We started to explore a trail at the edge of the school ground, called Swordfern Trail. Over the course of a year, 140 grade 1 and 2 kids slowly made this patch of forest their own. They learned the names of the trees on the trail and what ecosystem those trees were a part of. We looked for fungi and used a (crude) determination table as a puzzle to find the names of the mushrooms we found on the trail. I talked to them about the web of life and how even on that short stretch of trail each organism had it's role in the ecosystem. Outside of the science periods, the teachers took their groups to the same trail to have the kids inspired by their surroundings and write beautiful poems. We built fairy houses with the bounty of the woods
The children's curiosity was sparked and I got more questions than I ever could answer. The trail transformed from a path that some kids used to walk to school on to a part of the forest that they "knew". Probably the best part was when the grade 3 students the next year asked for "play time" in the woods as the last thing we did for the science program before I left for Norway. Seventy-two kids running wild in the woods for an hour, climbing logs, building dams in streams, finding treasures and trying very hard to get "lost" ;-)
In Canada, this was something relatively new. It felt like I had finely found a little niche for myself where I could use my biological knowledge in a way to teach outside of the regular "sit-at-a-table-and-repeat-after-me-way". If we had stayed in Canada, I would have explored my options to obtain some form of teaching degree and turn what I had been doing on a voluntary basis into a real, grown-up job.
Alas. We moved to Norway. And in Norway, outdoor education has been a substantial part of the elementary school curriculum for ages. Which, of course, is awesome. Jura and Nori have had 3 "friluftsdagen" so far (they have gone to school for only 1.5 months now!) where they do exactly what those grade 3 kids did...but instead of 1 hour, they do it all day! So aside from the language barrier preventing me from trying to become some sort of outdoor education teacher, it's not exactly as if what I have to offer has any "niche-value" around here. Bummer. Then again, at least my girls get to experience the benefits of outdoor education firsthand! And over the past couple of weeks, even I got to experience some :-)
Eluin in particular is the lucky duck. Because the barnehagen (that's what Norway's amazing daycares are called) in our town had no spot for Eluin available, she started at a barnehagen the next town over. This barnehagen has a strong focus on outdoor education. In fact, they even have an outdoor pedagogue who oversees all things outdoorsy. How cool is that?! Their school is at the edge of a beautiful forest and they take regular trips into the woods. Also, next to their school yard, there is a part of the forest that has been turned into a play-climbing-forest for the kids. I know. I want to go to school there, too!
Aside from the regular school-life, they also go on "outdoor weeks" twice a year (I think). They pick a place in the woods near one of the "wooden shelters with firepits" you find in the woods here everywhere. And they stay there. All week. Even if the weather is, well, Norwegian. Eluin got to experience her first outdoor week two weeks ago. She had an awesome time! Everyday she came home smelling like a smoked potato, full of stories about sawing tree trunks and swinging on rope swings and, on her first day, she even brought home an invisible troll friend named Lars that she had found in the woods. Over the week, her independence and feeling of freedom in the woods grew even more.
It was during this week that I decided to be bold and ask if the teachers perhaps needed some extra hands... Of course they did not need any extra hands, but they were polite enough to let this outdoor education groupie sniff up some of the good stuff. And, really, those couple of hours are amongst the best hours I have had in Norway so far! First off, I felt for the first time that I was conversing with people at the same level, in Norwegian no less! Two-to-four year olds are apparently right at my level of Norwegian language proficiency. By which I by no means am implying that I understood everything the kids said to me. But kids are a lot less awkward about using crude sign language to make themselves understood, so it still felt as if I was engaging in true conversation.
What struck me most was that the kids hardly needed any motivation or guidance in their activities. Every now and then a teacher would suggest something, like try out the zip line, and all munchkins would trundle after said teacher to wait their turn on the zip line. But for the most part, they were just, well, playing. With whatever they found lying around. Figuring out their own ways to cooperate, turning logs into trains or horses and just having a good time. They never, ever got bored. And they were so independent!
