A few weekends ago, I signed up the kids for another park adventure; this one was called the Woodland Indian Experience. It was at the county park closest to my house, which I liked : ) Danny and Katie were supposed to both go, but D of course had some other thing he had to be at. Anyway, Katie and I went, and there was one other mom with her son, who I think was a 2nd grader. The park guide took us for a hike along the paths through the woods and explained the history of the parks and what kinds of archaeological digs had occurred there, and the Native Americans known to have lived in the area thousands of years ago. That part was interesting, and since there were only the 4 of us Katie got to do all of her babbling she usually does without annoying too many people. When we got back to the park area, we got to try out atlatls. What, you've never heard of them??? Pronounced "AT-LAttle", they are "weapons" developed to improve their spear-throwing. They were invented before the bow and arrow, sometime around the time they were hunting big game like mastodons and wooly mammoths. They are pieces of wood with a strap on one end and a hook carved into the other end, which you set the spear onto and use as leverage to throw the spear harder and straighter. Here is a picture of the park guide showing the kids how to set up:
And here is one of Katie's better throws:
As you can see on the ground, it's a little harder than it looks! We 2 moms both tried a few times, but the kids kept at it for a while - until Katie's arm got tired. The boy kept on going and going, until finally he did hit the target! The other mom and I agreed that our older sons would have loved this program, and that we would sign up again in the spring if they offer it again.
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