Week 44: Kindergartens and Mythology

 Askeladden Kindergarten

I was really captured by the amount of time the children spent on listening and playing fairy tales. For over an hour the teacher and children told various tales while some children were playing the different characters. All children got to play in multiple tales. All the children were so focused on what was happening. 

Afterwards one of the teachers sat down with us some explanation about the kindergarten. They use the same fairy tales for a longer period. All children will play all the rolls. This way they interact with the same story from different rolls. 
What for me stuck the most was the story about a 5 year old girl who came to the kindergarten. The girl had just moved to Norway and didn't speak the language. When playing outside she played a part of one of the fairy tales she had seen earlier that they. Other children recognized this and started playing along with her. This is something I hope I can take with me to the Netherlands since I work at a school where children don't have Dutch as their first language.

Mythology classes
I have a personal interest in Mythology. More specifically Norse Mythology. For me this class didn't come with any new information or a new form of looking at the stories. I do this a lot in my free time since I am in a couple of different Norse Pagan/Asatru/Heathen* groups. In these groups both the religion (modern day and what we know about the pre-christian religion) and the stories and gods are heavily discussed and different interpretation come around all the time.
*These are some of the names used for the modern version of the pre-christian religion of the Germanic/Scandinavian people.
At the end of the second day I also went into a short 'discussion' with the teacher. This annoyed me so much that I spent the rest of the afternoon on my phone. My problem was that she would not let me finish. Her opinion was the only right way. She had this attitude from the start that 'she knew it all' and with this I was just done with it. So while the stories were interesting and talking with classmates about it was certainly fun, the class itself wasn't really useful for me.

Outdoor Kindergarten

I can describe this experience in one word: WOW
What I saw here and what we talked about at the kindergarten amazed me so much. I did not expect what I saw. To describe it all here would turn this blog into a novella, so I'll stick to the biggest highlights for me.

It started with the children being allowed to do so many things on their own. Young children have made boats that could actually be used. All the teachers did was explain how to use certain tools in a save way and they were allowed to do it. Amazing.
And this is just one example of what they did there. The children make campfires all the time. They are allowed to explore the area (which is quite huge) as long as they tell the teachers where they are going. In the past months they spend a total of 5 hours inside. That's just crazy to think about. 
They can use all kinds of tools for adults. In the Netherlands we'd have to get another teacher to help out because we can't have young children use these tools on such a large scale. Only in the higher primary school groups can they use these tools. And there it is rarely done.

I hope that I can take some elements of what I have seen that day with me and inspire others in the Netherlands.