Neot Kedumim in a hurry

My son is learning Mishnah Sukka at Emek Hebrew Academy in the 5th grade. He is thankfully very enthusiastic about his studies and has even memorized several of the mishnayos. I came across a Biblical Nature Reserve called Neot Kedumim just outside of the city of Modiin. This reserve's mission is not only to preserve nature, but to do so by incorporating as many Biblically mentioned species ( not just the big 7) and other things in nature mentioned in the Torah. Throughout the year, especially during holidays they have a variety of hands on activities and exhibits. One of their year-round exhibits is one where they take the Mishnayos in Sukka and build life size 3D sukkahs. I heard that it is even more impressive with live animals and then some during the holiday of sukkahs, but we will take what we can get. I knew my son would really enjoy seeing the text come to life. He was so excited about this that he told his rebbe at school. His teacher told him to take a lot of pictures and that he would present something to his class upon his return. 

     Friday morning seemed like the perfect time to squeeze this activity in. This time I was clever enough not to trust the GPS and actually think it could find the place in the morning, so I brought it in the house to program the night before. Surprise Surprise it couldn't find it, so I had good ol' Google maps find me directions and I hand wrote them out. We got there with only one stop for directions. As soon as I got out of the car to ask the man he told me Neot Kedumim is out and to the right one more driveway. I commented that he must get that all day. He responded back, "if I only had a shekel for each time... " Some things are universal.

     Once we figured out where to go and where to park, the man at the desk told us there are 4 trails, each with a different focus. the Sukka exhibit isn't exactly on any of them, but it's between two. He told us to go down the path and the first fork, take a left. Got it. Except when we walked out the door there were about 5 paths. We decided to just pick a way to go and we would figure it out. All of the official trails are well marked with stations numbered and corresponding guide maps. Soon enough we figured out where we were and where to go. We came across an exhibit on ancient farming which also teaches about some of the Shabbos prohibitions. No one was around so I had the boys try everything out. We even found a well they could draw water. Eventually we found the Sukka exhibit. My son was having a great time going from booth to booth explaining what we saw and why it was significant. When we were finished with that we continued on walking around enjoying the nature. We saw the 4 species of sukkos growing, we saw the 7 species of Israel. We came across some other water drawing stations and more. My sons were aware that since it was Friday, the reserve's shop along with the ice cream would close early. We headed to the exit around noon, got the boys their Popsicles and headed bavck to get ready for Shabbos.