I had already noticed that new found independence in Eluin before she had her outdoor week, though. She actually freaked me out one of the first times we went on a family hike together after she had started school. It was the beginning of autumn and the woods were filled with berries of every imaginable kind. Of course, I pointed out the blueberry bushes to the girls and suggested we would take a break to snack some. When I looked at Eluin, I saw her mouth was already stained blue. Oh boy. So, I asked her what berries she had been snacking on, and she pointed to several bushes. Not all of them blueberries. Rats. I looked at the other bushes she had pointed out and racked my brains to see if I could come up with the name of the plants she was pointing at, and whether they were poisonous, but of course drew a blank. I decided to push the memory of Jura having food poisoning and projectile vomiting for 48 hours straight to the back of my mind and just told Eluin not to eat any more berries, unless she asked me if she could eat them. To which she muttered: "Fine...but everybody at my school eats them...but you don't go to my school, so you don't know..." A couple minutes later, I found her picking some heart-shaped leaves instead and munch on them. What the peep? Did I not just tell her not to eat anything unless she asked me? No, I had not. I had in fact told her not to eat any more BERRIES, unless she asked me. I had said nothing about leaves, because, well, it had not crossed my mind she would. But there she was, eating leaves and giving me a look of utter disdain that I told her that I wanted her to stop eating things. She rolled her eyes at me and said: "But mom, EVERYBODY at my school eats these. Even the teachers. They say it is ok. Try one!" So I did. And decided from that moment on to ask Eluin about anything outdoorsy. I mean, with all the fires they build at school, she's probably better at building a fire than either of her non-outdoorsy parents...
Last Tuesday, I got a chance to get a glimpse of what they do at Eluin's school. They had organized a parent meeting and in the invitation they mentioned that part of it would be outside. And that we had to bring the same 'tour-backpack' that our kids bring and to dress for the weather. Unfortunately, Menno was not able to join due to a deadline at work. Because it said to dress for the weather, I decided not to be stubborn and to wear the only piece of outdoor clothing I owned. My ski pants. It had been kind of chilly, so I combined it with my down jacket, my hat and my fingerless gloves. Menno took one look at me and asked if I was planning to go on an arctic expedition. Haha. Very funny. I just tried to be in Rome and do as the Romans. Even though it did leave me wondering that if this was my outfit for a walk in the woods on a night in September, what on earth I would wear on a night in December?!
The first part of the evening was a talk about the school and general information about things that were coming up. At least, that's what I think it was about ;-) After that, the parents were divided into groups and were assigned one teacher who was the leader of the group. In the woods around the school, they had set up different stations to explain different parts of the school's philosophy. Best. Parent night. Ever.
The group of parents I was in was really nice. They were joking and laughing with the teacher. It was so nice to be in a group of adults again that had fun together! Forget about what they say about Norwegians being stand-offish and quiet, these people were a hoot! If only I could understand what they were laughing about... ;-)
The first station we visited was hosted by the "special pedagogue" who, as I understood it, works with kids in small groups to, amongst others, deal with language issues. Like little Eluin learning Norwegian. He explained what he did by focusing on one word (in our case "bil" = car) and talking about all the things you can think of around "car". Anything ranging form the fact that it starts with a "b" and is one syllable to what it does (drive), what it sounds like, what colour it has and different brands of cars. So cool! I immediately figured that this was something I needed to do with the girls at home, as part of our quest to master the Norwegian language. Such a great way to go beyond the tedium of learning one word at a time. In fact, it might even be a good format for Menno and myself to use for learning Norwegian, but instead of "bil" we would put something like "health insurance" in the middle...
After this, we walked over to the next station, where 2 teachers gave us insight in the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in the form of a role play involving a log. Pretending to be kids, they turned the log into a boat, found sticks to turn into fishing rods and used collaboration to get the log from the place it was at, where there was obviously no fish, into open sea. They explained to us how parents usually like open places, but how for kids the density of the forest gives a lot more opportunity for play and games. And again, I was able to understand what they were talking about!
