Right on Target

Ever since she saw the movie Brave, Marina has been interested in archery. She has a play bow with arrows tipped with suction cups and she practices with it often. However, she has been interested in trying out the real thing as well. So, I signed us up for an Archery class at the Wildlife Experience. Since Marina was under 12, I had to take the class along with her. She brought her American Girl doll McKenna along for moral support.

Today was a very snowy day, so we were a bit late for the class. It began with a lot of learning. We had to learn safety rules, how to hold the bow and handle the arrows. We had to figure out which was the dominant eye and how long our reach was. Marina was a bit restless through it, but she was listening.

Once it was time to try shooting, Marina was very focused. Her first arrow missed the target, but her second stuck. The instructors noticed she had a tendency to rush her shot. Once we convinced her to slow down and take her time, she did quite well. After her first round, she said, "I want to do it again!"

After the first two rounds, we had a bulls eye to aim for. Marina's first two arrows missed wildly. But once she slowed down, she hit the middle circle. She was so excited!

In the last round, all her arrows bounced off the target. Although in competition she would have score points for each arrow, she was upset they didn't stick. It was clear it was time for lunch.

After lunch, we went into the Wildlife Experience exhibits. They have a temporary exhibit on Geotracking, so, we checked that out first. Marina had fun finding clues and stamping her card at each station.

We also went through the Globology Exhibit. Marina picked up a scavenger hunt list and we went through each ecosystem looking for the animals on her list. On the way out, we saw an employee who was carrying a rosy boa. Marina was happy to pet the snake before it was put back in its habitat. After that, we headed home.We agreed we'd like to try Archery again!