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Linda@lindamcgurk.com

Linda-455-low-res

rainorshinemamma

Swedish American author, speaker and nature play advocate🌿 Living an open-air life⛺️ Start here👇🏼

I've been hearing a lot about play-based learning

I've been hearing a lot about play-based learning lately and I love that play is finally starting to get the recognition that it deserves in early childhood education. BUT. There are still a lot of misconceptions about play floating around out there. One of the most common ones being that any activity that adults deem as “fun” is the same thing as play - sports, crafts, learning apps, gamified academic work and play-based or hands-on learning activities are just a few examples.

What's the big deal, you may wonder? Isn't that just mincing words? No, I’d say it’s important to know the difference. Children, just like most other mammals, are wired to play because that’s how they learn about themselves and the world around them. When we step in as adults to “improve” on children’s play, often in an attempt to make it more educational, we change the dynamics of the activity and some of the benefits are lost.

While there is no universal definition of play, most experts agree that true play has these three characteristics: 
🤸‍♀️ It's a voluntary activity that is chosen by the child. You cannot force a child to play.
🤸‍♀️ It's directed and controlled by the children themselves. Adults can participate in play but it is the children who decide the structure and the rules.
🤸‍♀️ It's intrinsically motivated. A child plays for their own enjoyment, not for praise, trophies or other rewards.

There are other characteristics too, for example, play is usually very immersive and creative. It’s generally also more process-oriented than other activities in that the focus is on being in the moment, and not on the end result.

Obviously, children enjoy many adult-led activities as well, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that most kids today have enough of those already. What they need more of is to be left to their own devices. Let’s collectively take a step back and recognize that play is enough.
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #theopenairlife #play #letthembelittle #letthemexplore #letthechildrenplay #letkidsbekids #playbasedlearning #play

To me, an important aspect of friluftsliv, or “o

To me, an important aspect of friluftsliv, or “open-air life”, is to challenge the boundaries of my everyday existence and push through discomfort, so I can emerge stronger on the other side💪🏻

One of the ways I do that is by ending my work week with a cold plunge. As I immerse myself in the cold water, all the thoughts of the must-dos and should’ve dones run off me. Literally. Once my body gets past the initial shock, I enter a deep state of calm and gently ease into the weekend💦

Ten years ago, I never ever would’ve thought I could do this; I even fretted swimming in the cool, spring-fed lakes of Sweden during the warmest months. But the beauty of friluftsliv is that you can always find new ways to challenge yourself🌿

I don’t consider myself an expert at cold swimming but if you have any questions, let me know in the comments😃
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#friluftsliv #openairliving #openairlife #coldplunge #coldswimming #coldwater #coldwatertherapy

This, in a nutshell, is what friluftsliv ("open-ai

This, in a nutshell, is what friluftsliv ("open-air life") is to me.

Living a life where the greatest joy comes from the seemingly ordinary. Watching a sunset on a clear night. Smelling the first drops of rain hit the ground on a dry spring day. Reading a good book in the shade of a giant tree. Living a life where outdoor time is not an extra or a luxury, but an essential part of the daily rhythm. And, above all, being one with Earth and the eco systems that sustain us🌳

#friluftsliv #openairlife #theairisfree #livelifeoutside

“A microadventure is an adventure that is short,

“A microadventure is an adventure that is short, simple, local, cheap - yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding.”
- Alastair Humphreys

One of the greatest constraints keeping people from living more adventurously is often a lack of time. Microadventures - or what I would refer to as “weekend friluftsliv” - are a great hack for that🌲

My microadventures usually involve sleeping outside with minimal advance planning or preparation, within an hour’s drive from my home. With a friend, with my kids or on my own. I do them year round, but crave them especially badly in the wintertime, when the days are short and cabin fever runs high⛺️

One way that I fit these trips into our lives is that my youngest wild child and I have made a habit of camping out the night before we pick her dad up from the airport. Last weekend we did it again, settling after some indecision on a wooded area about 6 miles from the terminal. We had a chance to catch up on life in general, watched a beautiful sunset, then tag teamed on cooking and setting up camp in the dark. Neither the location nor the weather was epic, but it didn’t need to be. The fact that we got out there and did something outdoors together was rewarding enough for me❤️

On a different note, I’m thinking about jotting down some camping tips on in a blog post - is this something you’d like to know more about? If so, do you have any specific questions that you’d like me to address?
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@al_humphreys
#friluftsliv #openairlife #theopenairlife #theresnosuchthingasbadweather #microadventure #microadventures #weekendcamping #wildcamping #wildcamp #allemansrätten #theairisfree #outsideeveryday

Oh my❤️ The Czech cover for my book The Open-A

Oh my❤️ The Czech cover for my book The Open-Air Life turned out beautifully! And I love that they chose to use the term friluftsliv in the title. Do I have any Czech followers? If so, be on the lookout for this to be published by @nakladatelstvijota in the near future!

