History Club ~ Ancient China

Each month, a group of homeschool families gather at our home for History Club. We are all following Story Of The World. Each family studies in its own way and at its own pace. At the end of the month, we come together to cap it all off with lapbooking and other works. Each month focuses on one particular ancient culture, such as Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and recently Saharan-African.

In October, we focused on China. The older students who are proficient readers assembled a series of 50-some vocabulary words such as ancestor, dynasty, moxibustion, pagoda, pufu, silkworm and taotie. :) All this show below.

We had a Chinese tea party, which requires much less ceremony than a traditional Japanese tea. Whew! Each child got to use a bamboo 'spoon' to scoop loose tea into the tea potm with one extra scoop for our ancestors. The tea pot was placed in a deep bowl and hot water was poured in, over and around the pot while the tea steeped. Then each little tea bowl or handle-less cup got 2 sips of tea poured more or less simultaneously.
The tradition is to drink the two sips right away without a break, and then the tea bowls can be refilled for leisurely drinking. A friend who came from China sang us a beautiful Chinese song that she had learned. Just wonderful! One family brought a Chinese culture kit borrowed from our local museum. Together with some accessories from home, the children dressed up in traditional Chinese garb.