I love a good field trip. My kids have been asking since we moved to go up in the big windmill in Pella, and I finally materialized that desire into a field trip for our co-op group. What a fun time!! A perfect way to spend a Monday and start the week!
Besides the windmill and miniature village guided tour, we got to take our time in their historical village wandering through the 20 some different buildings. A log cabin, sod house, bakery, blacksmith, wood shoe shop, pharmacy, market, grocery, Wyatt Earp's house, historical church, 19th century farm house, and just soooo much more. There were musical instruments to see, costumes to try on, a puppet theater for the children, a small school room. There was no one rushing us and the garden in the middle of all of the buildings was peaceful and gorgeous.
We got split into two groups when we arrived. Half went on the windmill/mini village guided tour while the rest of us explored the village, and then we switched.
So happy for a field trip day! And Daddy took PTO and came with us!
Our tour group (minus Mike, who was generous enough to take the picture) - how I wish I had thought to get a picture of the entire group before we started!
While the purpose of the historical village is to help you grasp the history of the settlement of Pella, there was so much to be learned beyond that. We just finished the Little House books, so it was neat to point out the reality of a sod house, for the kids to see the actual size of a log cabin, and for them to just get a visual respect for how most everything that our country's settlers needed had to be made of someone's hands.
The non-historical koi pond and feeding the fish quarter food was a big draw for the kids.
The puppet theater and costume school room was a big hit!
We didn't get done with the historical village before it was our turn to go to the guided windmill tour, so we paused with promises to the kids to come back.
We watched a short video about the windmill and then our guide explained a bit about the Netherlands to us. I was personally fascinated by how the Dutch added on to their land joining islands in the North Sea that bordered their mainland west coast (and draining the sea between to use as farmland). The guide said where you see islands to the north - that it was all islands like that down the coast until they joined them. I likewise am pretty fascinated by the use of waterways (vs like our interstates in the US). The small black map shows how the entire Netherlands fits into Iowa!
The tiny village replica of the Netherlands was just absolutely enthralling to our entire family. We would have liked more time to examine it thoroughly!
Our guide was a fountain of knowledge. Here he is explaining the city gate to the children and how all people visiting entered the gates first to be checked. He reminded the kids that the Bible talks about city gates.
The winter scene showed Sinterklaas and our guide explained the traditions of his legend to the children.
We did not touch - but we sure wanted to!
The part depicted one of the farming areas built on where the sea had been drained.
Mike and I later talked about, given the information our guide gave us, how much common sense the Dutch used in making a life with the limited space available to them. Sheep for trimming hilly grasses also meant the sheep compacted the soil, making it safer all around. The use of sea beds for farming after draining the sea. They were ingenius and practical with what they had.
A church replica. Note the pulpit that you climb stairs and stand in - look for it in the pictures below from the church we toured!
Our guide told us that the Dutch were (not sure if they still are) taxed on the width of their homes. This makes so much sense given their limited space - land is so valuable! And so, because many had large families and still needed ample space - they built up! He showed us the furniture hooks on the outside of the homes, used for lifting furniture through windows to upper stories.
Note the green house - he said it's an example of a home built where each story is pushed out a bit from the previous to aid in the furniture not being damaged or damaging the house as it's lifted.
Just truly fascinating. The tiny village replica made the Netherlands top my list of places to visit!
Next we headed up to the windmill.
There was so much to learn here and our guide was so well informed. I think a good amount of it went over the kids' heads, but he sure did his best to make it relevant. In these experiences, I'm reminded that any little bit children gleam is more than they began with. I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and seeing how the windmill worked (it is a working grain mill).
The windmill had small quarters that showed an example of the millers quarters. While this was in the windmill tower, our guide explained that more likely they would have been in a small building next to the mill. This master "bedroom" is what stood out most to me. Too short to actually lay down in, because, as our guide taught us, most people slept sitting propped up on the headboard (where the phrase headboard was actually started), due to the high amount of lung diseases (dust, damp weather, etc). He said many actually weren't very tall, either (we learned later that the assumption that all Dutch are tall is because many are now given they have a more calcium hardy diet).
I also found it fascinating that the bed suite had doors. I guess that's what we call privacy? Eesh!
At the conclusion of our windmill tour some of us headed back to do a quick finish of the village grounds.
Phone booth in the pharmacy!
Zayden loved this!
I appreciated the trust put in us to keep our children in order but to enjoy the things with respect. There were signs of things to not be touched, but there were many displays that invited us to explore a bit further.
We headed to the park for lunch and to play with friends for a couple of hours.
When we left the park I asked the kids if anyone wanted to go back to the historical village (our stamp pass gave us access for the entire day). To my surprise 3 said yes (I thought I was the only one!) and so we went back over for another hour and a half or so, just our family. This time I rallied Evie more, so that Mike could explore with the older children and read some of the information. We took our time, allowed the older children to explore on their own (they had done some independent looking with friends that morning and knew their way around pretty well), and hit spots that everyone wanted to see again.
Natalee is enjoying the fountain in the garden area.
This time I brought quarters to buy fish food.
The pulpit sure would give everyone a fair few of the preacher.
Every year I think I'd like to do the Sinterklaas tradition with our kids for fun and always Dec 6th sneaks up on me!
Ope - Evalynn got tired. She and I sat out on a bench in the shade while the others finished their looking.
We sure let the entire day just slip away into a jumble of memories. I apologized to Mike that he didn't get anything else done and he said it was a good day and he didn't mind. We finished with a trip to the Dutch bakery for everyone to choose a treat. Realizing that Natalee had swim and it was coming up on 5 o'clock, we quick ordered pizzas and then waited in the parking lot for them to bake. The children sat on a blanket and had their treats, mainly because I didn't want the mess in the van.
Everyone was tired when we got home. We had supper, and then Mike took Natalee to swim. I encouraged him to take some time to himself while she was at swim and I got the others through the shower and sent them all to relax in their beds with a book. I was hoping Evalynn would fall asleep early, but she was still singing to herself in her bed when Mike and Natalee got home after 8. Such is life.
Part of a good field trip is finding others who want to go along with you, and I'm thankful we had enough to make a go of this one. It was such a fun day for our whole family!
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