Red tricycles, little passports, and no such thing as bad weather.

I can't say why I decided to start a blog today. I would have made more sense to do it right from the beginning of our stay here in Sweden. Or perhaps even when we started the sabbatical trip last year. The impressions would have been fresher. Perhaps my understanding is greater now that I have been here this long. I would like to think so but I am not going to hold my breath.

I just got back from taking some pictures at K's school. It was his last day today. I wanted to have some of him playing there. Playground pictures to be specific. He was in typical K mode. Riding that red tricycle. They have a huge play yard and the kids have carved out the perimeter as a tricycle track. They zip around that track at a menacing pace laughing that laugh that makes you want to be a kid again. These tricycles are really cool. One has a train that you can hook to it. All have space for a second kid to easily stand on the back. Riding the tricycle kept him warm and healthy. K has played outside on that playground everyday for the entire school year. For at least one hour a day. Regardless of weather. I would love to have happen at schools in America. I have been converted. I have to admit when I first was told that kids here play outside regardless of the weather I thought it was a bit nutty. Okay, more than a bit nutty. After all it is cold and snows here in the winter. The wind doesn't ease up at play time either. Swedes really do live by this motto of "There is not bad weather, just bad clothing." All the kids including K a full rain suit and snow suit and boots- both rain and snow- as well as hats, mittens, scarves etc. They have a dedicated room in the school for all the clothes with each child having their own hooks and boxes full of gear. I can only imagine how long it took to get him and all his classmates all suited up for the colder days. It was about Feb. that all of them were able to get their snowsuits on all by themselves. There is a certain technique to it and K has it down pat. He can lay out the snowsuit, lie down in it, wriggle a lot and next thing you know he is working the zipper and is ready to go. K loved being outside regardless of the weather. I hope that I can adapt that back to America and get outside even in the winter. K brought home a bag filled with projects yesterday. I think the little card with a hand drawn picture and his "train track" scrawled name on it is my favorite. He told me, very non-challant, that it is his passport. Only at an international school do you get that. Another favorite was his journal with hand drawn pictures and little quotes about what he did on the weekends. It is amazing what he recounted. I think there is more than one weekend where he said "we went on a really long (insert here either car, train, plane) ride. :-) I have to pick him up soon. I don't know how he is going to take it not being able to go to school everyday. He has enjoyed it so much more than I could have dreamed. I do hope that he has some really vivid memories of this pre-school. Maybe it is only from my own experience that I feel I have memories that resemble pictures in my head of school at that age and not actual whole sequences of experiences. I hope he has more. And yet if his memories are limited to riding around the schoolyard on that sturdy volvo looking tricycle that would be a glorious one to have. That is certainly how I would choose to remember it.