The third station was at the edge of the little lake that is close to the school. I knew that the school had canoes and that they sometimes took the kids on a little canoe trip on the lake (I know, this school is just AWESOME!). Darkness was falling as we stood on the edge of the lake and the scenery was just breath-taking. Whether it was that my brain had reached its limit for absorbing Norwegian or that this particular teacher spoke quite a strong dialect, I don't know, but I had a hard time following what he was saying. So I just enjoyed the scenery. I snapped back to attention when he held up a life jacket and one of the other parents took it. Cool! We might be going on a little trip ourselves! So, when he held up the next life jacket, I grabbed it. The other parent was putting it on, so I decided to put mine on as well. There were three parents and a teacher, so we paired up and climbed into a canoe. As I stepped into the canoe, though, I realized that I had no idea whatsoever what the plan was. I had not paid attention to the instructions. Darn. Why do I always get myself in this kind of situations?! Apparently we were going for a little tour on the lake, because we got pushed off shore and so I started paddling. Had the teacher explained anything on how to paddle? No idea... I mean, I have gone kayaking and canoeing before, but I was either on my own or the one in the back doing the steering and the main part of the paddling, because the one up front was a kid. Being in a canoe with two adults, this quickly turned into a team building exercise with the added challenge of a language barrier. Thankfully, the dad in the back was really kind and we even managed to win the race back to the shore! Probably because the other boat was not aware that we were racing them, but still.
Being on the water makes me hungry, so hurray for the next station being the "food" station. While eating Italian vegetable soup (yum) and drinking coffee, we listened to a story about the importance of good, nutritious food and lightweight thermos bottles to make sure our kids' backpacks did not weigh too much while they were on tours. The barnehagen offers hot lunch three days a week and I was tempted to ask if they had ever considered writing a cookbook. All I ever heard from Eluin when I asked what she had for lunch was: "So-and-so...and it was SO GOOD!!!" Thanks to the cooks at barnehagen, we in our family got introduced to typical Norwegian staples as mackerel in tomato sauce and the weird sweet-and-sour-cheese (Eluin does not eat it, but she told me a lot of kids in her class eat it, so I decided to be brave and try it...and now I am hooked!). They even ate chanterelle mushrooms that their teacher picked in the forest one day! And they cooked lamb in a fire pit which they covered up with earth... Talk about the pedagogical value of having children eat a variety of food in a group setting, so they all try new stuff because the person sitting next to them does too :-)
As I was digesting (pun intended) the talk about food, we walked over to the last station. The teachers in charge of that station had put up a little tent in the woods and all parents in the group before us were huddled inside. So, our group waited outside and I asked the teacher who was the leader of the group whether this kind of barnehagen was normal in Norway. It's not the mainstream kind of barnehagen, but because of the location of this barnehagen, it seemed only fitting to have such a focus on the outdoors. I think they are doing an amazing job, not just on the outdoors stuff, but basically at every level they care for and teach Eluin. And hearing how this is not the standard, I truly feel we got lucky in having no spot at our "own" barnehagen and being bumped one village over.
Soon it was time for us to crawl into the tent. I wondered what we could possibly learn more that night, but when I saw the bag of clothes I knew... This was the Tent of Bad News. Well, ok, it was the Tent of Appropriate Clothing for the Weather, but in my case, this could only spell bad news. And I was right. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly understand the need for kids to be warm and comfortable, especially if you take them outside for longer periods of time. And I also get that Norwegian weather calls for a larger variety in attire than Haarlem or Vancouver did. I even get that there is a certain correlation between the price of a piece of clothing and it's quality. But boohoo us... It turned out that the wardrobe I got Eluin was just her late-summer-early-fall wardrobe. I still needed more. Lots more. Darn. The past couple of months we have been scraping by (scraping is part of the expression for living from paycheck to paycheck because of all the peanut butter he has scraped out of jars over the past couple of months (it's the only thing he eats on sandwiches these days)). With our house in Holland still not transferred to the new owners, we have had to pay the mortgage on our home in Holland on top of our rent here. I really want my girl to be warm, but for now I just have to cross my fingers that the bad weather does not set in until mid October when our house is finally sold.