On a different note, I think I'm just going to start calling myself Linda McGurkova now; it has such a nice ring to it!😅
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#friluftsliv #theopenairlife #openairlife #foreignrights

Raise a 🖐️if you and/or your kids have lost y

Raise a 🖐️if you and/or your kids have lost your mojo about going outside at some point this winter. Then swipe to photo #3 to see my trick whenever motivation to get out the door is in short supply.

This is our Idea Jar, full of notes that the kids and I have filled with fun things to do outside. Every week, we draw a note to decide on a screen free, outdoor activity to do the upcoming weekend🌲 Anything from the simple, like a picnic in the woods, to the more elaborate, like organizing an outdoor cookout with friends, to the slightly wacky, like winter croquet in the backyard.

The rules are simple:

✅ Everybody gets to add as many ideas as they’d like.

✅ As long as the activity is doable, no ideas get shot down.

I encourage you to give this a try, especially if you have older kids who aren’t as easily cajoled into outdoor adventures as their younger siblings. It creates a buy in for the kids and helps you spend more time outside as a family🙌🏻🌲
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #theopenairlife #lifeintheopenair #friluftsliv #screenfreesunday #outdoorswithkids #outdoorfamilies #outdoorinspiration

SAVE THE DATE⏰ I’ll be going live with Chantel

SAVE THE DATE⏰
I’ll be going live with Chantel from @sensory_garden_and_play on Tuesday, February 7, at 3pm EST to discuss why it’s important to get outside no matter the weather, how to dress kids for the cold, what a snow day means for kids in Sweden and much more☺️❄️🙌🏻 Come join us if you can!
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #rainorshinemamma #iglive #friluftsliv

This is what privilege looks like. When I need m

This is what privilege looks like.

When I need my daily dose of pine trees, winding trails and solitude, I can just walk out the door and find it in a matter of minutes, no matter which direction I go in. I can walk, forage, camp, ugly dance and even light a small fire on public land, whether it’s an official park or not. But even more notably, I can do it on privately owned land as well, and I don’t even need to ask for permission 🌲⛺️🔥

If you’ve read my books, you know that Sweden has a law called allemansrätten, or the Right to Roam, which gives the people extensive rights to enjoy nature, regardless of whose name is on the property deed. Naturally, it also comes with responsibility to treat the land with respect and not cause any destruction.

Norway, Sweden and Finland have the oldest and most extensive Right to Roam laws but they also exist in Iceland and Scotland. Which brings me back to the privilege part. I realize this isn’t the norm in the world, even though I wish it were.

Right now, the fight for the right to roam is heating up in Dartmoor, one of the few places in England where it was previously allowed to wild camp. A right that was overturned after a wealthy landowner took the case to court. I’m cheering on from the sidelines and hoping that @right.2roam will be successful in its fight for democratizing access to the countryside not only in Dartmoor, but in all of England🙌🏻⛺️👊🏻

#allemansrätten #allemansretten #therighttoroam #therighttoexplore #righttoroam #friluftsliv #theopenairlife #openairlife

Some truths don't change🌿 Carl Linnaeus, the Sw

Some truths don't change🌿 Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who created the system for classifying and naming plants and animals, lived 300 years ago but I try to live by this saying every day.

To children, the ability to feel a sense of wonder comes naturally but it's also a little bit like high school French - if you don't use it, you lose it. And as adults, we're often too busy or jaded to feel wonder over ordinary things.

One of my favorite, simple ways of honing my sense of wonder is to sleep under the open skies every now and then. Looking up at the infinity that is the starry night sky, I'm reminded that the seemingly ordinary things are often the most extraordinary of them all.

