This year’s education tour to Sweden is complete. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends and making new acquaintances. We share our culture, our humanness and our passion for pre-school education for young children.
I met my friend and colleague, Annika Sparrdal Mantilla 6 years ago. We both studied NVC at a retreat centre on a Greek island. We talked about the possibility of working together, to share empathy through our work in education settings.
Now we have completed many projects together:
Annika has visited the UK with her colleagues on many occasions. I have travelled to Italy with her pre-school group to deliver training and work with her in Sweden. We organise an annual education tour.

We are excited and confident empathy holds the key to supporting a peaceful resolution of the conflict in this world.
2015 was the first time we arranged a trip for international educators to visit Ängbybarnens pre-schools, Annika is the principal of these pre-schools.
Treating all work as play is our motto – What fun we had!.
Ängbybarnens pre-schools are well known for their outstanding practices which include:
- involvement in a European project concerning peace education,
- implementing the Reggio Emilia approach and an empathic model of communication, based on NVC (the work of Dr Marshall Rosenberg).
For information about NVC in the UK see here. For global NVC see here.
Ängbybarnens pre-schools attract many international visitors from across the globe.
Our Education Tour was a great success.
Those who came told us how much they enjoyed visiting the schools. At home many let us know about the changes they make in their own settings.
Connecting emotionally creates cooperation and unity.
This year the sun shone brightly in Stockholm for the whole 4 days of our visit!
Our visitors spent time in the pre-schools and participated in the training. We had great fun around the City- listening to live music, picnicking in the park and eating a variety of foods in different restaurants and a few participants visited the ABBA museum!
Throughout the trip, the participants blogged and shared their experience on social media.
Here are some of the things they recorded. , I hope you will be inspired too.
Dr Sue Lyle, retired Head of Continuing Professional Development at Swansea Metropolitan University was with us. (Sue inspired those around her with her warm presence, insight, wisdom and excitement about how young children learn, it was a pleasure to meet Sue) Sue writes:
“I was impressed by the craft activities. The boys working with wooden blocks were 6 and totally absorbed in what they were doing with no teacher supervision.”
“I enjoyed seeing this project on sunflowers in Sweden. Grow them. Draw them. Use the lightbox to enlarge their drawings and they draw round them to create huge drawings. I love the way they use projectors and light to enhance creativity.”
“From 2-3 years, children serve themselves at dinner time. There is no pressure to eat anything. There is always a Choice of salads and veg. Going to the dining hall is managed by the 5-6-year-olds who give out stones to those who are ready to go and eat. They don’t have to come if they are working on something. There are no puddings or processed food. Children eat around tables of about 8 with adults. They pour their own water from large jugs. The emphasis is on choice and independence.”
“In the kindergartens, we visited a lot of emphases is placed on creativity. Children have access to all kinds of materials. These 3 girls age 4, 5, and 6 were engrossed in making things. They had free access to collage material which they cut, folded and stuck. T And completing quite intricate drawings.”
“Every day, rain, sun or snow, the children go to the forest for an hour. They are exploring snails and have their magnifying glasses ready. They draw and make patterns from the shells and the learning is driven by the children’s questions and curiosity. Back in school, they use different kinds of media to represent their investigations of snails. They are allowed to run free, climb trees and play. They sit for a snack and sing songs and share their ideas about snails and the forest and notice small changes each day in the seasonal changes.”
Michelle Brockwell, Child Care Director and her colleague Chloe Hedges, Deputy Manager of Grace’s Day Nursery and Pre-school, Bromley, UK write about their experience here:
2nd Day in Sweden – Michelle Brockwell.
“So after two days touring Pre-schools in Stockholm I sit in my hotel room with my head buzzing full of ideas and feeling completely inspired and sad about our nurseries in the UK.
How did we stop allowing children to play?
We are subject to such strict regulations that restrict our children’s freedom and creativity.
Chloe and I are struck by the calmness and space in the three Pre-schools. The nurseries are open, airy with neutral colours and minimal clutter. Children are happy, content and engaged.
There support children individually; fostering their personal, social and emotional development. The adults facilitate children playing – they don’t interrupt it!. They really connect with the children on an emotional level and tune into their developmental needs in a totally different way to what I have seen from our Practitioners in the UK”….read more here
3rd Day in Sweden – Chloe Hodges
“The Swedish practitioners really tune into children. They support their feelings to meet their needs. Empathic communication is at the heart of their business. Adults practice this together too. This was evident as we walked around the nurseries. Children are content and calm in their interactions with each other and adults. A huge part of empathic communication listening to hearing what other say. This is so you can truly connect with them. We completed an exercise during the training session. We took turns to listen to each other. One person talked about whatever they liked and the other person heard them without responding, verbally or non verbally….. this was really hard!!!.” read more……
I’m grateful to all who participated in this trip, our educators from the UK, those in Sweden and to the children who inspire us with their care, creativity, playfulness, joy, peace and freedom of spirit.
We had a wonderful time being together, sharing, learning and having fun. I trust the flow of life to present opportunities to contribute that help me and others grow. Our Education Tour to Sweden has provided this. Sharing NVC in Education presents an empathic way of relating and collaborating filled with creative energy and love. M “To educate the mind without educating the heart is no education at all!” – Aristotle
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