Our children grow up with a smartphone in one hand and a tablet in the other. Back in the old days, most children in Iceland spent a great deal of time outside in the Icelandic nature; either because they grew up on the countryside or because they were sent to work on a farm during the summer time, which without a doubt had a much-needed character shaping effects.
The
rise of urbanisation, as well as the arrival of computers and mobile
devices, means that many of us are living a life disconnected from
nature. In the remote Icelandic Westfjords, the nature still plays an
important role in people’s lives and there children can attend the
so-called Náttúrubarnaskólinn
('The Nature Child School') where they get acquainted with the magic of
the Icelandic nature.
The students spend their days building little houses for birds to nest their eggs, sending bottle messages, collecting plastic from the beach, picking herbs, brewing teas and much, much more. The school was founded in 2015 by Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir, an Anthropology student, who claims to have gotten the idea when she was teaching a course about local folklore and supernatural creatures, such as the Icelandic Huldufólk. "The kids were very interested in learning and seemed to remember surprisingly much of what I told them,” Dagrún says, adding that the kids always go crazy about ghost stories and there needs to be a bit of magic for everyone.
