Notes on There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda McGurk

A while ago, I had read a newspaper article about parenting books inspired by different foreign countries. One of the books mentioned was There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids by Linda Akeson McGurk. I recently read it and enjoyed it, though it has a lot of overlap with other parenting books I had read before, such as Einstein Never Used Flashcards, Bringing up Bebe, and How to Raise an Adult. The main title of this book also reminds me of similar lessons about always playing outside despite any weather in The Art of Learning.

What I most enjoyed in the book were the various actual stories and details about schools and outdoor activities in Sweden, such as forest schools and various traditional games and groups that meet and enjoy the outdoors. I felt that most of the book could be summarized very succinctly and went on too long about pretty simple points (spend more time outside, less screen time, free range parenting, etc.). Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read, even though I learned fewer new things from it that I hadn't heard of before.

My notes on the book are below.

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Intro
Swedish mother in rural Indiana
Open air life
Outdoor time as priority
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1 right to nature
No such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes
Dress in layers

2 fresh air is good for you
Friluftsliv: outdoor life
Naps outdoors
Rain cover
Study showed longer naps happen outside
Dress the baby same as you

3 just let them play
Importance of outdoor and generally unstructured play
Less organized after school activities. Let kids organize amongst themselves. 

4 we must all take care of nature
Outdoor learning
Picking up trash

5 learning outside, a little rain 
School forest
Play with animals
Beneficial germs

6 freedom of responsibility
Free range parenting
Freedom of movement
Importance of Risky play
Avoid “worst first” thinking
Give more unsupervised time

7 outside
Minimize screen time
Hike with kids. Lower expectations 

8 takes a village
Build a village to support outdoor play