Viking kids

By Fiona Keating on July 27th 2010

In a time dominated by television and computers, poor weather is often an excuse for staying indoors even though we’re all becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of regular outdoor play. These benefits are well documented: a Swedish study from the 1950s already showed that a group of inner city 5-year-olds who were offered weekly sessions in a woodland setting did better than their peers both health-wise, socially and academically. In the 1980s so-called “Forest School” programmes where groups of children were brought outside on a weekly basis were set up in Denmark, and today nurseries that operate almost exclusively outdoors are widespread in Scandinavia. A growing number of UK schools and nurseries are setting up their own “Forest School” programmes with great success. Children are encouraged to collect sticks and leaves, jump in puddles and generally get muddy - to their great delight!

Of course, the right waterproof clothing is essential, something that local mum Emma Collins, Teddington, realised early on. Her motto is an old Swedish saying: “There is no bad weather, only poor clothing!” Unable to find the quality of outdoor clothing for her children that she was used to from her native Sweden, she started her company VikingKids, importing children’s clothing from Scandinavia, specialising in rain wear and winter clothing. Very soon, the high quality gear stocked by VikingKids attracted the attention of Forest School leaders across the UK, searching for suitable equipment for budding Forest School classes. The two-piece rain sets routinely used in Scandinavia were found to be much more versatile, comfortable and durable than products previously available in the UK, such as all-in-one suits or sets of an inferior quality with seams that invariably split with a few months’ use. Scandinavians tend to favour dungarees over all-in-ones, as these give better protection (as any sailor or fisherman will agree), are more flexible with regards to size, and can be used on their own when it isn’t actually raining but the ground is damp, when an all-in-one would be too hot.

In 2008, the Oxford Excellence Cluster Forest School project, comprising of ten inner city schools that had previously been using UK-based brands with poor results, tested all Scandinavian makes of children’s waterproofs available on the UK market and chose the coat/dungarees set by Swedish company Didriksons as the most comfortable and well-made outfit. In early 2010, a similar group in Aberdeenshire chose 2-piece sets by Danish Elka to equip 25 nurseries. In the past three years, VikingKids have supplied nurseries and schools all across the UK with rain wear for Forest School sessions. Parents from all around the country have also discovered the waterproofs, all-weather clothing and fleece wear supplied by VikingKids. The business soon required stock levels beyond those that could reasonably be kept at home, and is now run out of a storage facility in Twickenham. “I’m delighted that so many UK children are given the opportunity to splash in muddy puddles. The smile on their faces is priceless” says founder Emma Collins.

Viking kids

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