A Forest School Study Tour in Denmark!

One of the most common questions that I get by far and away is how people can come to Denmark to observe forest schools in action.  Sometimes it is curious parents, but often, the questions come from other educators around the world – I think at this point I’ve gotten notes from the US, from Japan, from Italy, from all around Eastern Europe, from Australia…truly, I know people globally seem to be drawn to the notion of how these schools that are based in the outdoors really run in real life.

NOME Forest School Study Tour

 

I get the questions often enough that soon I’d like to get a Q+A post (Update – post is done!) on the few typical ideas that I send people to, but the shorter version of the story is that often times, it’s not easy. Forest school educators are often busy, and feel strongly that their first priority and full attention must be devoted to the children (rightfully so), so they can be notoriously hard to get a hold of for coordinating visits.  Which I know is always frustrating to those genuinely wanting to know more about what this all looks like and how to bring these concepts home to the countries that so badly could use an injection of fresh air in their early education systems.

Enter our friends from the NaturePlay film (remember the screening party?).  As they’re quite connected from making of the movie, and well versed in the Nordic model, if you’re wanting to see the schools up close and personally (as well as log professional development hours as an educator), they are running four-day study tours in July 2018 in the Roskilde area outside of Copenhagen  . *** Exciting Update! The NOME team is running customized study tours to Denmark and now Sweden as well – reach out to them with interest directly ****  

Full disclosure, I have never been on such a study tour so I can’t vouch for the experience personally (i.e. this is not a review), but I wanted to spread the word on the information since it is such a popular question that people write in to the blog.  It is often so hard to get a response from the schools themselves, that it’s wonderful to have a coordinated opportunity to see the schools in action.

The NaturePlay team is remarkably dedicated to outdoor learning as a form of pedagogy, and have always been warm and welcoming to me, so I have no doubt they will do the same for those on the tour.

Any interest in the program can be directed to NaturePlay directly – and all this talk of summer has reminded me that it’s time to start planning ours!

Still toddlers, still trees…

I know this blog hasn’t been the most updated… kind of cuts me to have it be that way.  But  in an attempt to maintain two blogs, and raise two children, and have a full time job, and change countries and buy house and who knows what else, I found that well, I didn’t really excel at the first two (and hopefully got a passable grade on the rest).  But we still have one toddler, and still get plenty of trees.Toddlers in the Trees-1

Part of me thinks I should call a spade a spade and just shut the blogs down but I can’t seem to do it.  I can’t even log into our instagram for this account anymore, and I’m much less on social media given schedules.  But even still, there are still so many wonderful people who reach out with questions about outdoor education and or about raising little ones in Denmark… and those who told me that they’ve tried forest schools or outdoor preschools, or just even made the effort to be outside more.  And those who were inspired to teach or inspired to learn…I love those stories, and we must get a few of them every week still.  I love thinking that there are other individuals who are thinking just a little bit differently about what we give our kids today, and how it can be better.

And truth be told, this little space on the internet is a special one for me.  I am still extremely sentimental, and extremely grateful, for the experience that we had as a result of forest schools that I feel that shutting this down would somehow close that chapter.  And while my daughter, our eldest and our pioneer forest schooler is now 7, that still feels too soon for me.

So I’ll continue to think on it and I hope that you’ll continue to drop by and keep us posted with your own stories.

NYC: Hecksher Playground in Central Park

Spring break hit last week for us in Washington, DC and while a full vacation wasn’t on the menu, we did take a long weekend to New York City, something we’ve been meaning to do for a long time.  And we did all sorts of New York kinds of things, like see sky scrapers and go to museums and eat hot dogs and all that.  But first up, Central Park.  Because you have to love that one of the largest cities in the world, still protects one of the largest urban parks in the world in its dead center.Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!

You know who else loved that? The kids.  Of course.  We drove to NYC, leaving DC in the wee hours of morning, and literally 5 minutes after we checked into the hotel, the kids were asking about the park they heard so much about.  Luckily it was literally right around the corner from our hotel and we were off.Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!

We actually walked nearly the entire length of the park that evening but spent the bulk of our time at the Hecksher Playground, one of the main playgrounds in the space (although there are many – the Central Park website has a good list).  The thing about this playground is that it is so decidedly “unamerican” in its play surfaces.  There are a few swings and a few slides, but by far and away the majority of the play surfaces are either rocks (big rocks!) or concrete – neither of which you see these days much around here anymore since everything is usually a softer surface with softer landings underfoot.  I’m pretty laid back parent but there were a few surfaces that made me watch a little more closely than I usually do, and there were definitely a few bloody lips making their way around that playground.  The playground tends to attract older kids  – tweens and teens – that have a bit more grasp of terrain and do pretty funky freestyle walking tricks (see that first photo at the top of the post? she definitely got ideas), so this is one where keep an eye out helps.  That being said, the kids had a blast and our daughter especially loved that the surfaces were a little more rough.  She’s been doing a lot of rock climbing lately and she enjoyed putting some of her skills to use on some of the larger climbing hills.Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!

On this chilly, on again off again rainy day, the concrete and rocks gave it a gray feel, but spring was blooming all around us (and giving us a second go at cherry blossom season since they were just peaking in NYC!).  Also, it doesn’t show well in the pictures here but once summer hits, a lot of these surfaces are also actually splash pads so I imagine thing are a lot more colorful then.

Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!Play space and green space in the middle of New York City's Central Park!

The kids ran the park down until their hearts’ content and even asked to come back the following morning (which we did, taking the opportunity to meet friends this time around), and around the park are a few places for snacks and coffee, making it kind of a winner all around and a big highlight of the kids first trip to NYC!

Six Forgotten Giants…

We’re hoping a visit to Copenhagen is in the cards for this summer and I’m working every possible angle to make it happen for us.  It’s been fun to keep up with news of the city and make lists of favorites to revisit but also new things to explore, like Thomas Dambo’s Six Forgotten Giants sculpture series that just went up around various hidden corners in the outskirts of town.Teddy Friendly, From Thomas Dambo's Six Forgotten Giants, a treasure hunt for six forest sculptures around Copenhagen.

The video below gives a great overview and I don’t want to give too much away but I find the whole concept fascinating. Thomas Dambo is a sculptural and installation artist that uses scrap wood and often works in “hidden” locations, which means that in order to see his work, you have to do a little work yourself. The Six Giants website has treasure maps to all of the Giants, and each is written with a backstory as to the why and how of he or she was built, often times incorporating not just a nature statement but a social or cultural one too. I’m sure many a forest school has been out looking for these troll-like installations and we will most certainly be tracking them down ourselves!

Video and Image via Thomas Dambo.