Kindergarten visit Bragdøya
–          10-03-15

Today we are going to visit the kindergarten at Bragdøya. Bragdøya is one of the islands in Kristiansand. The kindergarten visits the Island since 1994. We arrived at the harbour, but there were no children or boats. It turned out the boat will be there in one hour.  We decide to go to a cafeteria in the mall and wait there.  We go back to the harbour and a small blue boat arrives. We all jump in the boat, before the boat leaves, Len jumps off and waves us goodbye. We all are a bit confused with Len jumping of, we thought he joked that he didn’t go with us. Well, we will find out on our own we all are a kind of grownups. We get off the boat and have no idea what to do. The shipper shows us the way to the kindergarten and gives us a map of Bragdøya.  The women of the kindergarten suspected us and ask us for our teacher. She explains that she don’t speak English and makes clear that we are not allowed to put pictures of the children faces on the internet. We start with a walk around the island. It’s a bit similar to Odderøya, but it has swamp ground, and is less high. There are a few houses on the island and sheep’s with bells around their necks.

Tipi

After the walk around the island we walk to one of the kindergarten groups. This group is led by a man and a woman. They watch over 12 children today. In the area the children were allowed to play in they had built a tipi with a fire place in the middle and benches around it. A big hammock made of nets, an improvised Viking ship, a shed and some swings. The man told me that they stay in the tipi with bad weather and the children go out and run in the tipi again to warm up. Under the shed the children were carving sticks with a knife. The women sit next to it and kept an eye on them. There are two knives and 5 children want to use it, they wait for each other and pass the knife to each other. The women explained that the children had lessens about using knifes before they went outdoors.  The children in this group are between 4 and 6 years old. Most children in Norway go to kindergartens. Before the kindergarten when they are 2 years old children go to something similar.

The children are playing at the area, they play in the hammock when I arrive. After a while all the children leave the hammock and go play somewhere else. Two boys are playing in the boat. A boy put the rope around a stick like when a boat comes to the shore. Another boy in smashing with a stick on the ground in the boat. 5 children sit in the shed and play with the knifes, I take a seat next to the shed and talk with the women. After a while I take a look in the tipi. The man is building a fire in the middle of it and some children sit around it. He tells me that an outdoor trip always has a fire otherwise you can’t call it a trip. One of the boys has a Dutch father and I ask him: “Snakke du Nederlansk?” He responds a bit shy and smiles “Ja, jeg snakker Nederlansk.” I have a conversation with the man who makes the fire, he was in the army now he’s working here and he really likes to be outdoors with the children. Before we arrived he did a role play for the children about a children troll story.  One of the boys walks out of the tipi, he wiggles a bit but doesn’t fall over. It turns out that he had issues with walking straight on paths but since he’s in the kindergarten he improved his motor skills really quick. It’s time to go to the boat for this group and all the children gather their belongings together. I go out of the tipi and sit next to Jochem and Morrits. We watch the children from a distance. They gather around in a circle and sing a song together to end the day. One of the children is pointed out as chief of the day and she has to count all the children to check if they are all there. She also had the task today to take care of the group, lead the walk to the ferry and ring the bell on the boat. They point out a chief of the day every day, to give the children some responsibility.  The group leaves in a row to the boat.

We walk to the other group of the kindergarten. This group has 18 children. And two women take care of them. Here they have a little wooden house with a big open door. In front of the house is a fire place with benches around it. They also have a tipi, but the children don’t use it today. There is an old wooden fish boat and an improvised cafeteria with some wooden branches that mark the café. The children in the hut are making something for Easter. The children are preparing for the boat trip back. They sing a song together in the hut and put their lifesaving jackets on for the boat. It takes a long time and the children start to play, they jump in the old wooden boat and play around it.  They leave to the boat and we wait for the others of our group to come back, and walk to the boat together. The boat sails twice today, because we won’t fit on it with the children. We wait in the cafeteria. and take the next boat back to the city.