I leave you with a complaint. Now, the country is in a terrible state, and you've blamed it on a number of things: Unemployment rate, the value of the pound and all that... well, it's because the national anthem is boring.

So, here I am as a part-time amateur linguist with just one year self (and Youtube-) taught Norwegian under my belt and no Norwegian friends, wondering what our fellow German types from whatever country made of David’s gag… Nobody else here seemed to turn a hair at it! Ulf was obviously offended and took it (too? – although obviously this is the whole point of any cultural vs personal judgment) seriously. I never imagined Norwegians as particularly sensitive (as in over-sensitive – I’m not suggesting you’re all oafs!!)… This idiom isn’t used to describe the weather, but it can help avoid confusion. Be careful when you say you have cold tootsies in German; this expression is the same in English. If you’re feeling doubtful of a situation, or put off, you might get cold feet. A typical example of this is someone bailing on their wedding. Bonus: So kalt ist es nicht – it’s not that cold I’m not going to try speaking for David here, and he’s already replied, but I found this quite interesting…! And, it would be even better if Ulf were to return and give us some more of his opinion! There were days that the staff had aparticular aim and hadgroups of children with them to help e.g building planters, weeding or repairing structures but otherwise thechildren are leftto playalone and develop their play as they want to without adult interference. By having 2 teachers in each class it also meant that 1 teacher could take asmall group into do more specific tasks e.g. precoding, whist theothers were safely outdoors with the other teacher and assistant.Does your organization need a speaker who can an engage an audience on the topic of outdoor play and connecting children and adults with nature? I’m a twice published author with a wealth of knowledge and speaking experience from a range of workshops, conferences and community events. Most of my presentations are done remotely via video link, but I do sometimes travel for bigger events. Of all the Norwegian phrases out there, I'd wager it's this one you'll encounter first. Most likely before you even land in the country, if you're (un)fortunate enough to be sat next to a native on your flight. However, others argue that younger Scandinavians are simply discovering new methods to switch off and recoup energy, albeit on a more short-term basis. In preschool a lot of classes already use an online tool to keep in touch with parents and share what is going on in the classroom so that makes it easy to switch to home learning in many ways but thispandemic has made it harder to let parentsexperience a play basedcurriculum in person.

Thechildren all arrive into thekindergarten and goinside to their 'classroom', some arrive very early in the morning but the majority are all there by 9.15. Each class hadapproximately 14-15 children and 3 adults, 2 teachers and an assistant. At 9.15 both classes got dressed up for going outdoors, as I had previouslydiscovered each class spends a lot of time outside not justtheoutdoor class. The kindergarten has a huge outdoor area, divided intodifferent zones; atypicalplayground area with a slide, swings and sandpit, a steep bank and gravel area and a kitchen garden area. They also have use of lots of forest areas beside the kindergarten and above it.Some of the days the children got ready to go to a particular destinationlike the forest or woods, or out on thekindergarten boat (yes they have a boat!) whilst on other days theystayed inthe playground but used thedifferent areasthroughout the day. They might have started out in the kitchen garden or swings etc. The outdoor class ate theirlunch outside as much aspossible and as theyare theoldestchildren they didn't go inside for a resttime like the youngerchildren did afterlunch. Don't buy one of those baby intercoms. Babies pretend to be dead. They're bastards, and they do it on purpose. Castle runs winter training courses in the Scottish Highlands, which, he says, “is a different beast from the Lakes or Snowdonia, where you can have summer conditions in winter.” He recommends Garry Smith’s book North Wales Scrambles as a starting point – and for when restrictions are lifted again in Wales. When it comes to relaxation he says meditation, silent retreats and even psychedelic drugs are, within the start-up scene at least, becoming popular alternatives to more traditional outdoor pastimes. Apparently, women need to feel loved to have sex, and men need to have sex to feel loved, so the basic act of continuing the species requires a lie from one of you.So, the question is - what do you say to indicate that you like all season of the year, regardless of the weather and climatic peculiarities? Oh, how can I put into words the joys of a walk over country such as this; the scenes that delight the eyes, the blessed peace of mind, the sheer exuberance which fills your soul as you tread the firm turf? This is something to be lived, not read about. On these breezy heights, a transformation is wondrously wrought within you. Your thoughts are simple, in tune with your surroundings; the complicated problems you brought with you from the town are smoothed away. Up here, you are near to your Creator; you are conscious of the infinite; you gain new perspectives; thoughts run in new strange channels; there are stirrings in your soul which are quite beyond the power of my pen to describe. Something happens to you in the silent places which never could in the towns, and it is a good thing to sit awhile in a quiet spot and meditate. The hills have a power to soothe and heal which is their very own. No man ever sat alone on the top of a hill and planned a murder or a robbery, and no man ever came down from the hills without feeling in some way refreshed, and the better for his experience.” Of course, there is good reason for the phrase, and I'm not really disputing its correctness. Snow, ice, winds, rain, and thunderstorms are the norm here, from the arctic north to the relatively mild south. Recently, I turned 60... and even more recently, I turned 62. That was a bastard, I don't even remember the 61. How to Live an “Open-Air Life”: Discover the Nordic art of friluftslivby embracing nature in everyday life.

