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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That said, we never went into this with the intention of being ‘fair weather’ Players. It’s such an enjoyable, communal punctuation to our weeks that we’re determined to grit our teeth and make it through the challenging months. Tips for winter street play and keeping warm…

If you have time, the biggest thing you can do is read with your child or get an older sibling to, they will benefit from time reading aloud and the younger child will gain so much. When reading one to one a child gets time to look at the pictures and discover small details, they are hearing rhymingwords andunderstanding how words sound and thiswill all help them when begin to learn to read. You can point out 'their' letterwhen it appears in words and whatother names or words have that letter. In preschool it is all about giving a context tolearning - it ismore important that a child recognise their letter in lots ofdifferent placesthatthey learn to recite the alphabet without knowing what theletters actually mean. Oh, how can I put into words the joys of a walk over country such as this; the scenes that delight the eyes, the blessed peace of mind, the sheer exuberance which fills your soul as you tread the firm turf? This is something to be lived, not read about. On these breezy heights, a transformation is wondrously wrought within you. Your thoughts are simple, in tune with your surroundings; the complicated problems you brought with you from the town are smoothed away. Up here, you are near to your Creator; you are conscious of the infinite; you gain new perspectives; thoughts run in new strange channels; there are stirrings in your soul which are quite beyond the power of my pen to describe. Something happens to you in the silent places which never could in the towns, and it is a good thing to sit awhile in a quiet spot and meditate. The hills have a power to soothe and heal which is their very own. No man ever sat alone on the top of a hill and planned a murder or a robbery, and no man ever came down from the hills without feeling in some way refreshed, and the better for his experience.”

Linda McGurk offers a perfect antidote to the hyper-vigilant, extra-electrified, standardized-tested, house-arrested, 21st-century childhood and the experts who push it. Practical and wise, There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather proves just that, and much more.”

Ifparents want to help their child learn at home set uptheir toys forthem and encourage yourchildren to playindependently for at least 30 minutes, if you have otherchildren at home even betteras they can playtogether. Letchildren role play and dress up, let them play with small world figures - people,animals etc. encourage them to chat away as they play, if you have time to join is do but it is important for them tolearn to play on their own too. Aschildren play with theirsmall toysthey are learning howto sort - they might put all thesmallanimalstogether or all the ones on 2 legs or ones with babies. they might sort by colour,shape or size. Hopefully you will hear them chattering away tothemselves as they try to make sense of theirworld through play - youwillprobably hear 'your voice' in there sometimes too aschildren repeat phrases you might sayto them a lot. I always enjoy but also cringe when I seechildren playing out being theteacher with their peers and see them holding a book like I do or saying things they have heard me say (I hear the phrase 'Excuse me' a lot as I must say this as a way to show I am not happywith some behaviour!) 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. The thing I liked least about this book was that the author came off as the brainwashed Swede automaton stereotype. Sweden is the best country in the world and everything they do is right. Women should work outside the home. Children should be raised by the state in forest schools. And everyone should be an environmentalist and a vegetarian. In addition to some of the mental and physical benefits you mentioned, are there any other positives of this parenting philosophy? 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.I’m not going to try speaking for David here, and he’s already replied, but I found this quite interesting…! And, it would be even better if Ulf were to return and give us some more of his opinion! In summer, it is recommended to wear long trousers and long sleeved tops because it is cooler under the trees and they help to protect from insect bites and scratches. I am from the town of Dalsjöfors in southern Sweden, a 45-minute drive from Gothenburg. And now I live in Covington, Indiana. Long story short, I met my American husband in Australia when we were exchange students. He is from Covington and we moved there partly to be closer to his family and partly because he wanted to work in the family business. 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 There were days that the staff had aparticular aim and hadgroups of children with them to help e.g building planters, weeding or repairing structures but otherwise thechildren are leftto playalone and develop their play as they want to without adult interference. By having 2 teachers in each class it also meant that 1 teacher could take asmall group into do more specific tasks e.g. precoding, whist theothers were safely outdoors with the other teacher and assistant.

Everystaffmember could say why theyhad this approach - they knewchildren need to have hands onlearningexperiences before you put pencils into theirhands and ask them to sit at desks - they all knew of and referred toFroebel's Principles.

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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. 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 clothing

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. There’s a huge benefit that’s not directly manifested on a physical level, but it’s got more to do with developing a love for nature. Ultimately, you have to have a connection to nature early in life to develop the desire to protect nature later in life. The kids who don’t have that connection, it’s going to be hard for them to relate when the woods are being chopped down. They’re probably not going to care as much. The most important thing for a young child is to foster an emotional attachment to nature because that is something you can build on. So I think it’s important for the future of the planet, as well as the kids’ health, to get them out there. 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.” 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. Sunday April 28th – One of the most piercing cold days as ever came since the beginning of the world & great coats & cloaks are in danger of being quite threadbare by wearing them constantly

Playing out has proved itself to be one of the simplest and surest routes to making these kinds of memories for me. And perhaps if we don’t manage to make it out every single week in the cold and the wet, we can invite each other into our homes and remember some of the happy memories we’ve made together so far. 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.