Exhibits, Movies, and Games to Get Kids Interested in History

Are your kids not thrilled about learning history? Try immersing them in history by visiting a local museum with a mummy exhibit, The Brooklyn Museum or Metropolitan Museum of Art are two nearby, or watch one of these movies or play one of these games about history to supplement learning.

Mummies, Up Close and Personal

Long Island-based Egyptologist Bob Brier, also known as Mr. Mummy, correctly says that kids and adults alike can get fixated on ancient Egypt and its allure. Fortunately, two of our area museums have real-life mummies to marvel at.

Cartonnage of Nespanetjerenpere; Egypt, provenance not known, probably from Thebes Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty XXII-early Dynasty XXV (circa 945-653 B.C.); Cartonnage (linen or papyrus mixed with plaster), painted, with eyes and eyebrows inlaid with glass and lapis lazuli; 69 3/4 in. (177 cm.) high; 35.1265, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund; Brooklyn Museum Collection

The Brooklyn Museum is renowned for its world-famous Egyptian collection, which includes more than 1,000 objects in the permanent exhibition Egypt Reborn: Art for an Eternity. Visitors will encounter a huge stone sarcophogus; wooden tomb statues; a long-term installation about the importance of cats in ancient Egypt; and a mummy case made for a man named Nespanetjerenpere, which features richly painted decoration that is almost perfectly preserved. Find activities for children (deciphering hieroglyphics, decoding statue poses, and educational materials that enhance a museum visit) at brooklynmuseum.org/egypt.

Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art might seem like a cavernous, high-culture place to bring young kids who you don’t imagine want to stare at paintings all day—but it needn’t be so intimidating. Why not venture for an hour or so and explore just one country? The museum’s holdings from ancient Egypt are diverse and appeal wonderfully to all ages, and a family itinerary for children 5 and older can be found at metmuseum.org/visit/itineraries/family-egypt. All the stops on the itinerary have family audio messages to make your trip more fun, and children are encouraged to bring paper and pencils for sketching. Popular Egyptian exhibits include the Temple of Dendur, a 2,000-year-old ‘house for gods’; the Coffin of Khnumhotep, which (yes!) protects a mummy; and the Sphinx of Hatshepsut (we bet kids will think it’s weird that this female pharaoh has a beard—why?). A stopover at Nolen Library lets the kids decompress, dive into picture books, and rev up their imaginations.