🌀 S01 • E03: The Garden of Children (1995-97)

In Norway the total Parental leave in 1992 was around 8 months. So my mom and dad was home with me and my brother for big chunk of the first 4 years.

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We spent some time at Daycare which was run privately by some of the ladies in the community.

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I grew up in a Community with around 500 people. I didn't really understand HOW big the world was back then. So I never thought much about the rest of Norway or the rest of the world.

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At around 3-4 years old I started in kindergarten. We were 16 kids and 2 adults ladies watches over us.

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Compared to modern Kindergartens, you wouldn't recognize what I went to, today.

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Basically: It was a building, with a fenced outdoor area. The building had 1 larger room, 1 entrance hall, a gymnastics hall, 2 toilets and 1 kitchen.

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We spent a lot of time outside. There was a sandbox, some benches made of wood. A play yard house, some tire-swings, and a grassy area.

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We had dolls, Playmo, cars, card games, and we learned stuff by practicing crafting.

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We made a ton of Paper-roll elves, and ornaments from Christmas decorations.

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I have difficulty remembering much from this time. I only remember individual episodes.

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We had no kind of education. However, I remember police, firemen and ambulance drivers were visiting.

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We also had a lot of field trips into the forest, to the beach (Icy cold, no swimming), and to visit Police Station and Fire station etc.

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As a kind I was very clean. Most kids needed to get hosed down because their rain-clothes was completely covered in Mud. Meanwhile my rain-clothes looked like I hadn't been outside at all.

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We sung a lot, and played physical games like "Haien Kommer" (The Shark is Coming), "Stiv Heks" (Stiff Witch), and "Rødt Lys" (Red Light).

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"Haien Kommer" = Sharks and Minnows.

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"Stiv Heks" = Freeze Tag.

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"Rødt Lys" = Red Light, Green Light.

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I was attending kindergarten until fall of 1998.