One weekend in August 2011, a special event took place in Sweden just outside Stockholm. The first International Skogsmulle training course. To my knowledge it is the only international course ever offered by the Friluftsfrämjandet organisation.

15 participants from 8 different countries came together to look at leading groups of children in nature. Whilst it may be described as “Swedish Forest School” I think it’s important to note:

• It is about working with children, aged 5 and 6 yrs old, in a variety of habitats. There just happens to be a lot of woodland in Sweden. There are additional 1-day training courses for people working with 3-4 yr olds and 1-2yr olds.
• It is a very different course to the Forest School Leader qualifications commonly found in the UK. It is undertaken over a spring and an autumn weekend in Sweden. Our course was two to three days in length plus an observation visit to a local I Ur och Skur pre-school.
• We heated our pre-made lunch on trangia stoves. Fire, using tools, and learning knots but we enjoyed using rope swings and simple structures.
• The emphasis was on the joy of being outside and the benefits of routines that support this and facilitate children’s independence. The other clear focus was on sustainability and children cherishing nature and feeling a sense of belonging with other species. All of this was achieved through songs, stories, games, drama and the arts. The use of the Skogsmulle character and his friends was central to all of this. The value of observing the changes in the habitats, and exploring was valued. Whilst children had plenty of opportunities to play, there was a balance with the group coming together to share experiences, food and so on. It was child-centred and their interests and making time for this was valued.
• The leaders manual gave suggestions for year-round foci. The emphasis is on regular, frequent time in nature, often in the same place or places known to the children.

It was Gösta Frohm, who came up with the idea which has grown into a hugely popular national activity. Over one quarter of the Swedish population having attended Skogsmulle activities as young children. More information about the development of Skogsmulle and Gösta Frohm is found in Outdoor Learning Past and Present by Rosaleen Joyce, published in 2012.

In 1986, the first I Ur och Skur (In Rain or Shine) nursery opened and this led to a movement that has resulted in more than 190 nurseries and 20 primary schools that are based upon Skogsmulle pedagogy being established in Sweden. For more information about the I Ur och Skur schools and pre-schools, have a look at the Swedish Forest Schools reports which I wrote from my Churchill Fellowship visit to Sweden in 2008. Whilst they are dated, the general commentary remains valid.

In early 2022 this video documentary about the  I Ur och Skur was also produced, which has English subtitles. This is hugely important for helping practitioners and researchers understand and learn more about the Swedish Outdoor Pre-schools and their origins and growth. It contains rare footage of Gösta Frohm and interviews with Siw Linde and Susanne Drougge who founded the first outdoor pre-school and which also embedded the Skogsmulle concept.

Also around 2020, Friluftsfrämjandet re-vamped the Skogsmulle brand and has much more information on its website about this character and the I Ur och Skur organisation. Occasionally you will also find articles about visits and comparisons to other approaches which is worth an online search. In 2024, a Japanese researcher, Midori Mitsuhashi, completed her thesis on the Skogsmulle approach in Japan. Her interest is in early years and sustainability. You can read an English abstract of her thesis here. Whilst writing her PhD, Midori also collaborated with others to produce more research. Her 2021 open-access paper, How Did the Young Children Encounter the Japanese Urban Landscape?: A Study on Emergent Pedagogy for Sustainability Transformation is particularly interesting. She also contributed to this 2019 review about nature-based practices in Japan and Australia.

All-in-all, with the explosion of interest in early years, nature, sustainable, rights-based and outdoor approaches, learning about and from others remains more important than ever before.

This blog post was originally published in August 2011.