What makes you feel in awe and a sense of wonder?
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#friluftsliv #openairlife #theopenairlifebook #theresnosuchthingasbadweather #outdoorlife #outdoorseveryday #awe #wonder

One of the most common questions I get is what kin

One of the most common questions I get is what kind of activities I recommend for kids outside, especially in the winter. Now you know🙃
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#rainorshinemamma #theopenairlife #theopenairlifebook #friluftsliv #outdoorplay #outdoorfamilies #outdooractivities #simplelife #simpleliving #lifeisbetterintheopenair

This❤️ While this is just how my parents raise

This❤️ While this is just how my parents raised me, I don't think I fully appreciated the meaning of it until I became a mother myself. Since I was a very motivated high-achiever, I've sometimes struggled not to project my academic expectations of myself onto my children. I thrived from pressure - I saw test scores and grades as my reward for hard work - but motherhood has humbled me and I've realized that there are many ways to succeed besides excelling at school. In fact, some of the savviest people I know were far academic prodigies and some were just late bloomers.

Today, whenever my children tell me a test score or a grade and ask me if I'm happy with it, I turn the question on its head and ask them, "Are YOU happy with it?" and "Do YOU feel like you did the best you could?" If the answer is "Yes," it's all good. If they're not contented with their effort, I give them all the support I can to help them improve next time. In the end, academic ability is just one of many skills needed and worth encouraging. Kindness, compassion, generosity, creativity, honesty, problem-solving, resilience, humility and critical thinking are others that I try to instill in my children on a daily basis, but aren't always easily measured.

I also think we need to rethink the way we define 'success'. Should it be a measurement of how much material wealth, power and status we're able to amass in a lifetime? Or should we use the term to gauge our level of happiness, sense of purpose and connection with the people and planet that we live on? I know what I choose.

Thank you, @northwoodsfolk, for the wise words.
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#theopenairlife #theresnosuchthingasbadweather #rainorshinemamma #slowliving #friluftsliv

Big thanks to everyone who braved the frigid tempe

Big thanks to everyone who braved the frigid temperatures and the complementary mix of snow, sleet and hail, to come out and listen to me talk about friluftsliv and outdoor play in any weather in Carmel today. At least the weather made for a fitting backdrop to the topic😁

Moments like these make me hopeful of the future. The movement to get kids back outside is gaining momentum. It’s not happening overnight but it’s taken great leaps since I became a mom nearly 15 years ago. Attitudes are changing, outdoor play groups are booming and forest schools are popping up all over the country.

Special thanks to @inkidsandnature @carla.gull and @lhehman1 for making this event happen☺️
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #theopenairlife #friluftsliv #outdoorplay #carmel #outdoorplaygroup

I’m making an appearance at @treehuggerdotcom to

I’m making an appearance at @treehuggerdotcom today and they made this great graphic explaining the basics of friluftsliv🙌🏻😁 Are you planning to embrace an open-air life in 2023?
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#openairlife #theopenairlife #friluftsliv #treehugger #lifeisbetteroutside #outdoorslife #outdoorseveryday

“To me, friluftsliv begins when the motor is tur

“To me, friluftsliv begins when the motor is turned off.”

Quote by @lindastaaf in The Open-Air Life🌲

I can only agree. Although we sometimes need vehicles to transport ourselves to certain places outdoors, it isn’t until the sounds of human activity have diminished that we can fully appreciate the natural world.

Fantastic powder day courtesy of @beartoothpowderguides and @cookecitysinclair.
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#friluftsliv #theopenairlife #theopenairlifebook #backcountryskiing #skiing #montana #cookecity #powder #powderday #powderskiing #beartoothmountains #beartoothpowderguides

When I heard that @lhehman1 had started an outdoor

When I heard that @lhehman1 had started an outdoor playgroup in Indiana after being inspired by my book There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather, I was so excited. Creating more opportunities for kids to get outdoors is exactly the reason why I wrote the book and it’s been fun to see the ripple effects that it’s having.

On January 5th I get to visit Lyndsey and the other families for an event cohosted by @inkidsandnature and I would love it if you’d join us. We’ll be at Cool Creek Park in Carmel, IN, from 3-5pm. I’ll do a talk and a Q&A and will have some books on hand. Bring your kids and join us! I’ll post a link to the event in my bio.
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #theopenairlife #outdoorplay #playoutside #outdoorplaygroup

Merry Christmas from Yellowstone National Park and

Merry Christmas from Yellowstone National Park and Cooke City🤶🎄I lost all my luggage in Indiana and slept on an airport floor in Minneapolis after my connecting flight was canceled. Still, I’m immensely grateful that I’ll be able to spend the holidays in a peaceful place, with people who are near and dear to my heart (and that I’ll get to go skiing)❤️

As usual, I will take a break from social media for a while, to focus on being present with the people I came here to see, and to fall in love with the amazing Rocky Mountains all over again🏔️ I hope you too will find some time to be awed by nature this holiday season🙏🏻🌲
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#friluftsliv #openairlife #openairliving #mountainculture #montana

The lack of daylight at this time of the year has

The lack of daylight at this time of the year has a way of sucking the energy out of you. It’s as if Mother Nature herself is trying to tell us all to go hibernate until spring.

