Exercising in the healing forest

Now’s your chance to be a forest detective!

Here in the magic forest you can go on an interesting search for clues. Feel and smell the soft moss and discover which tiny animals live in the moss, find mysterious caves and holes in the forest animals or find the trees on which our little forest spirit has drawn a white circle.

Your training effect: training of the sense of touch and smell, concentration and coordination as well as endurance.

Birds of prey have powerful eyes, because they have to recognise their prey from several hundred metres away.

Train your eyes, too:

1. Pick a tall tree! Without moving your head, look with your eyes from the ground up to the treetop (10 times).
2. Then look straight ahead and move your eyes to the right and left (10 times).
3. Finally, roll your eyes once to the right and once to the left (10 times).

Repeat these exercises 3 times.

Your training effect: Enhancement of the eyesight strengthening of the eye muscles; Eye training for relaxation; Exercises to switch focus of eyes between different distances

Tip: You should take off your glasses for these exercises!

Do you know that every child breathes 16-25 times a minute? We couldn't live without air!
The air near evergreen trees is especially good for you - it helps with coughing or when your chest hurts. Imagine that our forest air consists of many tiny magic bubbles. Close your eyes, breathe deeply in and out and snap up the air bubbles like a fish. Then hold your breath for 3 seconds and breathe it out very slowly. How do you feel now? Repeat these exercises several times.

Your training effect: Exercises for respiratory diseases; Training of lung volume; Promote concentration; conscious breathing in and out has a calming and relaxing effect

Compose your own forest music on the sound tree. Use the sound sticks and hit the sound bars carefully and very softly.

Can you hear how it sounds?

Your training effect: Promotion of acoustic and fine motor skills, a sense of rhythm, imagination and attentivenes

Collect pine cones, stones or whatever else you can find on the forest floor. Now try to throw it through the three different sized openings.
Way to go! You hit the target!

Training effect: Exercises for eye-arm coordination; Learning to estimate distances; Improvement of fine motor skills; Improve concentration

Handicrafts, making or designing something, such as small figures made of cones or chestnut men, that’s what our little forest sprite really enjoys doing.
Have a look around, maybe you will find a few things here with which you can make something?

Your training effect: Development of individual creativity and the ability to think abstractly; Promotion of fine motor skills and sensory perception

First move carefully back and forth, swing the rope to the right and left, and then swing quickly to the next rope. Finally, pull yourself up on the rope with all your strength.
Wow, you are really strong!

Your training effect:Improvement of sense of balance; Strengthening the upper arm and back muscles; Relief of the spine; Body balance training

Take off your shoes!
On our forest path you walk over hollows, branches, stones, moss, sand, leaves and forest plants. How does it feel? Try it now with your eyes closed. Perfect! If you feel like it, you can make your own barefoot path. To do this, collect small objects from the forest floor, place them one behind the other and walk over them.

Your training effect: Activation of tactile sensations; Training of the sense of touch and the sensory system; Training and strengthening of the foot muscles, training in motor skills, movement training

Now, here’s a little test of courage, see if you can climb to a height of over 10 metres! That is strenuous and requires a lot of strength. You have to climb over boulders and tree trunks, balance on wooden boards, hold on to the rope, keep your balance and always look carefully where you are going. Hooray, you made it!

Your training effect: Promotion of motor development, body control, dexterity and sensory perception; Overcoming feelings of fear and self-doubt; Balance training; Experience of heights

Now it's going to be fun! Slink along the forest path like a fox, hop like a hare, waddle like a duck, run fast like a lion, hop like a kangaroo and pace slowly like a bear. Can you do these movements backwards? When doing this, pay attention to the forest floor with its roots, holes and stones.

Your training effect: Strengthening the leg muscles, promoting the sense of orientation and touch, movement and concentration training, experience of natural world

Did you know that our eardrum is also called a sound receiver? Test it for yourself! Stand facing the whispering phone. One of you speaks softly into the opening while the other puts your ear to the opening. Well? Did you understand everything clearly in our forest telephone?

Your training effect: Promotion of acoustic skills, concentration and auditory perception

Clamber into the nest swing, get someone else to start you started and then make it swing more by yourself! After swinging, just lie still in the swing nest, rest, look at the treetops and listen to the sounds of the birds and animals. Well? What can you hear?

Your training effect: Swinging especially promotes the sense of balance and coordination, trains control of child’s own body and supports the child's motor development; gentle rocking has a calming effect

You have now reached the last station. Can you see Theo's big cuddling stone? Stroke or cuddle its smooth surface once before you go and tell the little forest sprite what you have experienced. If you close your eyes while touching the stone, you can also wish for something that only Theo can hear.

And our forest sprite is looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Bye bye, see you soon!