Rafael with all his organs removed- except his heart. Its believed in Ancient Egypt that the heart was the only organ left in the body and it was weighed to see what kind of life the person lived. Maximus said Rafael had a heavy heart because he was always fighting to protect his brothers
...these words come when we are reading one of Maximus's 'Magic Tree House' books by Mary Pope Osborne. MTH books are great cliffhangers, leaving you wondering what will happen in the next chapter (yes, even for mama). Maximus LOVES for me to read these books to him and they keep his attention very well. I've read books to him since he was born, but now that he is getting older- the MTH books are a great transition from picture books to read- alouds.
So far we have read 'Dinosaurs Before Dark', 'The Knight at Dawn' and 'Mummies in the Morning'. MTH also has great research guides that go along with some of their books and we chose dig more into mummies so we read 'Mummies and Pyramids' and we also mummified Rafael, Maximus's ninja turtle. We followed the same instructions that they used in Ancient Egypt. We removed all of his organs, except his heart. We washed the turtle in wine, rubbed him down in oil and spices (olive oil and pumpkin pie spice), sprinkled him with sea salt and wrapped his body in linen (with a flour/water paste). The only thing we didn't do is wait 40 days for his mummy to dry.
For a fun moment we completely wasted a roll of tp and wrapped Maximus up as a mummy. I bet this is one school day he'll never forget.
Another cool thing is at the end of the book, you can go online and answer a few questions and if you get them all right, you can print off a stamp and paste it in your 'Official MTH Passport'- its a great keepsake to show all the books you've read and 'places you have been'.
I cannot say enough good things about these wonderful books.
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