Pinning Down Africa!

As is beautifully demonstrated in the book, Africa Is Not A Country, Africa is pretty much impossible to pin down in a neat little one-dimensional box.

The boys were so inspired by their punched out Africa pictures, that we used one to cut out a patch for one of the many holes that are accruing on little boy jeans.  We’ll see how that works out…

I will tell you about our adventures in the African Savannah tomorrow, but for now here are some of our favorite books dealing with the Sahara and Egypt.

This Is The Oasis ~ This was a beautiful picture that depicted life in the Sahara and emphasized the importance of the oasis.  It brought back wonderful memories of my explorations of Africa as a girl when we dressed up as nomadic Tuareg and slept in a different spot every night for a week!

 

Ali, Child of the Desert ~ This book tells the story of a boys journey from his oasis to Morocco to trade.  I love narratives like this that teach so much just through the course of the story.  Again, we consulted our globe and found the region that the Sahara covers as well as Morocco!  Having ridden camels over Christmas with their Oma, they really got into the story and placed themselves in it!

We’re Sailing Down the Nile ~ Everyone enjoyed this.  In fact, I went up to watch my sisters children one morning and while my boys were too enthralled with new toys to want me to read to them, my niece (almost 3) and nephew (18m) sat with rapt attention while I read this book.

 

The Prince of Egypt ~ We learned about Moses by reading various books we had around the house and then topped it off with this movie.  While it is not 100% biblically accurate, it was a visual feast for the eyes of life in Pharaoh’s court.

We certainly didn’t do an in-depth study, but this skimming was a perfect introduction to this beautiful continent.

Related Africa posts: Mama Panya’s Pancakes