There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)

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Aside from the obvious personal health aspects, having positive outdoor experiences in childhood is seen as a way to build a lifelong relationship with nature. To paraphrase David Sobel, advocate of place-based education and author of Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, if we want children to care about nature, they need to spend time in it first. Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time and you'll have the time of your life. Journal and accounts of the Rev. S. E. Hopkinson of Etton of charitable distributions by Earl Fitzwilliam (Northamptonshire Record Office, F(M) Misc Vols/136) I also thought it was so ironic how the US sometimes teaches about the outdoors by going to an indoor museum. I definitely think more unstructured outside play and imaging should done. My son had a teacher who rode her bike to school and did outdoor learning. I really appreciated her willingness to think o

I leave you with a complaint. Now, the country is in a terrible state, and you've blamed it on a number of things: Unemployment rate, the value of the pound and all that... well, it's because the national anthem is boring.This is quite a mean one. It means that you spinnt (are bonkers). But it can be funny due to the double meaning during these hot days! It is used jokingly in most cases. It is normally used a bit like this: Keeping the blood moving worked a treat too. We chalked a start and finish line and were soon racing up and down, hopping and skipping with the kids. 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. The challenge of living within the Covid19 world is a long one and such walks can play important roles in looking after ourselves. Risk assessment is an integral part of Forest School as learners develop their self-esteem and learn to manage risk for themselves.

Thechildren all arrive into thekindergarten and goinside to their 'classroom', some arrive very early in the morning but the majority are all there by 9.15. Each class hadapproximately 14-15 children and 3 adults, 2 teachers and an assistant. At 9.15 both classes got dressed up for going outdoors, as I had previouslydiscovered each class spends a lot of time outside not justtheoutdoor class. The kindergarten has a huge outdoor area, divided intodifferent zones; atypicalplayground area with a slide, swings and sandpit, a steep bank and gravel area and a kitchen garden area. They also have use of lots of forest areas beside the kindergarten and above it.Some of the days the children got ready to go to a particular destinationlike the forest or woods, or out on thekindergarten boat (yes they have a boat!) whilst on other days theystayed inthe playground but used thedifferent areasthroughout the day. They might have started out in the kitchen garden or swings etc. The outdoor class ate theirlunch outside as much aspossible and as theyare theoldestchildren they didn't go inside for a resttime like the youngerchildren did afterlunch. A perfect antidote to the hyper-vigilant, extra-electrified, standardized-tested, house-arrested, 21st-century childhood.” —Richard Louv, bestselling author of Last Child in the Woods and Vitamin N 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. Poor pups, what bad press! Likening the weather to a dog in German is to say the weather is horrible. You would use this term to describe a truly horrid, wet and howling day. This idiom is in such common use that the 1968 short film “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” became “Winnie Puuh und das Hundewetter” in German. Making the street into a safe space for children involves people stewarding at each end, so that only residents can drive in at walking pace. If you’ve always been the steward, winter is your chance to swap the role between the adults ( after an important briefing of course), so you can all have turns to run up and down to keep warm. …And the right clothingAlso, I get it that there is "no such thing as bad weather" and babies are totally fine napping outside at negative ten degrees. But what about one hundred and twenty and humid? It is interesting to me how ideas that sound so good may actually be really bad ideas in other places. Perhaps the world mono-culture that we think we are headed towards is impossible because values MUST be different in different geographic locations. 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) I hate all those weathermen, too, who tell you that rain is bad weather. There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing, so get yourself a sexy raincoat and live a little. I always found this saying a bit obnoxious, and couldn’t really believe others were BAD at dressing for the weather (after all, it simply makes sense) – but after not only plenty of visits to European countries in both winter and summer, not to mention living in Dublin for more than 4 months, I realized this saying is not as obnoxious as it seems, because in some countries people DO seem to struggle with dressing.

I work in front of a computer screen all day and by the end, my brain isn’t exactly at the top of its game. I need to get out to recover and refresh and recharge my batteries. Not only that, but just like outdoor play for kids helps prevent obesity, it helps us stay in shape too. If we as parents go out there with them and run around, go for walks, or hikes, etc. there’s really no downside to it.

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At some point in between refinishing the living room floors and painting the guest bedroom, I take a pregnancy test and finally see the two pink lines I coveted. The guest bedroom, it turns out, is going to be a nursery. I keep walking and prepare for the new arrival. 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. Any Forest School experience follows a Risk–Benefit process managed jointly by the practitioner and learner that is tailored to the developmental stage of the learner. Born and raised in Sweden with an ingrained appreciation for the outdoors, McGurk feels out of step with American culture when she tries to reproduce that childhood for her children in Indiana. Amusing interactions, such as one with a concerned motorist who passes her pushing her daughter in a stroller and walking her dog in midwinter, pepper the story….McGurk’s work will be encouraging to like-minded parents who feel American culture excessively emphasizes risk avoidance.” Kids can be known to protest: “It’s hot!” “It’s cold!” “It’s raining!” “It’s boring!” What do you say to parents and caregivers who want to get outside with kids without it feeling forced?