But she doesn’t have a speech impediment!

July 14, 2015

“But she doesn’t have a speech impediment,” I replied.

I had come to pick up my daughter one day, about four months into our forest school experiment. Not recognizing one of the teachers (not that uncommon here as teachers are often on a cluster type arrangement and also there is a high rate of substitute teachers), I had introduced myself as one of the mom’s.

“I know,” the teacher said, “I’ve been working with your daughter for a couple of months now.” I wasn’t sure what exactly that meant but after a bit of back and forth, she clarified that she wasn’t a teacher per se but a speech therapist. Hence the moment of confusion.

If my daughter really had a speech impediment, I’d like to think that I was the type of parent to put any resources available to her disposal, as opposed to shying away from the diagnosis in a defensive posture. But regardless of what I may or may not have thought of myself, I was definitely starting to appear the latter. I knew my daughter, and at home, she chatted away a mile a minute without any hint of impediment. So I said again, “But my daughter doesn’t have a speech impediment.”

“Of course she does, she doesn’t speak Danish, ” the therapist clarified. My immediate thought was since when does not speaking a language qualify as impediment – we had only been there for four months after all. But once I set aside my instinctual reaction of taking offense, and heard out the therapist, I saw that maybe there was some logic to this after all.

Because my daughter didn’t speak Danish coming into the school, and was wholly unfamiliar with many of the difficult sounds of the Danish language (not to mention the vocabulary writ large), the therapist was there to work with her to break down the language in to sounds she could digest…to work on diction… on pronunciation… and to increase her understanding of what individual words meant through the use of pictures and short books. In addition, the therapist helped to clarify for my daughter that her English-speaking life was at home, while her Danish-speaking life was at school. What started out as therapy for speech, ended up also being therapy for figuring out the cultural confusion that my daughter was going through, which in retrospect, we probably didn’t address enough at home.

The school had arranged for the therapist for her and another little girl, who was Danish and had a few enunciation issues, and that time aside with her actually gave my daughter the opportunity to have her first real Danish friend. And they’re still friends to this day. The program allowed for them both to have 10 hours a week of therapy together, and it continued for about a month or two after I had met the therapist. “Your daughter’s impediment is nearly gone!” the therapist cheerfully informed me.

At the time, I wasn’t sure what to make of all this – especially since this whole thing had been arranged without my knowledge. In the US, surely this would involve about 14 pieces of paper to sign, right ? And fees! Shouldn’t I be owing them money for this?

With a little time, I learned to consider this as one of the greatest things the school was able to do for her. Now when people meet my daughter, they usually don’t pick up on the fact that she is not actually Danish until they meet me. Her language is nearly flawless – not that I’m a good judge of that. It’s what people tell me, and if you’ve been to Denmark you know that people aren’t the kind to blow smoke and rainbows out for you to flatter. She’s completely integrated, she’s successfully bilingual, and apart from our usual monthly school fee, we didn’t pay a single extra kroner for that. Part of me does still wish that they had kept me in the loop – not because I would have said no, but because I’m her mother. I would have wanted to know.

I wanted to share this today to shed a little light on a few differences but also to talk about one of the most helpful resources we came across, without even knowing it. If you do have a child in a Danish school that doesn’t yet speak the language, ask about the speech therapy option in your school or your commune. I don’t know if all schools are as proactive about organizing it. But in the end, it was one of the most important factors in bringing my daughter inside from the metaphorical outside, which can be a lonely place, at three or at any other age.

A few new things on the blog!

July 13, 2015

Happy Monday everyone! A couple of weeks ago, we put in place a few updates to the blog that hopefully make things a little easier for you as a reader. As always, many thanks to Carolina from Light Morango – it’s her awesome template that makes this blog run and she was kind enough to help me out with a few technical things behind the scenes. In addition to her help, I finally got a few other things up and running as well that had been on our to-do list. As a quick intro, here’s what’s changed:

1. New Header

A bit of fresh foliage for spring, what do you think? We had the watercolor pinecones before, but with so much sunshine these days, we thought we’d freshen things up.

2. Category Grids

This is probably the nerd in me, but check out the categories on the right and see now nice the pages look when you click on them. No more incessant scrolling through category posts (though you’ll still scroll if you click on a tag or use search) – so if you’re interested in a particular main section, say our thoughts about forest school based on experiences or looking for things to do out and about in Copenhagen or Denmark, you’ll see all of the posts with a thumbnail in grid format. Pretty cool, am I right?

3. Pinterest

We’re on it – finally! The favicon has always been up but we finally got our Pinterest page squared away. You’ll see some of the key images from here of course, but also inspiration from other forest schools, getting outside, the great woods of the world and other interests for toddlers and little ones. The Pin It function was updated to work a little more smoothly (it even pins over the description so you don’t have to type it!) so pin, pin, pin away! And of course, follow along on Pinterest for more pinspiration (yes, pun intended.)

Visit A Toddler in the Trees’s profile on Pinterest.

4. Instagram in the Footer

The blog is the main home for our thoughts and experiences with the Danish forest school, but the Instagram account is where we post little daily updates of what’s been going on and what the kids are up to. We’d love it if you follow along on that account as well, but for those that just want a quick recap, the images feed into the bottom of the blog as well.

