Hello friends!

School kids in some portions of Finland are currently enjoying time off from school for Talviloma (winter holiday). The country has been sectioned into three phases or groups, which scatters the week off to occur during week 8, 9, and 10 of the yearly calendar. Talviloma is a Monday-Friday school break, setup in the 1920s which became popularized in the 1930s, whereby the school children were excused from schoolwork and were instead encouraged to learn and practice outdoor skiing on a large scale. Winter sports such as skiing, skating, and hockey have historically and culturally been hugely popular pastimes throughout Finland, although I’m not sure how many of the local kids were actually out there skiing this past week during their talviloma. There is some information which suggests the reason the ‘holiday’ was first introduced was to prevent or mitigate tuberculosis, boost immunity and revitalize health during a time when serious health issues of this type were still a grave possibility.

Prior to the start of last week, all the snow we’d had was long gone, and it was impossible for any skiing, skating or hockey playing here in much of the southern region of the country as even the lakes were not sufficiently frozen. Just in time for our regions’ week of the talviloma holiday to commence, the temperatures plummeted to negative digits and a few snow flurries settled onto the ground. Just a dusting, really, but the temps were surely enough to convince anyone that it was more ‘winter-like’ than the weeks prior. Even so, kids these days are not ‘quite’ the same as kids from the 1920s-1930s, at least I’m guessing not. Getting kids outside isn’t usually a problem for the younger ones, it’s getting older kids who are likely more interested in staying glued to their screen and sleeping in that kept many of them from doing anything outdoors.

The Finnish high school kids are now busy studying for their matriculation exams. But earlier in the month of February, they too enjoy a festival of sorts to commemorate the beginning of study leave to prepare for exams later in the spring. Their celebration is called, ‘penkkarit‘ – a carnivalesque period which celebrates the conclusion of their high school learning. Penkkarit is most notably experienced as a parade, where high-schoolers can be viewed in colorful costumes and jumpsuits tossing candy to the crowds lining the parade route. With time devoted to extracurricular physical activities and carnivals, you may be feeling fearful of how well Finnish children are performing academically. Let me reassure you, they are in fact doing superbly well. You can check your own country through that last link. Maybe its ranking is higher or lower than you originally thought!

While reviewing the weather forecast this morning, I clicked on the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s (FMI) main page and found the following story, ‘New educational materials introduce schoolchildren to aerosol science through the journey of a dust particle.’ WOW!! There’s an English language version as well, and I found the entire academic approach, geared to 1st graders through grade 9 both exciting and encouraging. Possibly, examples such as this lesson plan explain why, in part, Finnish children and young adults are outperforming several industrialized/developed countries around the globe. It would seem Finland is definitely doing things right! Nothing at all, including the entire world and its survival on the shoulders of the all these young people, seems to be slowing any of them down. I hope they are able to make sense of, and cope with, the world they are all inheriting. They are indeed the future, and beacons of hope of better things to come.

Until next time ❤