Mock Trial Success

The 60-year-old construction worker

whose fence was called into question

when a tragedy occurred. After all, he'd had

knee surgery just TWO days before

constructing the railing.

Earlier this year, the girls were involved in a mock trail with their homeschool teen group. Was it the next day? that they watched (and I sat on the jury for) their friend's mock trial with her Classical Conversations group. Well, at that time they were in full on circus planning mode. But as soon as (in fact the day of) the circus wrapped up, they shifted into mock trial preparation.

Gabby came up with the scenario (two teen cousins disobeying the rules at the zoo; ultimately leading to the demise of the boy in the bear cage). I'm not sure what all she wrote, but I know that witness statements, a whole stack of evidence, illustrations, maps, even some Bible verse canvases about truth and justice to perch on the judge's table all came from her.

The girls have been texting, calling, messaging, meeting at church, emailing, etc. etc. to get this trial organized and presented. It's been a great collaboration between homeschool and public school students! Just for fun, too . . . though I'm thinking this is the type of fun that goes on their transcripts :)

When they settled on having the mock trial at the same local ministry where the first one took place, it was baking time. I think our girls made four different desserts? Then Gabby found out what the other participants were bringing and made little toothpick signs explaining what each thing was . . . including a gluten free option for those who cannot grain.

They all took the process seriously, but had fun with it too. They had all of their friend's official mock trial wordage, which the *judge* read. They followed proper procedure, according to said mock trial rules.  They even offered objections, and at one point the two lawyers had to approach the bench to work out an argument between the two of them. It was all very official :)

Our little brother bailiffs did an excellent job, remembering their lines and proper swearing in speech, presenting the evidence first to the judge and then to the lawyers on both sides, and pretty much just looking about the cutest in the whole courtroom :)

The lovely lawyers were Caelan and Samantha, a young lady who was in my youth group small group (with Caelan and Gabby) for a couple of years. The girls did a nice job asking questions and writing their own opening and closing arguments. They represented the zoo in this case. Up until this point, four generations of zoo owners had no issues with their railings . . . but this incident could put them out of business forever! Well, no damages were named, so we (the jury) offered the family $15,000 to cover the funeral expenses and a lifetime zoo membership . . . I was going to throw in a trained monkey for any birthday parties they might throw in the future, but that might have been going a bit too far ;)



























Such a fun group of kids! They are already working on the next round of mock trial excitement . . . I'm told it is set in Texas, so they can all wear cowboy gear (the costuming is very important :) and a biker girl will be involved. Speaking of costuming, Caelan is wearing my flower dress from college, a sweater I handed down, and my former earrings; Gabby is wearing my cute blue heels from my cousin's wedding. It's a good thing I pick out such nice things for myself . . . or what would they wear? Ha!






Isn't it nice to see all the sides of a court case meeting together for fun and fellowship when the proceedings conclude? Maybe all trials should end with cake, cookies and lemonade. I'm proud of our children and their friends for making this a family project (including as many siblings as are old enough to participate) and for really enjoying the process of learning! Caelan's summer school Language Arts section was all about writing persuasive paragraphs and proving a thesis; she said, "Wow, this really comes in handy for being a lawyer." Aha! That's another level to learning that I couldn't have provided in a more fun way--application. Yes!