When was the last time you were at the circus? Other than Cirque du Soleil, I honestly can’t remember - I might have been around my daughter’s age. Maybe a little older… But the circus - not the spectacular, multi ring, over the top extravaganza, but rather, the single ring, all hands on deck, family run traveling caravan is alive and well in Denmark.
Honestly, I didn’t think the circus was around anymore… Doesn’t seem like traveling with exotic animals while setting up and taking down every few days, formerly by train and now by land caravan is a thing anymore. Other than Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers, I can’t remember when I saw an advertisement. But here in Denmark, posters are all over the place, especially all summer long.
When all her classmates were going to Circus Baldoni at the start of the summer, my daughter begged me to go and basically I had a #momfail. The days we could go they either weren’t performing or sold out, and other days, we already had plans or were traveling. She was heartbroken; I promised her a circus before the end of the summer. My daughter doesn’t forget promises like that so she came to collect, and this weekend we caught the very last show of the Circus Dannebrog.
It’s a bit like being caught in a time warp. I myself felt like I was about five again. There was a live band, a woman who blew fire, an elephant (yes, they still do that here), camel rides, popcorn, acrobats, a girl on roller skates that then twirled from the ceiling, and a bar balance guy from “exotic Mexico”… If you’re an adult, you’ve probably seen it before, we’re not so easily amazed anymore, even though that make these feats any easier for the performers. But nothing beats the shrieking delight of four-year olds when they see “death-defying feat” - that’s amazing every time.
My daughter and her friend had ringside seats, and I behind them. They were thrilled that they could basically touch the animals from where we were sitting. I nearly had a heart attack that they could touch the animals from where they were sitting. There is something unnerving about 8 camels charging your way with nothing but a few pieces of plywood between you.
And yet, there was something so touching about the circus too. I’ve always been a bit fascinated with circus lore - I found the Ringling Museum in Florida to be riveting. And I loved Water for Elephants (the book anyway)… It’s a strange combination of entertainment and loneliness that comes out from the scene. I always suspected that once you led the life of a circus performer, into which you were probably born into, it would be difficult to leave it - probably only other performers would ever understand you. You could tell from this weekend’s performance that much of the circus is a family, either by blood or circumstance, and this show had a handful of little ones, some as early as three, already doing their crowdpleasers. And in Denmark, there seem to be lots of crowds lining up to please. I don’t know if the circus in a traditional sense is long for this world - at least, maybe not in the US - this might be the only traditional circus my daughter might ever see, but I’m glad we made time for “showtime”.
Poster image via Oopsy Daisy.
It’s been awhile since we’ve done a Q + A post here but quite a few questions have been coming in over email so we’ll have a couple lined up over the next few weeks - and as a reminder, feel free to ask anything and everything about forest school. We’re always happy to share what we’ve learned either about the system or about our schooling experience in Denmark.
First up - a little bit about how we found our school…
So the thing about choosing a school in Denmark is that it’s actually pretty simple. The public system chooses one for you - when you’re Danish and have all the relevant registrations and numbers in the system, my understanding is that it’s pretty easy to get yourself on the right lists pretty much early on with your child. You might have some input, but the system will do the picking.
With us, that turned out to be not quite so easy - we are expats, and diplomats at that, so a lot of the usual systems that are CPR number based didn’t work for us, even though we have right to access most of the services. That’s the thing about Denmark, systems can often be really good here, but if you fall outside of the system for any reason, it becomes confusing quickly.
For a point of reference, we moved here to Denmark in August two years ago - and I started on the school thing pretty much right after our arrival. If you want to do the public system, it’s not really set up so that you can start in advance of your arrival, because again, everything is based on the registration numbers that you can’t apply for until you arrive. It took us through about the end of October to secure a place in a forest school for our daughter. We could have had a place sooner for her (say, about September) at a regular preschool (which frankly, always has a big outdoor component here anyway), but the two they were offering were far away and not forest school so I opted to wait it out.
If you arrive as an expat and want an international school, then similar to most places, you make an appointment to view and visit and play the waiting list game, though I’ll say it’s not what I would call cutthroat here - just lengthy. But of course, it also depends on how many given children there are in the age of your own child. As it turns out 2010 was some kind of baby boom year - and everything was full, public and private. We had to wait for about three months, and that school was packed to the max. Right now, however, this same school has about 18 open slots. Just luck and timing sometimes…
But in general, the whole notion of “shopping around” for schools doesn’t quite exist here, in the sense of going to visit schools, having open house days, interviewing teachers as much as they might interview you… Most often, people pick what’s closest to them that has availability - and when you’re waiting for a slot, the “kommune” largely feels their duty is fulfilled if they find you a slot somewhere within their own bounds. Remember, you have right to a school, but not necessarily to any school or the school of your choice.
That being said, if you’re new around here, or if you’re interested in the Danish school system as a foreigner, definitely try to check out schools as you’re assigned slots or introduce yourself as you move into the neighborhood. Don’t expect any full-on tours, but take a look around discretely. As I’ve alluded to before, the expectations for supervision and facilities and the like can be really different here (unexpected play things for toddlers anyone?), and you might have to see a few schools in order to let that sink in. But that being said, there are some schools with staff and commitment that are much better than others too - not all schools are created equally here. Most of all, try to see if the kids appear to be happy…eager…laughing…and when all else fails, go with your gut. Forest school definitely might push you a little bit out of your comfort zone, but deep down you’ll know whether it’s right for you and your child or not.
