Mulle Mulle

This morning I got to observe in a special preschool, called I Ur och Skur (you really don't want to hear me try to pronounce this). Martina took me there (see pic)...she used to be a teacher there and really was one of 8 who started the school. It was AWESOME and so weird at the same time. It's referred to, basically, as an outdoor school. The kids spend their entire day outside. When we got there in the morning, they were getting ready to walk into the forest. (In Sweden, most land doesn't belong to anybody...it's open space that anyone can use, which is awesome awesome awesome.) We walked quite a ways (while kids held the hand of their buddy) into the forest and stopped in a clearing where each kid had a small mat that the teacher put out to sit on. They had a sort of lesson about trees (in Swedish, of course), and then we had snack. Each kid pulled out their own backpack, their own thermos of drink, and their own brought-from-home snack in tupperware, and ate independently. Martina had brought coffee and danish for both of us. Then the kids just ran around and played in the woods for like an hour, playing games in the trees, building "forts" that they designed...whatever they wanted to do. The only rules were that you had to stay in seeing distance of the group and nobody would help you up on rocks or trees (the idea being that if you could climb up on your own, you could get down on your own without getting hurt). This would NEVER happen in America...teachers would feel too out of control and parents would sue. When sombody had to go to the bathroom, they either peed on trees or in a small portable toilet seat placed behind a rock. At one point, like 7 boys were all peeing on different trees at the same time...hilarious. Then we went back to the school and everybody ate outside sitting on little benches in circles. The younger kids even slept outside in sleeping bags. They whole emphasis was on play, respect and knowledge of the outdoors, and independence. It was awesome. (The other pictures are from the other night when Martina, her daughter Lena, who is 7, and myself sat in their garden and played barbie dolls until like 9:30 when it got dark. Lena is great.) The picture of the cartoon are the four symbols from legend that represent nature and environment: Skosmulle was born in the forst, Laxe was born in the sea, Fjallfina was born in the mountains, and Nova was born in outerspace. Their message to children is:

• Enjoy outdoor life!
• Learn from the nature, play, sing and dream!
• Love and take care of the nature!

I'm getting ready to read theses from master's students who are from Ghana and Belarus...it's crazy how everybody speaks at least some English. Aren't the English snotty to make everyone learn our own language??