King Tut

The kids and I like to go on "field trips" during breaks from school. Yesterday, Jack suggested that we go to the Dallas Museum of Art and go through the King Tut exhibit. Jack is in second grade and I was shocked that he wanted to go through the exhibit. Apparently, the art teacher at his school has been working in the King Tut exhibit into many of her art lessons so Jack is aware of the whole thing. So I researched it, and decided that we'd go. The tickets are quite expensive, but luckily Caroline was free (under 6).

We piled into the car and headed down to the art museum. It was a very drizzly, and cold day today. When we got there and parked (parking prices have gone up) and got our tickets, I was told that the next showing would be 11:30 a.m. (it was 10:15). However, before a certain time they will take tickets for any showing (I think until it gets really crowded) so we headed into the museum and towards the exhibit. We made it into the first room of the exhibit when Jack announced he had to go to the bathroom. Too bad buddy. Luckily, there were several really cool items in the cases and he was hooked and forgot about the bathroom.

There were several items that he recognized from school and told us all about it. He told Caroline about the hieroglyphics and what some of the symbols meant. It was really cool. He knew quite a bit about King Tut and some of the items in the exhibit. I was surprised to find that Caroline knew quite about Egypt herself. She knew it was in Africa and that a Pharaoh was a king. She knew some other things about it that amazed me. She was more into the smaller items than in the sarcophagus (?) and burial items. The dark rooms scared her a little bit, but she was eager to learn about the different objects. Jack's mind has been put at ease about mummies and the possibility of them coming alive. We saw the mini sarcophagi that held the Pharaohs different organs, and the jars that held the organs of the non-royalty. After explaining that that's where they put the organs of the people when they died, Jack made the connection that they couldn't come alive because they didn't have the parts that made people alive. He feels much better about it.

I do have to say that I was quite surprised about the exhibit. It was very interesting to see the family tree for King Tut and to learn about some of the other Pharaohs in the process. I also didn't know that the Pharaohs after King Tut had wanted to erase his reign from history, so they destroyed several tablets that recorded his reign and even buried him in an obscure tomb in the Valley of the Kings. I found the whole experience to be very rewarding, if not really expensive. They had a great plan though: The exit of the exhibit took you straight to the King Tut gift shop. You had to go through it to get out. Brilliant!

After we got through that, Caroline and I went to the part of the museum where kids could make their own art. Caroline and I made an Egyptian headdress. I had an extremely great time with the kids and Jason, and was totally glad we went.