“Think” Herbert Puchta, Jeff Stranks, Peter Lewis-Jones

Present by Alieva Ulker I'm not allowed to stay out late. Why do I have to do my homework before I can watch TV?

My parents never let me go to parties.' Why is it just Mum and Dad who make the rules? Life's just not fair. Do these complaints sound familiar? Well, if you think your life is hard, you might like to think about kids in ancient times. For some of them, life was really hard. If you were born in Ancient Greece, you weren't even thought to be a real person until you'd been alive for five days. That's right - for five days after you were born, your parents were allowed to get rid of you. If they decided they didn't want you, they'd just leave you outside somewhere to die. Of course, you might get lucky and someone else might pick you up, but then you'd spend the rest of your life as their slave. However, if your parents decided that they wanted you as part of the family, then there was a special ceremony to welcome you. Only the boys were allowed to go to school. Greek girls stayed at home, where their mothers taught them skills like cooking and weaving things that would help them find a husband. At the age of seven, some boys were sent away to very strict military schools, where they were taught how to become soldiers. Life was pretty hard at these schools. For example, the kids were often hungry. The teachers didn't let them have much food - for a reason. They wanted the boys to learn how to survive for themselves by stealing food. But if they got caught, they were punished. Aztec children in Mesoamerica also had a difficult life in ancient times. If they broke any rules, they could expect some pretty nasty punishments. On the plus side, Aztecs really believed in the importance of schooling. In the home, children learned practical skills: fathers taught their sons how to fish and farm while mothers taught their daughters home-making skills. Girls and boys also went to school (although the adults didn't let them go to the same schools). Kids went to schools called telpochcalli. They had lessons about history, religion and music. The boys also had lessons in how to fight. If the children were from a more important family, they went to a calmecac, where they learned how to read and write, too. At both schools children had to be on their best behaviour. They knew all about the punishments for behaving badly, and life was hard enough anyway.