5. An updated Facebook Page

Since we updated the blog header, it only made sense to refresh the Facebook page as well. We also share little updates here, as well as articles and useful info from other like-minded sources about forest school, education, and fun stuff for kids. It’s also where we chit-chat and answer any immediate questions – hop over and check it out!

And a big thank you to you, the readers, for making this little blog grow so quickly. We appreciate the time you take to check in with us. If you’d every like to see anything specific or more of anything here in this space, don’t be shy and use one of the above to let us know! Thanks for reading and great to have you join us!

Toddler Travels: 5 cool toddler things in Helsingor!

July 10, 2015

We’ve just come up on 11 consecutive weeks of house guests, and Helsingor is probably our top requested day trip from all of our guests. But we don’t mind, in fact, we often head there ourselves even with no guests. Having been multiple times, we’ve come up with a small list of favorites that are always a hit with our toddler, even when the umpteenth iteration of “To be, or not to be?” jokes are not.

1. The LEGO Room at Kronborg Castle: At this point, our daughter could probably give the highlights tour of the Castle itself, which is the top attraction at Helsingor. But the reward for making it through yet another round, is then heading up to the second floor hallway while our guests explore the nooks and crannies to play in the Lego room. Large tables of the blocks encourage children to build their own castles and often, paper and crayons are out as well. It’s not very well sign-posted so make a mental note to stop by here with your littles in tow. I’ve been known to build a castle or two myself here as well so this isn’t just for toddlers (like most things on this list actually).

2. Hansen’s Ice Cream: On the way in and out from Kronborg is the sole cafe. It has a lovely but limited menu but always on tap is a freezer full of Hansen’s – easily one of the best ice creams in Denmark. Our daughter likes it rain or shine, but the best days are the sunny days where you can grab an ice cream bar and sit alongside the moat to people watch (or duck-watch in her case).

3. The Casemates Tour: This isn’t a guided tour but something you can explore on your own. At the castle, the casemates – the underground tunnel and room system that soldiers would often have to camp out in – are open to explore. And they are dark – very dark. Bring a flashlight, fire up the flashlight on your phone, or purchase a flashlight from the vending machine at the entrance, and explore away. Our daughter was a bit frightened the first time; there might have been a tear or two. But now, she looks forward to this part perhaps even more than the Lego’s and ice cream. If you visit yourself, and end up being scared witless by a four-year old that has leapt out of nowhere, that was probably her.

4. The INKED exhibit at the Maritime Museum: Hands down the best part of this museum, which is right next door to the castle. The museum is absolutely worth a visit but if combined with the castle, it does make for a long day in the eyes of little ones. Delight them by taking them to the “tattoo parlor” where the museum has set up ballpoint pens attached to tattoo arms, and a system of projecting designs on to your arms so that you can tattoo away. Our daughter loves that this is the one time we basically let her draw all over herself at will. This is another one that’s just as popular with adults too. And I have to say that the gift shop at the Maritime Museum is one of the best – it’s a great place to pre-arrange with your littles that they could pick something out are a reward, as you’ll likely want to pick something out for yourself too. Some of the best Danish and Scandinavian brands are under one roof here, all with a maritime or scandi-chic theme.

5. Helsingor Public Library: Even though this is right next to the other two attractions of the castle and the Maritime Museum, most people have no idea it’s there. Helsingor’s Public Library is awesome and free, and has one of the best indoor playrooms full of multiple sections and toys and wooden boats to pirate. This is perfect for when the kids get tired and need something of their own to do, or if the weather isn’t too agreeable. Some days we have come in just to take advantage of the library itself. On the lower level is a culture center and cafe where you can grab a coffee or eat a light lunch as well.

If you’ll be visiting Helsingor, check out the following posts on the other blog for ideas and more information:

Denmark Derby: Helsingor

Denmark Derby: Maritime Museum

Denmark Derby: Kronborg Castle

Out + About: Valby Nature Playground

July 9, 2015

It’s been a few days since a larger post here but the truth is, summer days kind of came out of nowhere here in Copenhagen. And then of course, they up and left just as quickly. A few days of 80 plus degrees were here, so like most CPH’ers, we dropped everything to run outside to the beach, to the park, and to adventures out and beyond. I’ll share a few of those toddler explorations shortly, but in the meantime, wanted to post here a few snaps from our trip to the Valby Nature Playground.

One things you notice quickly if you have kids here in Denmark (and you’ll probably notice it even if you don’t have kids), is that playgrounds here resemble the way that you probably remember playgrounds of your own days growing up. Then, if you picture in a whole bunch of green space to what your remember, and you will have an image pretty close to a Danish playground. Tall slides, zip lines, wooden climbing structures…those are all the norm here. Consent forms, legal disclaimers and hovering parents are not. I have yet to see a playground with any kind of soft matting here, save one small one in Hellerup and said matting is around the trampoline portion of the park (Cool, right? Trampolines! ).

The Valby Nature Playground takes these Danish playground concepts nearly to the extreme. It’s amazing how large this place is, with climbing equipment and play areas tucked in between forests and fields. Part of the fun is just finding what’s next. The park is also full of picnic tables and places to sit so that you can easily make a picnic and playdate (and incidentally, it seems to be a great place for birthday parties given that we saw three there when we visited). It’s a bit outside of town so we took a car, but it seems like buses go there as well. But after a place like this, you can be sure that the little ones will most certainly nap on the ride home.