the god of, etc., as Mikro was in full blown little professor mode).

Thursday night was one of the Discovery Center's educator events, so the house was *packed* with school teachers. One of them remarked to my mom on what a fantastic reader Mikro is. My mom, who did not hear my prior conversation with the lady, had no idea she was a teacher, or the following probably never would have occurred:

My mom: "Oh yes, he's homeschooled! His mom is doing an amazing job teaching him. He's an incredible kid!"

The teacher was shocked into silence (and may have thought my mom was being obnoxious...)

I almost fell over. My mother has done a complete 180. She's bragging on homeschooling!