Once we got to the winter attire, with extra thick park dresses, I could see black spots in front of my eyes. I was just wondering whether it would be too awkward to put my head between my knees and thus keep from hyperventilating, when I heard the teacher say that although this particular snowsuit costs about 2000 kroner (~$330 CAD) it at least lasts for up to three children. In broken Norwegian, I groaned: "But Eluin already IS my third child..." But once I had said that, and as I listened to another parent explain to me that you could buy them second hand and they would still be good quality, one word flashed through my mind...
...TWINS! Twins. Twins would be the solution for the dilemma of investing in new, high quality outdoor clothing for Eluin! If we had twins, as indeed Jura and Nori are desperately hoping for in the highly improbable case of me ever getting pregnant again, that would solve the problem! We would have three kids that can use the fancy snow pants which lasts at least three kids. And, added bonus, if we apply soon enough, perhaps those two could go to this amazing barnehagen, too!
Last Tuesday, I got a chance to get a glimpse of what they do at Eluin's school. They had organized a parent meeting and in the invitation they mentioned that part of it would be outside. And that we had to bring the same 'tour-backpack' that our kids bring and to dress for the weather. Unfortunately, Menno was not able to join due to a deadline at work. Because it said to dress for the weather, I decided not to be stubborn and to wear the only piece of outdoor clothing I owned. My ski pants. It had been kind of chilly, so I combined it with my down jacket, my hat and my fingerless gloves. Menno took one look at me and asked if I was planning to go on an arctic expedition. Haha. Very funny. I just tried to be in Rome and do as the Romans. Even though it did leave me wondering that if this was my outfit for a walk in the woods on a night in September, what on earth I would wear on a night in December?!
The first part of the evening was a talk about the school and general information about things that were coming up. At least, that's what I think it was about ;-) After that, the parents were divided into groups and were assigned one teacher who was the leader of the group. In the woods around the school, they had set up different stations to explain different parts of the school's philosophy. Best. Parent night. Ever.
The group of parents I was in was really nice. They were joking and laughing with the teacher. It was so nice to be in a group of adults again that had fun together! Forget about what they say about Norwegians being stand-offish and quiet, these people were a hoot! If only I could understand what they were laughing about... ;-)
The first station we visited was hosted by the "special pedagogue" who, as I understood it, works with kids in small groups to, amongst others, deal with language issues. Like little Eluin learning Norwegian. He explained what he did by focusing on one word (in our case "bil" = car) and talking about all the things you can think of around "car". Anything ranging form the fact that it starts with a "b" and is one syllable to what it does (drive), what it sounds like, what colour it has and different brands of cars. So cool! I immediately figured that this was something I needed to do with the girls at home, as part of our quest to master the Norwegian language. Such a great way to go beyond the tedium of learning one word at a time. In fact, it might even be a good format for Menno and myself to use for learning Norwegian, but instead of "bil" we would put something like "health insurance" in the middle...
After this, we walked over to the next station, where 2 teachers gave us insight in the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in the form of a role play involving a log. Pretending to be kids, they turned the log into a boat, found sticks to turn into fishing rods and used collaboration to get the log from the place it was at, where there was obviously no fish, into open sea. They explained to us how parents usually like open places, but how for kids the density of the forest gives a lot more opportunity for play and games. And again, I was able to understand what they were talking about!
The third station was at the edge of the little lake that is close to the school. I knew that the school had canoes and that they sometimes took the kids on a little canoe trip on the lake (I know, this school is just AWESOME!). Darkness was falling as we stood on the edge of the lake and the scenery was just breath-taking. Whether it was that my brain had reached its limit for absorbing Norwegian or that this particular teacher spoke quite a strong dialect, I don't know, but I had a hard time following what he was saying. So I just enjoyed the scenery. I snapped back to attention when he held up a life jacket and one of the other parents took it. Cool! We might be going on a little trip ourselves! So, when he held up the next life jacket, I grabbed it. The other parent was putting it on, so I decided to put mine on as well. There were three parents and a teacher, so we paired up and climbed into a canoe. As I stepped into the canoe, though, I realized that I had no idea whatsoever what the plan was. I had not paid attention to the instructions. Darn. Why do I always get myself in this kind of situations?! Apparently we were going for a little tour on the lake, because we got pushed off shore and so I started paddling. Had the teacher explained anything on how to paddle? No idea... I mean, I have gone kayaking and canoeing before, but I was either on my own or the one in the back doing the steering and the main part of the paddling, because the one up front was a kid. Being in a canoe with two adults, this quickly turned into a team building exercise with the added challenge of a language barrier. Thankfully, the dad in the back was really kind and we even managed to win the race back to the shore! Probably because the other boat was not aware that we were racing them, but still.
