The first woman I met at church was very ind, helpful and friendly. She spoke excellent English (having served a mission in North Carolina). She is also the mother of four equally kind kids. 4! That's rare enough for a German family. They range in age from 6 to 16, both the youngest and oldest are boys. The youngest boy is Alwin (pronounced Alvin) and he is in Jessica's Primary class. Annika in 11 and she is with Makenna. Their family was planning on going to Nürnberg that Tuesday and invited us to go along. Of course, I jumped at the chance. She had use of her husband's large van, so they picked us up Tuesday morning and we drove away with our picnic lunches and plenty of drinks.
The main destination was Erfahrungsfeld. I had to copy that name from the brochure I brought home. It's an area filled with many, many hands-on experiences to explore the five senses. That is what I was told about it before we went. It doesn't really do it justice, but it's still true. The very first thing we saw were huge rocks with small polished sections. If you wet your hands and rub they stones, they sing. Rich tones you can feel as well as hear. Then there was a section that invited you to take off your shoes to explore touch with your feet. If you were extra brave, you could close your eyes and be led through the path, never knowing what to expect next, pebbles, grating, rough mat, wobbly water bed, etc. They explored more things than I am going to mention, but I'll make notes about the ones for which I have pictures. I'll also note here that it was a marvelous place to go with the help of a translator. I would never have know what to do at many spot without Rachel's help. Isaac was with 16 year old Robin (speaks better English than I do German) much of the time and so I have fewer pictures of him.
This was a giant pendulum rock. The girls were encouraged to close their eyes and feel the motion.
How far can you jump into the sand pit? You can compare to various animals on the side. Alwin is waiting for Jess to move for his turn.
I have no idea what this was for, but it was a nice shady area to rest for a moment.
Big water works area. There was a kid cranked water wheel and water screw. Mainly the girls liked to wade.
Here are Annika and Alwin working in front of my girls. You try and move a ball up inside a wooden circle without the ball falling through any of the cut out holes. You have a right and left string to pull to control the movement of the wooden circle holding the ball.
Making a tornado.
Guess the smell. There were good smells like roses, lemon, lavender, and apples. There were bad smells like vinegar, rubbing alcohol, smoke, and shoe cleaner. The bad faces were the best.
There was another building nearby that was included in the learning experience. The first part has no pictures because it was a blind experience, run by the blind. We were guided into a COMPLETELY dark room and told to use our right hand on the wall to guide us through. The guide, would tell us the area we were in like kitchen, bedroom, subway, yard. . . . We were very slow. Even thgouh we were told there were no steps up or down, the floor slanted a few times and we were so cautious about foot placement. Jess was very nervous at first, but soon learned to try and find proof of the room. There is a sink, where is the faucet, oh, there it is. I think this is a stuffed animal. What kind. Probably a giraffe. It has a long neck. I don't know exactly how long we were in there, but it was at least 10 minutes. Very interesting simulation.
Downstairs in that building, they have a sound room. A very enthusiastic teacher talked about how sound works and demonstrated what sound looks and feels like in many unique ways. The kids could feel a balloon held in front of a ringing gong, see water ripples in "singing" metal dish, and best of all, see the sand patterns on a metal sheet that was "played" with a bow. Pictured below are just a few of the patterns made by bowing on different parts of the metal. Sound is beautiful.
On the way home we stopped at a lake to splash around for a bit. Isaac forgot to bring a swimsuit, but Jess would find good skipping rocks in the water for him to throw. It was a lovely, largish lake and a selfish part of me wished I brought goggles to see if I could swim across. It didn't help that there was a big sign on the main road that we passed that said something about this being a triathlon training area and we see hundreds of people on bikes everyday. I guess I'm missing the Lake Las Vegas race.
The main destination was Erfahrungsfeld. I had to copy that name from the brochure I brought home. It's an area filled with many, many hands-on experiences to explore the five senses. That is what I was told about it before we went. It doesn't really do it justice, but it's still true. The very first thing we saw were huge rocks with small polished sections. If you wet your hands and rub they stones, they sing. Rich tones you can feel as well as hear. Then there was a section that invited you to take off your shoes to explore touch with your feet. If you were extra brave, you could close your eyes and be led through the path, never knowing what to expect next, pebbles, grating, rough mat, wobbly water bed, etc. They explored more things than I am going to mention, but I'll make notes about the ones for which I have pictures. I'll also note here that it was a marvelous place to go with the help of a translator. I would never have know what to do at many spot without Rachel's help. Isaac was with 16 year old Robin (speaks better English than I do German) much of the time and so I have fewer pictures of him.
Optical illusions.
There was another building nearby that was included in the learning experience. The first part has no pictures because it was a blind experience, run by the blind. We were guided into a COMPLETELY dark room and told to use our right hand on the wall to guide us through. The guide, would tell us the area we were in like kitchen, bedroom, subway, yard. . . . We were very slow. Even thgouh we were told there were no steps up or down, the floor slanted a few times and we were so cautious about foot placement. Jess was very nervous at first, but soon learned to try and find proof of the room. There is a sink, where is the faucet, oh, there it is. I think this is a stuffed animal. What kind. Probably a giraffe. It has a long neck. I don't know exactly how long we were in there, but it was at least 10 minutes. Very interesting simulation.
Downstairs in that building, they have a sound room. A very enthusiastic teacher talked about how sound works and demonstrated what sound looks and feels like in many unique ways. The kids could feel a balloon held in front of a ringing gong, see water ripples in "singing" metal dish, and best of all, see the sand patterns on a metal sheet that was "played" with a bow. Pictured below are just a few of the patterns made by bowing on different parts of the metal. Sound is beautiful.
Still pictures don't do this justice. As Isaac rubbed his hands on the handles, the dish would "sing" and areas of water would ripple and bubble. It was very cool.
On the way home we stopped at a lake to splash around for a bit. Isaac forgot to bring a swimsuit, but Jess would find good skipping rocks in the water for him to throw. It was a lovely, largish lake and a selfish part of me wished I brought goggles to see if I could swim across. It didn't help that there was a big sign on the main road that we passed that said something about this being a triathlon training area and we see hundreds of people on bikes everyday. I guess I'm missing the Lake Las Vegas race.
The girls waiting to change back into their clothes.
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