Museum of the Alphabet

When I received the email a few weeks ago, inviting families to get together for a tour of the Museum of the Alphabet, right here in rural Waxhaw, I was excited! A museum of alphabets from all over the world would be so interesting. During John's Kindergarten year, one of our favorite books was "Ox, House, Stick: A History of our Alphabet," which he still references in order to write his own codes. Further, one of my most memorable and fascinating classes at university was the history of worldwide languages and how they relate to one another.

Goofy picture

This Thursday, we went to the Museum of the Alphabet, on the campus of JAARS, a Protestant missionary college that translates Bibles into languages all over the world.

Nicer picture

All the signs were in various languages.

An amazing metalworking Tower of Babel

The tour guides divided our group into a younger group, and a group of fourth grade and above, so Mary struggled with being the oldest of the "little kid" group.

Joseph dressed up as the fourteenth century king who wrote an alphabet for Korea.

Chinese characters

Numbers

The Mayan calendar

The tour guides entered into a computer program each child's name, then printed out the names written in various languages as keepsakes.

Listening to a language using 'clicks'

A whistling language

Stamping one's name in hieroglyphics

This free museum is a treasure trove right here in our city! If one didn't have impatient tots in attendance, one could spend several hours in this museum. I came away having purchased a book of the museum so I could study all the exhibits with greater concentration than is afforded by a baby screaming on my back while I chase a three-year-old touching everything, as well as souvenir hieroglyphic pencils for the kiddos.

After visiting the museum, we found a shady oak tree on campus where we ate our brown bag lunches and played football.