“This article was published in 2012 and edited in February 2020”
My sister and family lives in Oslo, Norway where she has two kids and is a lawyer by trade. Right now she is on maternity leave with her baby. Her son just started to go to Frogner Daycare in the middle of downtown Oslo. In Norway about 90% of kids spend time in daycare starting around the age of 1 one year old. Many of the daycares offer program that focus on outdoor play and friluftsliv (Norwegian word for outdoor living).
“The ‘Norwegian child’ should live an active and outdoor childhood. Strong emphasis is placed on the relationship between young children and their wider environment, in particular the outdoor environment and more generally, with nature. Apart from being fun and healthy, being outside throughout the year is about learning to live in and with strongly demarcated seasons and extreme weather conditions… In short, being active and outdoors is both an issue of health and an issue of value, or identity”. –OECD Norway country note, 1999
Every week I want to share with you news from my sister’s and son’s experience at Frogner Daycare in Oslo. A very typical daycare located in urban Oslo that focuses on outdoor play and friluftsliv (Norwegian word for outdoor living).
Translated newsletter from Fronger daycare in Oslo
It was an amazing week at Frogner daycare in Oslo. We had a lot of different +friluft activities on our fieldstrips to Sognsvann with the bigger kids and to Vestkantorget with the smaller kids.
On Wednesday, we had an art activity in the snow where we painted with water bottles to color the snow. It was so much fun for both big and small and they were very engaged in their activity.
Yesterday we made an ice castle out of ice blocks we made the day before. It was a fantastic experience for children and adults.
Resources:
Forest kindergarten is Friluftslivbarnehage in Norwegian, if you Google this you will find some links to some amazing preschools and kindergartens.
Outdoor activities :