We all have different ways of dealing with the dark at these latitudes. Personally, I try to lean into it and embrace it. See it as an invitation to slow down and focus my attention inwards🧘‍♂️

But with the winter solstice drawing near, I’m increasingly focused on bringing the light back, literally and figuratively. The light is my way of honoring the season. So invite some friends, have a campfire and sing some songs that everyone knows. I take comfort in the knowledge that soon enough, the days will once again get longer and my energy will return🔥
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#friluftsliv #theopenairlife #theresnosuchthingasbadweather #fire #campfire #hygge #outdoors #outdoorlife

There aren't a lot of poems that I come back to fo

There aren't a lot of poems that I come back to for comfort over and over again, but this is one of them. If you're struggling with Seasonal Affective Disorder or other mental health issues, or just feeling down over the current state of the world, go outside and find peace in the natural world. These are just a few ways nature can increase our mental health:

☀️ Sun exposure can trigger the production of the body's "happy hormone" serotonin, which in turn can boost your mood and make you feel calm and focused.
🕊 Noticing nature, for example by listening to birdsong or hugging a tree, can make us happier, more content and less prone to depression.
🌳 Green spaces and blue spaces make us less stressed and more relaxed.
🗻 The natural world tickles our sense of wonder and make us feel part of something greater than ourselves, which can be comforting.
🌿 Being truly connected to nature can increase our well-being and feelings of purpose in life, even when we're inside.

Mental disorders are complex and nature is no panacea, but in many cases, nature connection can be just as effective or even more effective than pharmaceuticals. And while it can't fix all the human-caused atrocities that are going on in the world, it can help us cope and find strength in hard times.
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#theresnosuchthingasbadweather #theopenairlife #openairlife #friluftsliv #mentalhealth #gooutside #outsideeveryday

What have Scandinavians figured out about connecti

What have Scandinavians figured out about connecting with nature in everyday life and how can people everywhere benefit from a friluftsliv lifestyle?🌿That’s what my new book The Open-Air Life is about and what I will be talking to Lindsay of @the.madsen.littles about this week. Tune in to the Zoom live bright and early this Thursday, Dec. 8 @ 8 am EST. Sign up in my bio⬆️
Hope to see you there!🤗
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#friluftsliv #theopenairlife #openairlife #outdoorlife #outdoorseveryday #theairisfree #nordic

This giveaway is now CLOSED. Congratulations to th

This giveaway is now CLOSED. Congratulations to the winners:
1st prize: @littlebugsnaturepreschool
2nd-3rd prize: @whitneyroberts1 @simplified.khaos
Please message me with your name and address to claim your prize!☺️

🔥GIVEAWAY🔥
To celebrate that it’s been one month since I published my book THE OPEN-AIR LIFE, I’ve partnered with a few of my favorite brands for an amazing giveaway. Together, we’re giving away nearly $1,000 worth of prizes ideal for friluftsliv - the biggest giveaway I’ve ever done! I guarantee you that these prizes will help you spend less time inside four walls and more time in the great outdoors🌲

1st prize: Hiking pants and pile jacket from Fristads (value $300)
Gift card to MK Nordika (value $200)
Beanie and wrist gaiters from Woolpower (value $90)
12L kids backpack and double hammock from 1000 Hours Outside (value $75)
3 copies of THE OPEN-AIR LIFE from Tarcher Perigee (value $60)

2nd-3rd prize
Beanie and wrist gaiters from Woolpower (value $90)
1 copy of THE OPEN-AIR LIFE from Tarcher Perigee (value $20)

How to enter:
1. Like and save this post
2. Follow all the accounts in the giveaway:  @fristadsofficial  @mknordika_kids  @woolpowerus @1000hoursoutside  @tarcherperigee @rainorshinemamma
3. Tag two friends in the comments

May the forest be with you and good luck!🌳

The giveaway closes on Dec. 4 and the winners will be announced shortly after. Must be 18 and reside in the US to enter. The giveaway is not endorsed by or affiliated with Meta.

#TheOpenAirLife #TheOpenAirLifeBook #TarcherPerigee #rainorshinemamma #friluftsliv

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