If you have time, the biggest thing you can do is read with your child or get an older sibling to, they will benefit from time reading aloud and the younger child will gain so much. When reading one to one a child gets time to look at the pictures and discover small details, they are hearing rhymingwords andunderstanding how words sound and thiswill all help them when begin to learn to read. You can point out 'their' letterwhen it appears in words and whatother names or words have that letter. In preschool it is all about giving a context tolearning - it ismore important that a child recognise their letter in lots ofdifferent placesthatthey learn to recite the alphabet without knowing what theletters actually mean. Find outdoor learning opportunities for your child by exploring the most comprehensive directory of nature preschools, forest schools and other nature-based education programs in North America. Today, the phrase is used more broadly by Swedes, Norwegians and Danes to explain anything from lunchtime runs in the forest, to commuting by bike (or on cross-country skis when the snow falls) to joining friends at a lakeside sauna (often followed by a chilly dip in the water) or simply relaxing in a mountain hut. The concept is also linked closely to allmansrätten, the right to roam. Scandinavian countries all have similar laws which allow people to walk or camp practically anywhere, as long as they show respect for the surrounding nature, wildlife and locals. I was in Trondheim last year. Now visiting Norway again in winter. Your writing is so funny. I’ll take the revenge advise.Just found your blog and laughed out loud at this post! Am currently writing about an upcoming trip to Scandinavia and couldn’t recall the saying about bad weather… but you’ve summed it up nicely! Poor pups, what bad press! Likening the weather to a dog in German is to say the weather is horrible. You would use this term to describe a truly horrid, wet and howling day. This idiom is in such common use that the 1968 short film “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” became “Winnie Puuh und das Hundewetter” in German. With flexible hours already commonplace in Scandinavia, thanks to policies encouraging both parents to participate in family life, many businesses are also giving employees the chance to work around their passions – including the great outdoors – more regularly. There's nothing better than a fight, especially when you're watching it from a safe place. You can yell encouragement! Hit him with the left, he's a big Jessie!

In my native country of Sweden, people live by the old Scandinavian saying “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes,” and dressing for the weather is akin to a national sport. This is especially true when it comes to children, who are expected and encouraged to play... You might be familiar with the English expression to ‘look like a drowned rat’. In German it’s the same except you swap ‘rat’ with ‘poodle’. Admittedly, a sodden poodle might look more ludicrous than a rat. 9. Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur schlechte Kleidung — There is no bad weather, just bad clothingIt reminded me of a visit to a Swedish preschool where I saw youngchildren using much deeper thinking about same and different than we would normally see in our settings, a child had brought 3 things that weredifferent to show the teacher and one of theattributes was that thedinosaur was extinct and the other animals werestill alive, it was far beyond the 'They all have 4 legs or are green ' that Iexpected. What wasalso sospecial was that so many ofthe staff Imet through thefirstproject werestillworking there and it was wonderful to reconnect with them over the few days. Thechildren were a delight to be around, confident andcompetent in theirenvironment, climbing trees, sliding down steepbanks, playing in shallow water in the forest and just very content andhappy. In 2008 it was one of the things I noticed the most - how happy thechildren were playing outdoors with very little resources and not a lot ofadultsinterference. Froebel saw autonomy as a key part of a young child and their experience inkindergarten and that is what Iobserved the most in 2008 and again in 2023 - children wereconfident to try thingsfor themselves but the adults areskilled enough to know when tostep in to assist or extendlearning opportunities. As a Brit, I took David’s expression as a gag and nothing else; slightly obnoxious, but well within the normal boundaries of gags in this day and age. It is obvious to me he would never dream of saying that to anyone except perhaps as a running joke to Norwegian friends… and I’ve never met the bloke! Clouds are the most transient of nature's creations. They come out of a clear sky, disintegrate before your eyes, vanish. You never see the same cloud twice. Every moment of its brief existence brings a change, a change of form or tint or texture; but its beauty remains constant to the end. The beauty of the clouds is there for us to see every day, if we are not too busy to look up....”