Being on the water makes me hungry, so hurray for the next station being the "food" station. While eating Italian vegetable soup (yum) and drinking coffee, we listened to a story about the importance of good, nutritious food and lightweight thermos bottles to make sure our kids' backpacks did not weigh too much while they were on tours. The barnehagen offers hot lunch three days a week and I was tempted to ask if they had ever considered writing a cookbook. All I ever heard from Eluin when I asked what she had for lunch was: "So-and-so...and it was SO GOOD!!!" Thanks to the cooks at barnehagen, we in our family got introduced to typical Norwegian staples as mackerel in tomato sauce and the weird sweet-and-sour-cheese (Eluin does not eat it, but she told me a lot of kids in her class eat it, so I decided to be brave and try it...and now I am hooked!). They even ate chanterelle mushrooms that their teacher picked in the forest one day! And they cooked lamb in a fire pit which they covered up with earth... Talk about the pedagogical value of having children eat a variety of food in a group setting, so they all try new stuff because the person sitting next to them does too :-)
As I was digesting (pun intended) the talk about food, we walked over to the last station. The teachers in charge of that station had put up a little tent in the woods and all parents in the group before us were huddled inside. So, our group waited outside and I asked the teacher who was the leader of the group whether this kind of barnehagen was normal in Norway. It's not the mainstream kind of barnehagen, but because of the location of this barnehagen, it seemed only fitting to have such a focus on the outdoors. I think they are doing an amazing job, not just on the outdoors stuff, but basically at every level they care for and teach Eluin. And hearing how this is not the standard, I truly feel we got lucky in having no spot at our "own" barnehagen and being bumped one village over.
Soon it was time for us to crawl into the tent. I wondered what we could possibly learn more that night, but when I saw the bag of clothes I knew... This was the Tent of Bad News. Well, ok, it was the Tent of Appropriate Clothing for the Weather, but in my case, this could only spell bad news. And I was right. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly understand the need for kids to be warm and comfortable, especially if you take them outside for longer periods of time. And I also get that Norwegian weather calls for a larger variety in attire than Haarlem or Vancouver did. I even get that there is a certain correlation between the price of a piece of clothing and it's quality. But boohoo us... It turned out that the wardrobe I got Eluin was just her late-summer-early-fall wardrobe. I still needed more. Lots more. Darn. The past couple of months we have been scraping by (scraping is part of the expression for living from paycheck to paycheck because of all the peanut butter he has scraped out of jars over the past couple of months (it's the only thing he eats on sandwiches these days)). With our house in Holland still not transferred to the new owners, we have had to pay the mortgage on our home in Holland on top of our rent here. I really want my girl to be warm, but for now I just have to cross my fingers that the bad weather does not set in until mid October when our house is finally sold.
Once we got to the winter attire, with extra thick park dresses, I could see black spots in front of my eyes. I was just wondering whether it would be too awkward to put my head between my knees and thus keep from hyperventilating, when I heard the teacher say that although this particular snowsuit costs about 2000 kroner (~$330 CAD) it at least lasts for up to three children. In broken Norwegian, I groaned: "But Eluin already IS my third child..." But once I had said that, and as I listened to another parent explain to me that you could buy them second hand and they would still be good quality, one word flashed through my mind...
...TWINS! Twins. Twins would be the solution for the dilemma of investing in new, high quality outdoor clothing for Eluin! If we had twins, as indeed Jura and Nori are desperately hoping for in the highly improbable case of me ever getting pregnant again, that would solve the problem! We would have three kids that can use the fancy snow pants which lasts at least three kids. And, added bonus, if we apply soon enough, perhaps those two could go to this amazing barnehagen, too!
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