There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)

I really loved this book, very inspiring to get out more with children

Not so impressed as the book arrived bended and with an hole

Although this book compares American and Scandinavian approaches to school and parenting there are a lot of parallels to Canada as well. This is an easy and quick read that provides thought provoking ideas for changes that can be made in daily life.

There's No Such Thing As Bed Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk is the first of 5 books I asked Santa to bring related to getting kids outside, embracing nature, encouraging more physical and outdoor activity, and the likes. Reestablishing our love of the outdoors and increasing our healthy outdoor time is one part of my 2020 mission for our family and our homeschool!Linda McGurk is a Swedish-American journalist and free-lance writer, and the mother of two girls: Maya (7) and Nora (4). She and the girls leave their home in Indiana to spend six months in Sweden while Linda's father undergoes chemotherapy. She enrolls the girls in Swedish schools (they're already bilingual), and sets out to expose them to a childhood that she remembers fondly from her earlier days - including lots of time spent outdoors - while meeting and interviewing Swedish parents on their perspectives on childhood, education, nature, and environmentalism for her book project.There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather is a well-written, easy-to-read book. I read it in two days! I was fascinated by the freedoms the Swedish kids enjoyed, and with the amount of time they spent outdoors, even though Sweden is at the forefront of the digital world. (Did you know Minecraft, Skype, and a ton of other household digital names all came out of Sweden?)For a mom (me), who has been reprimanded for letting her kids play in the woods (where there may be poison ivy) and for letting them roll in mud and jump in a stream (where there may be, gasp, parasites) and for letting her son climb on top of a wooden playhouse on a climbing structure (because you know, 6 feet off the ground is too high for a kid who safely climbs three story tall trees)... well, this book felt like I had found my village.I realized reading the book that there was a time I had been far more similar to most Swedish parents than to American ones, but that I had allowed myself to be shamed into convergence. :O My younger two kids have never experienced the fun, "outlandish" activities the older ones did, but I fear have long forgotten. I became "safe" and worse, bought into the anxiety-driven rush to produce successful kids, rather than healthy, well-adapted, happy ones.So, what did I take from the book?1. I want Linda to be my newest BFF! I want to play in the rain and the snow and go on hikes and get tickets for splashing in a stream in a park alongside her! LOL. There was a time I did those things, well, except for the ticket (I received hundreds of glares and stares over the years, but never a ticket), and I want to do them again.2. I want to move to Sweden. The way the Swedish people embrace nature and encourage outdoor play and exploration, even during the school day is AWESOME! I'd settle for Finland or Denmark, too, as they also sound like they've got their priorities straight when it comes to education, although there was some indication that Denmark was making changes away from some of this as a result of falling rank in international testing (UGH!)3. My kids NEED more time outdoors, and since a move to Sweden at this time is unlikely, it means I am going to have to spend a LOT more time outdoors as well because unlike in Sweden where ALL of the kids are outdoors, in our neighborhood, we only see a kid outdoors every now and then. So, I'd better make sure I have the right clothes... "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes."All in all a good read, and one that I'd love more of my Mommy-friends to read and become motivated to follow... because then we'd have outdoor playmates, and that would be so much more fun for us all!For families wanting to embrace or rediscover a connection to nature and the outdoors, this book offers encouragement and practical strategies for making it happen.

Good book with insights about Scandinavian childraising. But it would have been great if she told us what we could do instead of moving all the way to Scandinavia.