What a FUN day!  We had our final Ancient China Warrior class today with our gang and to close the session we held a Murder Mystery.  Party Grab wrote us a Mystery based on our Ancient Chinese themes using relevant timelines.

We handed out characters last week so everyone could prepare their costumes.  The Emperor and family all the way through the class system to the fishermen, shepherdess and servants. Wow!  Everyone looked fabulous, all the silken robes, hairdos, headdresses and more!  The kids all really enjoyed getting into their characters. The mystery was so well done, not an easy case to solve that's for sure!  Many suspects with motive and lots of found evidence, kept us guessing all the way through.

In the end before we read out the final results and after everyone had discretely submitted their submission of who the murderer was, we took some time to call out the top suspects and vote on who should be jailed for the crime.  This lead to almost a hung jury until right at the last moment the last person voted and split the tie. The convicted person was sent to jail and then we read out the final conclusion.  We sent the wrong suspect to jail! This of course lead to quite the discussion about assumptions, evidence and due process ... but mostly just FUN!

We will definitely be making this a habitual way to end the session, we loved it!  What a great way to tie up the session's learning's of the culture and society of the times than with some role playing. Thanks Party Grab (who, by the way, is a homelearning teen).

The boys have been having some fun with friends exploring Ancient China over the past few months.  One book they just recently came across and LOVE is Warriors and Wailer; One Hundred Ancient Chinese Jobs you Might have Relished or Reviled by Sarah Tsiang.

This book inspired my one son to do a fabulous project and presentation.  He was an Employment Councillor commissioned by the Emperor.  He handed out his personally created Personality Employment Assessments which was a list of about 15 questions.  He then analyzed the results of his companions to determine the proper fit of an Ancient Chinese Job that would be ideal for them (he narrowed it down to 8 preselected jobs). 

Some of his classmates were

• An opera singer -Your parents sign up their very young to be taken in by a mentor and sign a 7 year contract with. You grow in deep debt to your mentor.  Your days start at 5am and are filled with learning acting, acrobats and combat skills (yes you spend as much time on martial arts as you do with singing!).  And then after a long day of practices and exercises you get to spend the evening performing (and if you or your team mess up you will be beaten with Bamboo canes!)  YIKES what a life!
• Pekingese Caretaker - Taking care of this regal lion like dogs is serious business. Solely for the the emperor(ess) no commoner is allowed to own one, and taking one ensures you a death sentence. They live in their own silken apartment, given the finest food and you would protect them with your life.
• Fake Buddhist Monk - Avoid taxes, conscription and grave digging and make some money on the side.  A little (or a lot) of moral implications on this but a job some did do.
• Minister of the Household
• Assassin
• Emperor
  

Other Ancient Jobs in this book include Sorceress, Astrologist, Concubine, Wet Nurse, Matchmaker, Grave Digger, Noodle Maker, Junk Sailor, Vegabond and so many more.  The descriptions are informative and so very entertaining.

This book is just fun to read, but so many extended learning activities can come from this (and they just flow naturally from conversation and sharing).

• Rate your top favourite jobs,
• do a survey,
• compare to today's jobs,
• do a pro's and con's list for a series of jobs,
• role play some characters,
• make a skit

.... the list keeps going.

Have FUN!