We have now been in Switzerland for 3 MONTHS! It’s hard to believe that we are now well and truly over the halfway mark of our time here. It has flown by!
This week we were back to PHTG, however it wasn’t our usual classes as we were participating in a Bronze Age History week which included 5 days packed with different activities including museum trips, making historic tools and having BBQs forest style. It was a fun, yet extremely tiring week.
Day 1 gave us an introduction to the week. This included looking at the different time periods in History, which I discovered are: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Roman Age and Medieval Ages, as well as examining different bones and learning how archaeologists determine their age. All very… interesting. We also went to Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen (stilt houses) which dates back to Neolithic times and had fun making objects such as knives, musical instruments and jewellery using traditional methods from this time.
On Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 23 degrees, we were happy to discover that we would be spending a full day in a Forest making tools and objects from the Stone Age. This turned out to be an enjoyable day as we learned how to make fire using flint stones thanks to our very own ‘Swiss’ Ray Mears. I also made a bow and arrow using twigs and a bone and we had lots of fun throwing spears in the forest using typical Stone Age launchers. I was pleased to see that all my shot putt throwing skills from school still existed as I was able to throw the spears a lot further than Josh (haha). It was also really cool to set up our own BBQ and cook sausages for lunch. No hygiene safety required as everyone just fired their meat onto a big grill tray and we ate the sausages off twigs, I really did feel like I was in the Stone Age.
Tuesday was also one of my highlights of the week as thanks to Felix and Salome, a few students from our class, we were invited to go for a hike above the Lower Lake Constance, with another BBQ for dinner being essential. Zoe and I loved checking out the cute town of Stein am Rhein and hiking above the lake to an abandoned castle, where we watched the sun set as we BBQ-ed. I couldn’t help but sit back and appreciate the beauty of creation and I was so thankful for local Swiss people to share these hidden gems of beauty with us, rather than always doing the ‘typical’ tourist attractions. I find it so cool that all around the lake, there are set up BBQs, even supplied with fire wood and paper, again another reason why I LOVE Switzerland.
On Wednesday we went to Legionärspfad which turned out to be the best craic as we enjoyed becoming Roman soldiers for the entire day, dressing up in Roman attire under the command of our officer and learning about the daily tasks, foods and fighting techniques of Roman soldiers. I think this museum was a brilliant idea as we learnt about the Romans whilst in character and I could definitely see how children would love this.
As Tucker (2014) comments: “Play is what young children are about, it is what preoccupies them and it can be considered both a mode of behaviour and a state of mind.”
It was also fun to learn Roman battle calls and practise shield formations and fighting. Zoe shocked us all as she managed to take down both the boys and win the overall battle.
We were back in the forest on Thursday, unfortunately a turn in the weather and so we spent all day indoors making early medieval objects. I really enjoyed making copper and silver rings as well as melting tin on the fire and carving my own mould for a spear head.
Finally, it was Friday and we travelled to another museum in Germany where we were given a tour of a Bronze Age Village which was in the process of being built just like it would have looked in St. Gallen thousands of years ago. It was interesting to see all the wooden houses being built and daily jobs such as chopping and carving wood. It was also fun to make our own pizzas using a handmade mud oven – they tasted pretty good.
As I look back on this week, although the days were quite long and tiring, I can see how beneficial this has been for me to really get a grasp of different historical periods and using the ‘Hands on, Minds on’ approach to learning was really the focus of the project week. Making different tools and objects from each age has been the best way to learn and remember interesting facts about history and I can definitely see how this approach would be so effective for children.
The week was topped off with Zoe’s Mum and Sister arriving for the next few days and they kindly took me out for dinner on the Sunday. It was also nice to see Rebecca, Nikita, Judith and a few of her siblings on Saturday night where we had lots of fun catching up over dinner and live music.
A very different week to anything I’ve ever done, but it definitely beats sitting in class all day.
LIVING IN SWITZERLAND 