Prepare, Aim, Fire

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day. I looked out the window and saw this scene in the backyard. Here was Lou working on creating a sharp point at the end of a very long beech sapling.

The carving continued where she removed the bark from the center of the stick for a handgrip. I imagine you're thinking she's creating some cool Vermont hunting weapon. There are hunters in the woods now, after all.


She was making a javelin. In Waldorf fifth grade, the children study ancient cultures including Greece. In PE they prepare all year for a 2-day pentathlon where children from several schools in VT and NY gather, divide into city-states, and then compete in javelin, discus, long jump, wrestling, and running.

Lou's class has just begun the javelin and she loves it so much, she decided to make her own at home. Of course, in school it's a real javelin. She wanted to share how to throw the javelin. The form of how one prepares to throw is judged as much as how far the javelin is thrown.

Take your stand!

Look behind!

Aim!

Kiss for luck!
Do you think the Greeks did that?

Fire!

Here is a picture of Helen in a toga at her Greek Olympiad