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Free education - especially when preschool is included - is an incredibly powerful tool for controlling a population. If this book is true, Sweden is a country of environmentalist, outdoorsy vegetarians because of their schooling. They did away with teaching math and reading in preschool and just teach environmentalism! But they are vegetarians because they believe it is better for the environment, not because they enjoy it or believe it is better for their own personal health. And they bike because it is better for the environment, not because they enjoy it or want the exercise. I support environmentalism to the extent that environmentalism supports healthy humans, but the idea that anyone ought to sacrifice their own health or happiness because someone told them that X is "good for the environment" is insane. Whether or not we have dedicated summer and winter wardrobes, most of us adjust our clothing seasonally, and in accordance with the weather (particularly temperature and rainfall) we expect on a daily basis. Our morning decision of what to wear is of course also influenced by our planned activities, whether we’ll be spending the majority of our time outside, or in climate-controlled buildings. Any Outdoor Learning involves elements of risk. The benefits of appropriate risk are vital to children’s development. Forest School develops learners understanding of risk, involves the learners in the risk management process and supports learners to take acceptable risks. Forest School leaders are trained in relevant Health and Safety issues. Every qualified Forest School level 3 leader will have a handbook containing all the appropriate policies, procedures, risk assessments and other relevant documentations. Every Leader will also be trained in emergency outdoor first aid. Leaders will consider the setting, child, local conditions and any other considerations when deciding what activities to undertake with children. There is an on-going process of observation and instruction gradually leading up to the use of tools or fire over an extended period of time ensuring risks are introduced and managed in a safe and consistent way. Risks are weighed up against benefits in a risk benefit analysis. Don't buy one of those baby intercoms. Babies pretend to be dead. They're bastards, and they do it on purpose. Christine Gross-Loh, author of THE PATH: WHAT CHINESE PHILOSOPHERS CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE GOOD LIFE
Several researchers have spent much of their careers trying to figure out why Scandinavians are so consumed with the idea of getting their progeny outside every day. One theory is that it is a form of precaution. We believe that outdoor play is good for kids, but we cannot necessarily pinpoint why. We can tell that it’s not hurting them, and we worry about what would happen if they didn’t have it. Young childrenlearn by doing and by having funrather than sitting up at a table with books etc. Go for a walk if you can and have fun counting how many steps between lamp posts, what numbers you can see or letters orshapes. An unplanned, uncontrolled event which could have led to injury to people, damage to equipment or the environment or some other loss. This is used to inform and alter practice. For a preschooler the next few weeks are not about sitting up at a tablelearning letter, shapes or numbers from books or tracingletters etc. In mysetting alllearning is done through play, at no point do we sit thechildren down and say 'Now we are going to learn shapes etc.' and that isn't how it should bedone at home either.
Bonus: So kalt ist es nicht – it’s not that cold
Foreigners are often drastically underprepared for the Norwegian winter. Actually even more so for the spring and autumn, when you frequently experience all types of weather within a couple of hours. Norwegians take great glee in directing this phrase at all damp-looking foreigners, with the excitement of thinking they're the first to ever share this advice. Tuesday June 4th – a piercing cold air & cloaks & great coats in full fashion the same as at Christmas It is recommended that all children bring the following kit to change into before each forest school session; Covington has less than 3,000 people. It’s small. Dalsjöfors is very similar in size, but that’s about where the similarities end. It was a pretty different childhood. Like most kids in Sweden, I grew up playing outside a lot. And not just at home but also at school. About 20 percent of the day is outdoor recess in Sweden. It’s an important parenting foundation in Scandinavia.
In Scandinavia, where I was born and raised, it would be very easy to make excuses for not going outside. The northern part of Scandinavia—which truly comprises Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, but for all practical purposes of this book also will include our eastern neighbor, Finland, which shares much of the same culture—reaches well beyond the Arctic Circle, and the climate in the region is partly subarctic. Heavy snowfall is common in the winter, especially up north, although white Christmases are not guaranteed. The Gulf Stream helps moderate the temperature, especially along the western coasts, making it warmer than is typical of other places on the same latitude. Still, anybody who has spent a winter in Scandinavia knows that it is not for the faint of heart. Temperatures can range from Let’s Bring out the Patio Furniture to I Think My Eyelids Just Froze Shut, but one facet of Scandinavian winters always remains constant: the darkness. This idiom isn’t used to describe the weather, but it can help avoid confusion. Be careful when you say you have cold tootsies in German; this expression is the same in English. If you’re feeling doubtful of a situation, or put off, you might get cold feet. A typical example of this is someone bailing on their wedding. Bonus: So kalt ist es nicht – it’s not that cold I was inspired by this book but did get tired of the US to Scandinavian comparison. I liked her example of walking her kids in cold weather and someone pulled over to give her a ride. I wish more people walked places. I wish we were outside mingling and enjoying our neighborhoods in all weather.
You said, "If you're ever in Los Angeles we must have dinner"- well, he's here. That's not an invitation! Translated, it means: "You're a boring piece of shit, I'm off, I've had enough of you!" Since so many people just seemed to be moving from one climate-controlled indoor environment to another, there was no need to dress for the elements, and I found that people often dressed as if they didn’t expect to go outside at all, not even putting on a coat in the dead of winter. In one of my columns for a Swedish newspaper, I wrote that, due to the way American society was designed, most people could probably get by with walking less than a thousand feet per day. Now I was starting to think that this was an overly generous estimate.
From clean water, zero-waste policies, and green energy the leap to parenting may seem big, but, as Sobel and Chawla have pointed out, it all starts by forming a bond with nature in childhood. And the Scandinavians are experts at it. For dry days, use regular, breathable shell pants and a windbreaker for the outer layer. Even if the temperature doesn’t call for shell pants, they save your child’s regular clothes from getting stained and torn. This is one of those easy little books whose whole idea could be summarized in one paragraph or even a single sentence: Get your kids outside! Principle 4: Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves. So, here I am as a part-time amateur linguist with just one year self (and Youtube-) taught Norwegian under my belt and no Norwegian friends, wondering what our fellow German types from whatever country made of David’s gag… Nobody else here seemed to turn a hair at it! Ulf was obviously offended and took it (too? – although obviously this is the whole point of any cultural vs personal judgment) seriously. I never imagined Norwegians as particularly sensitive (as in over-sensitive – I’m not suggesting you’re all oafs!!)…In addition to some of the mental and physical benefits you mentioned, are there any other positives of this parenting philosophy? The best parts of this book are the recommendations for further reading at the end of each chapter and the summary at the end, which I basically agreed with completely except for the "we are one with nature" line. (Um...#nope) A short coat for the parish shepherd continually expos’d to the weather at all times in the year & 7 days in the week over an upon Lordship 18s A happening, event or occurrence caused by ignoring or not adhering to set rules, boundaries, policies or laws. We want our daughters to learn how to climb trees, because if you know how to climb, you don't fall. We want them to feel safe with it, because it's when you're scared that you fall."
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