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View all search resultsWild education: Joy of Scandinavia’s forest preschools
Every day, the little ones eat lunch seated on wooden benches around a wood fire – unless heavy rain forces them indoors.
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C
ome rain, sleet or snow, young children nap outside even in mid-winter all across Scandinavia, where outdoor preschools teach children a love of nature.
Sitting in the forest on a tarp laid out over the snow in Solna near Stockholm, Agnes and her friends, all around five, are lining up sticks.
"We use pieces of wood to show them that you can use anything you find in nature to do maths," said their preschool teacher Lisa Bystrom.
In a scene that would shock some parents elsewhere, the children whittle sticks with large knives, their teachers seemingly unperturbed.
"Once they get to school, they will sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil but here we think this is more fun," Bystrom said.
In Sweden and Denmark, school is mandatory from the age of six.
But before that, most children attend daycare or preschool, with many parents opting for outdoor ones where children play in the woods and learn to appreciate nature.
